Jasonst said:
Maddy - no to be crude here, but answering natures call at -40? How did you not get seriouslly frostbitten? Sounds like a challenge!
I don't EVER want to be in that position!
We were sleeping under tarps in double sleeping bags using two close cell foam pads under our bags. Getting up was a challenge but you knew that you would never sleep if you didn't. I don't think we could have used pee bottles because they would have just frozen. Everything froze, even my handiwipes!
They were a block of ice.
The hypothermia occured because I did not fully appreciate the signifance of what our leaders told us. When you get up, before returning to your sleeping bags, you must run around to warm up. Both bags must be zipped way up tight with only your nose sticking out. I did not run around, not did I zip my bags up correctly. The rest is history. I slept for approx one hour and turned into a popsicle. I could not get my jacket or my sorel's on, could not walk because both legs were completely numb. I realized that I was thinking irrational thoughts and made the decision to crawl to the leaders for help. They were very close by. I could have blown my whistle but did not want to wake the entire brigade. They aggresively warmed me.It took a very long time. I remember saying the same thing over and over again. "Help me, I am so cold." I kept telling Megan to give me her sleeping bad. Abby put my feet on her stomach and kept rubbing my legs, and putting chocolate in my mouth, until I was able to walk to the wall tent where Megan had made a fire. They gave me lots of hot drinks.
The down booties I wore to sleep from that night on. I also didn't mess with the sleeping bag protocol.The first night was our coldest night out. The others were a balmy -20/-30.
One individual did get frostbite of her digits that night but never told anyone until two days later. They had turned black. She got evac'd out.
It was really quite a night. One of the dogs escaped and it took the leaders a long time to catch him. They sure didn't get much sleep. They were incredibly strong people... physically, mentally and emotionally.
The allowed me to stay because they said they trusted me to tell them when something was wrong. One of them said ..."it's not what happens to you in life, but what you do with it that matters." I thought that was pretty neat.
It was very cold but we all loved it. We really learned how to live/function in those conditions and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
I wouldn't trade that experience for anything and highly recommend those MH
booties!
