Was up late recently and saw a show titled Extreme Survival. It was about extreme cold. I forget who the person was but I found it VERY informative. He allowed himself to be (in boxers) monitored and placed into a rrom that maintained 32 degrees farenheit. The physician then had him perform some tasks. After awhile he was able to stabilize his temperature. It didn't get down to the 95 degrees that defines hypothermia so they spryed him with water several times. THAT got his temp to drop to the 95 degrees. They had him repeat the tests he did earlier. Throughout all of it he was awake and (apparently) oriented. His physical dexterity dropped by over 50 % WELL BEFORE he dropped to 95 degrees. His mental ability dropped by (their words) 100%. All he had to do was look through lines of letters and mark down how many times a particular letter showed up in that line. Through all of it, he thought he was fine. He couldn't even perform simple tasks. Using a lighter (even if it worked at that temp)...I don't think so.

It really opened my eyes. I've been in some cold situations..and I mean COLD. Think SCUBA in water of about 30 degrees with a wetsuit. As a medic, one of the things I've been trained to diagnose and treat hypothermia. I was stunned that THAT much physical and mental degredation could happen so quickly.