Agreed - informative and concise. I was impressed also with the companion articles.

Good article and some other good links there too.

There are lots of 'tricks' touted as to how to survive hypothermia. Getting dry, warmed externally, insulated and taking on fuel are all good. I'm not convinced that 1 approach is noticably better than another in reality

But priority number 1 is before you hit the water - PRACTICE! You need a simple foolproof plan that you have drilled if you have a hope of self-rescuing. Do not expect to be able to think it through or do anything the tiniest bit fiddly when the moment comes

Kit needs to be within reach, unpack quickly, not leave you scrabbling for kit etc

I'm with Bigreddog - practice. practice. practice. Good idea for all first aid procedures, especially the high adrenalin and life threatening ones. Try to get to the point where things are automatic habits, requiring less thought.

BTW - Bear's season premire was on la t week. He was in Norway, where he did set-up experiments instead of his usual adventuring. I found the hypothermia and flashflood scenarios particularly insightful.

The biggest problem with hypothermia is recognition and realizing that it is a potentially serious condition and not something that big strong men can just tough out. Putting on a jacket, eating or drinking something warm, perhaps taking the time to build a fire, are all relatively easy to do in the early stages of hypothermia, but as the victim cascades further down the slippery slope, treatment becomes much tricky. One needs to be on the lookout for hypo both in the group and in one's self.

Practice is good, but the real thing is still something much more stressful.

Glad to hear that BG has changed his format. Perhaps there is hope after all.

I added Mountain House "self-heating" "oven" [similar to MRE heaters I suspect] to my hypothermia kit, with the idea that pouring water and adding a salt tablet might be easier that starting a fire, deploying pots, etcetera.

Good addition Dweste. Having warmth in your kit that doesn't involve much though or deterity in a great idea. I wouldn't ditch the fire though.

Three problems I see with these and MRE heaters (same thing, different shape), based on my usage of the MRE heaters, is as follows:

1, they produce a LOT more heat than you want by your skin, but not enough to heat much of a volume. 2nd degree burns or freezing.
2, they produce lots and lots of hydrogen. KABLAMO! Or you drown in hydrogen.
3, they must be kept utterly dry.

The basical hot-hands type heat packs have #3, to a lesser degree #1, and not #2. Keeping in mind they are just paper and rust when they are done, they are also reasonably safe. MRE heaters... not so much.

Sorry I was not clear: my hypothermia kit includes several sealed hand-warmers and I have recently added the Mountain House "oven" only to heat food / meals / drink without needing flame.

Decided to add a second heatsheet bivy. Inherently more insulation and could stuff things between the two bivys for more insulation if stuff is available.