I was having a discussion this weekend with some of the other members of the MitchellWinter.com group, and I posed the question, “What do you know about snow?” Below are a few of the facts that I thought I would share. If you have anything to add, please comment below. Information, after all, s your best survival tool.

Snow is frozen water

OK, I know that sounds like a smart-ass answer, but seeing how I grew up in Florida, it is an important fact. Not everyone realizes that as you hike in the snow, two things are happening: you are getting snow on you, and you are heating up your body. In turn, the snow is melting on your clothes. This can be really bad once you stop hiking and cool off. The water in your clothes will freeze. Not good.

On the flip side of this, you can eat snow to help you hydrate, but be careful with this one. Snow s tapping your body heat in order to melt the snow into ice, so by eating snow you are lowering your core temperature, and therefore that much closer to hypothermia. As mentioned earlier, though, when you are moving you are heating yourself up. Finding the balance between the heat of hiking and the cooling of eating snow is the key.

Snow is a great insulator

The Inuit know what they are doing when it comes to cold weather, and their use of the igloo (iglu) for shelter illustrates this best. The fact is, unpacked snow is mostly air (90% or better) trapped between ice crystals. The fact that the air cannot circulate causes it not to transfer heat, and thus insulate.

Snow absorbs water

If you find yourself suddenly wet (slipped on that rock in the stream, did you?) and you are in freezing temperatures, you must get your wet clothes off ASAP. What you may not realize is that by rolling your clothes in the snow, or even parts of yourself, you can dry up a lot of the water. Then the snow can be brushed off rather easily. Keep in mind you are still going to have to dry your clothes completely near a fire (or other heat source) but the time it will take will have been reduced. Hopefull your sleeping bag was in a water tight bag during this time, so that you can get into it while your clothes dry!

Your turn. What do you know about snow?