I have seen and read all the posts and TV shows about getting out of wet clothes as fast as possible when it is cold out- and they all make sense as far as they go.

Stupid Question- If I get into a plastic bag/garbage bag, am I better off being naked or still wearing the wet clothing? What is freezing me most about being wet- conduction/evaporation....
If what is killing me is evaporation, would i be better off:
a) wrapping myself in a trash bag (dressed)
b) wrapping myself in a trash bag (naked)
c) not wrapped in anything

while I start a fire?

not trying to troll, i have a trash bag in my kit, big enough to get over me, not sure which is optimum.


Thanks for input

I believe there is some room for variation.

What material is the clothing that you are wearing? For example-

If you are wearing fleece/wool it is fairly easy to wring out the clothing and maintain some degree of warmth. Placing a bag over this damp clothing would seem best.

If the clothing is cotton, it might be better to remove and wear just the plastic bag until you can dry out your clothing.

Pete

some eye opening advice i got some years ago was that drying fleece by wearing it uses up a lot of calories.

1. Consider putting a heatsheet-type bivy in your kit in place of the plastic bag. Heatsheet-type material reflects back a high percentage of your body heat and will act as a relector to trap a fire's heat.

2. I am going to assume you would not usually be far from your camp, or someplace with more resources, if you are encountering a hypothermia hazard equipped only with a garbage bag for spare clothing. RTB instead of staying in place and trying to build a fire.

3. Going with the scenario, however, perhaps you should build a large fire [or two] right away, then huddle naked at [or between] the fire[s] while drying clothes. Whether naked in a plastic bag without insulation or in wet clothes, you are losing body heat fast. You may not remain functional for long without replacing heat - get the heat source[s] going!

4. If there is no realistic hope for large fire[s] and all you have is the garbage bag, then consider stripping, getting into the garbage bag, wringing out your clothes, and hope you are wearing some high-tech stuff that absorbs little or no water so that it makes sense to put them back on.

This is 1/2 real/ 1/2 not-

I almost fell in the lake 1 mile from our house, in suburbs- I was just out for a walk, hit a patch of ice, almost went off trail.

In real world I would return home very cold.

Guess what I was wondering- Is it the evaporation of the water that would make one get so cold so fast? If so, would wrapping myself in the garbage bag stop the evaporation, and help me stay warm long enough for fire?

Or would the water in the clothes conduct too much heat away anyway?

If this helps I will give you my experience from this past Saturday. I knew rain was in the forecast, that it could at times be significant and our team might be dispatched for some swiftwater rescue calls. I decided to wear a synthetic t-shirt, nylon pants, wool-blend socks, cotton underwear and a cotton overshirt thinking I would strip off the cotton shirt and don a long-sleeve Nomex t-shirt and my dry suit.

Unfortunately, when we got hit out for our first call, I forgot my Nomex t-shirt and did not have time to put on my dry suit before responding. At one point I had to exit the unit to check a flooded roadway to see if we could safely proceed. I got quite drenched, even under my PFD.
Just as we finished with that call we got dispatched to another call so I could not change. We put the heater on high to try and stay warm and dry out a little. We got a break in running calls and stopped for gas and dinner. I removed the cotton shirt and tried to air dry my remaining clothes while eating, but did develop a chill.

Just as we finished dinner we got another call and this time due to having to enter deep moving water I put on my dry suit over my wet/damp clothes. We ran calls for several additional hours wearing my dry suit the remaining time and was warm the entire time. When we finally got back to the station, I hit the couch for an hour still in my dry suit and was warm. After an hour of not running any more calls, I decided to call it a night and head home. As soon as I removed my dry suit, I got cold.

While a dry suit is thicker than a plastic bag, it is not insulated. Based upon my experience, I think if you had to be wet, it would be better to try and remove the excess water from your clothes and place the plastic bag over your damp clothing.

Pete

This has been my experience.

I was in a survival class a few years ago where we did this for real. The air temp was about 45 degF, and it was breezy. I don't know what the lake water temp was but it felt cold. Wearing what we would normally wear for a dayhike in those temps, we did this drill:

1) Walk out to the end of a 100' dock on the lake

2) Jump in the water fully clothed and swim to shore

3) Wait a few minutes while standing in the breeze

4) Remove clothes, wring them out & put them back on (no George Constanza jokes allowed!)

5) Put on our emergency plastic bags (cutting a face hole in one corner and wearing it like a poncho)

6) Put our hands in a bucket of icewater (with ice cubes!) and hold them in for 1 minute

7) Jog over to another area and start a fire with the gear in our pockets

I recall that by the time I was sparking my fire, my long underwear and Patagonia fleece jacket were only damp and they felt very comfortably warm. It took longer for my thin Ex Officio nylon pants to dry but since I had a fire going by then it was OK.

However I've not tried this drill with cotton clothing. So in that case it might be best to ditch it, I'm not sure.

BTW in this drill I learned that the container I used for my Spark-Lite was not really waterproof and the Spark-Lite wouldn't work. The REI Storm matches saved the day. The vaseline cotton balls worked great.

From my Siberian childhood experience:
1. Take off your wet clothes immediately, put shoes back on though.
2. Run around and swing your arms to warm up and to dry out (don't forget to wring and dry your long hair too if any );
3. Put on your bag when the skin is dry (poncho style is the best, but if the bag is large enough - don't cut the top use it as a tent for now, breathe inside).
4. Wring out or press your clothes vigorously (I've been jumping on mine at the stage 2 above).
5. Put them on, bag on top (cut the face opening now), and then take care of the fire, or run for shelter.

My expereince is that fleece is great in these kinds of scenarios. The fiber does not retain water, and can be easily wrung almost dry. If shielded from the wind by a plastic bag or a good windproof shell, you will warm up fairly quickly.

Build a fire or light your stove ASAP!

It's the air inside the insulation of your clothes (e.g. fleece) that provides the real barrier against heat conduction. If you get the clothes wet, you will lose heat fast. Watch Bear Grylls on some of his videos in places like Siberia. As soon as he gets out of the water - he rolls around in the snow to dry his skin. Then he puts on fresh dry clothes.

I have never immersed myself in ice water. But I have been pretty soaked in the mountains and seriously chilled out. If you don't have some fresh dry clothes to put on pretty fast - then you better have another source of heat ... like a good roaring campfire. Plastic bags and mylar are not going to do you any good if your body is already seriously chilled. You'll get hypothermia really fast.

I suggest that you go and experiment. It's still cold in most parts of the country. Pick a snowy area beside the road, or do it late at night. Either way - leave your car running and the heater on inside. It would be smart to take a friend with you :-)

cheers,
Pete #2