https://www.patreon.com/posts/93652433 Logistics, Continued Water Water requirements of production, resupply, storage, and consumption although often given short shift in most people’s thoughts about winter logistics, can actually be the most significantly difficult logistical challenge to extended cold weather survival, whether in the mountains or flatlands. This seems absurd, because “snow,” but it’s absolutely true. Right now, as I write this, we’ve had the water lines in the RV frozen for the better part of a week. That’s because while low temperatures have been in the single digits, above and below zero, even our high temperatures have remained below freezing. Despite this, there is absolutely zero snow on the ground. If you’re going to participate in strenuous outdoor activities in winter/cold weather, you should “force hydrate” for at least two days prior. This means, in my mind, drinking at least two gallons of fluids, per person, per day. Unlike most of my medic friends (Looking at you, Caleb….), I don’t care if it’s water, or Gatorade, or Kool-Aid. It’s all water. Some just has flavoring added (to be fair…it probably ought not be two gallons of bourbon per day…). While the Army insists that lightweight water purification equipment will allow soldiers to deal with issues of procuring water, that’s simply not true. Most commercial, lightweight water filtration devices utilize ceramic-based filtration elements. When those are used, they retain water inside of it. When that water freezes and expands, it cracks the ceramic filter, rendering it useless. Most chemical filtration methods, like iodine, have reduced effectiveness in cold water as well, either taking much, much longer to work, or not working at all in cold water. None of those, of course, work at all on frozen ice. If you’re going to heat ice or snow to melt it, you might as well bring it to a boil to purify it, thus making any other means of water filtration or purification pointless anyway, even if they would provide reliable service in cold weather conditions. It’s easy enough for veterans to talk about not using fires or stoves when “tactical,” but it’s easy because most never operate in actual extreme cold weather environments, and are Continue reading...
