http://www.backpacker.com/survival/

Thought I'd pass this along.

-- Craig

Hmm. Some weird stuff

from the site

"Sunglasses. Wearing sunglasses after dark limits the heat escaping through your eyes. "It can make a perceptible difference in body heat retention," says John Gookin, survival expert with NOL"



??????????

Say what?

"Sunglasses. Wearing sunglasses after dark limits the heat escaping through your eyes. "It can make a perceptible difference in body heat retention," says John Gookin, survival expert with NOL"

Plus, it makes for a real cool-looking corpse.

That's a new one on me too. My first guess would be that (any) glasses might reduce airflow around the eyesocket, thereby reducing heat loss (would've never guessed "perceptible difference" though).

As for sunglasses, I thought that only mirrored sunglasses reflected heat to any real extent. Wrong again.

Of course, the downside is that while you're trying to hike out at night (using your GPS or compass) with Oakleys donned, you can't see the 100-ft. cliff comin' and you fall to your death ? but with warm eyeballs to the bitter end. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, Craig. Good reading.

The ubiquitous solar-still advice is there, too. It must work somewhere or it wouldn't be such common advice. The 3 books I have on desert survival warn me that solar stills only work in the desert if it's raining <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Very Hilarious! Why not just pull your wool hat down over your eyes if you're worried about heat loss? Is this sunglasses / heat loss thing another urban legend?

I'm convinced that solar stills continue to be mentioned merely out of habit. Akin to an urban legend that's perpetuated without being questioned. Seawater? Perhaps another story altogether.

We likely have one or more of the same desert books – and I tend to believe them. To be honest, I've never tried one, but have heard many, many firsthand stories of failure.

Dan

A person does radiate a lot of heat through the eyes. It can easily be felt when you or another person has a fever. But wow... I didn't realize that so much of the body's heat could be kept in by wearing sunglasses. It's the first time I think I've come across that information that I can remember. It's a good thing I EDC sunglasses I suppose. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Ya know, when you have a fever, you radiate heat EVERYWHERE! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Guess the sunglasses at night only work after you have dug the solar still....that's why no one around here knew about it, LOL