Six simple rules to help you enjoy winter's coldest days
Cold doesn't have to feel cruel. If you know how to soften the impact, it can even be fun
Hello winter, my old friend, it’s nice to walk with you again.
As I write I’m watching the snow blow and the birds flock to the feeders, the wind is howling and the mercury is shrinking from 15 and likely will hit single digits by the time this publishes. Apparently, it will pass zero and achieve negative integer status with wind chills in the double-digit ugly range later today.
The view inspired me to drop a note here, especially for my cold-intolerant friends, about how I manage to thrive when the mercury dips. I can’t wait to get outside and play today.
First, I have an unfair advantage over most Oklahomans because I’m from the North. I spent the first 23 years of my life in Iowa doing things outdoors in the winter. The next 23 I spent in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the current temp is 30 below and not expected to rise above zero until 2023 is a few days old.
I don’t know why winter energizes me as much as mid-summer heat makes me want to sit in front of a fan all day. I’ve always been of the mind that a good sweat worked up on a 20-below day is good medicine for the soul, and if you can’t sweat then sitting out there until you can’t feel your hands and feet anymore is almost as good.
Always, from the time I was a kid, every dawn that brought blowing snow, extremity-numbing cold, and ear-biting wind was like Christmas morning. I just want to inhale that sinus-stinging fresh air and hurry outside to do something, anything, while most folks seem to think everything is incredibly uncomfortable.
There is a reason cold comes with spiffy adjectives like piercing, biting, forbidding, and the word itself describes despicable actions and folks best avoided.
I love it, but I respect it. Cold can be dangerous and it can indeed be uncomfortable.
Rule No. 1: If you’re going to play outside in the cold, expect to feel the cold, and entertain no expectations of “staying warm.”
Cold hits folks differently and it can, seriously, medically, can be a challenge for some, while it simply is not for others. Skin conditions, old injuries, old surgeries, arthritis, circulation issues, you name it. I do not readily admit that I feel it more as I get older and more adapted to the warmer climate where I live, but it is getting so I’ll have to grasp that reality soon enough—dammit anyway.
There are ways to give your body an edge in the cold.
Rule No. 2: Freezing temperatures means, well, freezing. And what is freezing? Water.
Americans know water generally freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. What most folks don’t appreciate about that fact is it means an extremely cold climate can be extremely dry.
So, your first best weapon against the cold is simply drinking plenty of water. Just water. Coffee and other caffeinated drinks are an especially bad choice in cold weather. Google “caffeine and vasoconstrictive properties.”
Rule No. 3: Fuel up your furnace and insulate your home.
What the body needs is slow-burn fatty stuff from snacks like beef jerky or smoked salmon or if you’re vegan or vegetarian then it’s nuts and other fat providers. Dig into fruits and vegetables with the right kinds of sugars. Build a fire in your gut—and I don’t mean the kind you get at Taco Bell.
Hydrate and fuel up, your body is a fortress with its own furnace built in. It runs in the mid-90-degree range even when the temp outside is 50 below.
All you have to do is insulate and keep that heat pumping to keep all the right places operating, optimally, cold but not frozen, warm but not overheated.
Insulating your body is not much different than insulating your home. You need an outer layer to repel wind and rain (or snow), inner layers of insulation, and adjustable vents to keep fresh air flowing in key areas.
Rule No. 4: Moisture inside your body is great, sweat and moisture collecting on the outside are the worst.
Here’s an example from when I used to snowshoe a short trap line outside Fairbanks. I kept a down coat, fur hat, and heavy mittens in my backpack—along with a radio (pre-cellphones), fire starter, space blanket, and a few other things mostly there for emergencies.
At 30 below I wore vapor-barrier boots and heavy wool socks, medium-weight thermal underwear, and wool pants. On my upper body, I wore a thin crewneck thermal, turtle-neck medium thermal, heavy polar fleece jacket, and a windbreaker. I had a few sets of thermal glove liners (because they would get wet), and some thermal insulated wind-blocking gloves.
I wore an “explorer hat,” a Gortex hat with a heavy fleece liner and flaps to pull down under your chin to protect your ears or connect over the top when a breeze was better.
When in motion I had layers and a shell and avoided the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man look. Only the thermal underwear was snug. The wool pants and fleece jacket and wind shell left plenty of room to move.
Rule No. 5: Hydration is good, but moisture is your enemy.
More than once, in the extreme cold following a snowfall, I worked up a pretty good sweat when breaking trail in snowshoes. But at 30 below moisture freezes and/or sublimates, quickly.
At that temperature, I could stop, remove that wind shell to shake off the ice and hang it up, and watch the frost form on my fleece as steam rose from my body. I’d simply brush off my fleece coat and, ta-da, the moisture was gone.. If I still felt damp I could remove my fleece to shake it out, and brush off my thermals in the same way. The same was true for my hat and hair.
The cold hit my skin, no doubt, but it was temporary and I would quickly warm up with those dry(er) layers re-applied.
In Oklahoma, we don’t have the benefit of that sub-zero drying method, but the example illustrates how the theory works.
Insulate in layers, keep your insulation dry by protecting it or venting it, and don’t bulk up with the big down coat and the heavy mittens until you need it—mostly for sitting still or survival modes.
Rule No. 6: Always respect the cold.
All this said, severe cold can be dangerous and it deserves respect. It can turn an innocent mistake into a lifelong injury, or a minor mishap into a life-threatening ordeal.
Be prepared for the worst of it, and then you might just find you can enjoy the best of what winter has to offer.