a little physics...it takes an additional 540 heat calories (1000 heat calories = 1 food calorie) to evaporate 1 gram of water to a vapor if the water is already at 100C... so for every 2 grams of water you evaporate using your body as a heat source, you are using up a little over a food calorie of energy... there are about 20 drops in a gram (ml) of water

I don't remember where I read this, don't know if it's true, don't know how it would be an option if there was no snow...

The advice was to roll in the snow in your wet clothing, as the snow will absorb the water. Or most of the water. If it does work, would it work well enough so you wouldn't have to undress to wring out the clothing?

Any thoughts on this? True? False?

Sue

The purpose of rolling in the snow while wet is exactly that,the snow will absorb alot of the water,& It will also create a Barrier for cold wind to penetrate,so you are warmer than otherwise.It actually works as,I've done it some many yrs ago in the Military for Survival training,& though it worked,I still froze up quite a bit,until we huddled together to create more warmth.

It helps a lot if you work to aggressively remove as much water as possible from fleece before putting it back on. Wringing doesn't work too well but spinning it over your head, letting centrifugal force remove water, and whacking it down hard on a flat, dry surface, both remove a considerable amount of water. Work it for a minute or two and you can get fleece remarkably dry. That and the exercise helps build heat.

You still will have some moisture left but far less than what you have with just a quick shake.

just my thoughts from a "dip" in the Mississippi River at 10 below zero.it's a long story i have told here but it involved saving our dog,a happy go lucky retriever,who busted thru the edge of an ice sheet with fast moving water very close.i chose to make the 20 minute walk back to the car and the five minute ride home rather than wait for the 911 gang to show up,people were getting cell phones out and i waved them off.if i had been alone in the woods a i would have used a trash bag like a poncho to hold as much heat in as possible while i gathered wood to make a fire.i would not want to loose any heat to the air.two fires to stand between and dry my clothes would have been my first thought but any sort of fire would work.on the walk back the clothes froze but the only part that was too cold to stand were my hands in wet nylon gloves,i used my Wife's,small but enough to keep the cold air off them.
now the follow up is something to think about.at home the dog and i got onto a hot shower,i had to wait until my jacket thawed a bit before i could get it off.our dog was in no better shape and just sat under the hot water in a heap...now when it was over and i had a cup of hot coco and my Wife toweled the dog off i went to bed and slept for hours..note that,slept for hours.i would think anyone who get wets and comes out of hypothermia is going to be in the same situation and not have a ounce of energy left to do very much of anything except recover.now i'm talking about the real thing here,not getting damp on a hike and standing by a fire to warm up before heading off to camp down the trail someplace...so now you have two problems to think over.not just what order your going to use the trash bag in but what your going to do when you saved yourself but have no energy to much else...and yes,the dog spent the rest of the day sleeping....

Consider carrying a backpackers towel to dry off. Even a tiny one 12 x 18 will do

Spoken as someone who had to rescue my (just married) wife's dog from drowning because he "JUST would not let go of that stick wrapped in lake weeds", I empathize.

The question I have is did someone accompany you on your walk back to the car, and the subsequent drive home? I would be worried if you took off on your own for the walk and then had problems.

If you did have company, would it have changed your mind regarding waiting for 911 if you had to go it alone?

"...i went to bed and slept for hours..note that,slept for hours.i would think anyone who get wets and comes out of hypothermia is going to be in the same situation and not have a ounce of energy left to do very much of anything except recover."

Very nice piece of information! And it sounds entirely logical. Another thing to be aware of, although it doesn't fit the TV/movie syndrome...

Sue

One of the things I carry in a vacume sealed bag is INstant Jello that is NOT the sugar free. That give you the sugars, carbs and the nutriance to comabat the sleepy feeling. Muscles twitching and shivering takes a lot of enrgy, and you have to feed that need and contend with the exhaustion that will follow.

From my expeiance taking a dip in the Ocean in Alaska, (sitka) It was the fact that I had fleece on and was able to get out of the watter fast. but I still had a few miles to kayak back to shore. In extreem cold you may and will need to shed the cotton but I have found that flece will evacuate to a damp state very quickly.

I've been running on the treadmill at the gym a few times a week and, when I do, I get my cotton shirt about 70% saturated (gross, I know). When I leave the gym, I toss on a fleece over the cotton t-shirt. 5 minutes later, I'm home and too hot in the 62* house to wear the fleece. Once removed, the cotton t-shirt begins to chill me pretty quickly, even with body temp up from the run, 62* ambient and no wind. If I take it off and stand around making the morning brew in just my shorts, I'm much warmer than with the wet shirt on.

All this to say, if you're wearing cotton and you get wet, I think you're better off removing it entirely. If I recall correctly, the aboriginals of Australia weathered generations of winters unclothed next to fires...