Winter & Special Considerations · 7 min
Cold injury and staying warm all day
Why this matters
The exam outline names winter considerations in the general section and again under hiking and camping, because New York's winter is long, and because a summer guide who takes a winter booking without adjusting anything is the profile of a rescue.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Recognise and treat frostnip, frostbite and immersion foot
- Manage the sweat problem, which is the central winter skill
- Adjust food, water and pace for cold
Cold injuries
| Injury | Signs | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Frostnip | White or waxy patch, numb, skin still soft. Nose, ears, cheeks, fingertips | Rewarm with skin contact: a bare hand, an armpit. No rubbing, ever. Then fix why it happened |
| Superficial frostbite | White, hard on the surface, soft underneath, painful on rewarming | Rewarm gently. Blisters may form. Protect and evacuate |
| Deep frostbite | Hard through, woody, pale or mottled, no sensation | Do not thaw in the field if there is any chance of refreezing. A refrozen limb is far worse than a frozen one. Pad, protect, evacuate |
| Immersion (trench) foot | Wet, cold but not freezing, over hours. Pale, wrinkled, numb, then painful | Dry, warm, elevate. Prevented entirely by dry socks and by taking boots off at breaks |
Never rub frozen tissue, and never rewarm anything you cannot keep warm. Alcohol and nicotine both make cold injury worse.
The sweat problem
The central winter skill is not staying warm. It is not getting wet from the inside. Sweat soaked into layers becomes evaporative cooling the moment you stop, and it is why people are comfortable climbing and dangerously cold ten minutes after arriving.
- Start cold. Set off slightly underdressed, expecting to warm up in the first ten minutes
- Vent early. Pit zips, hood down, hat off, before the sweat starts, not after
- Stop to adjust. Thirty seconds of layer management saves an hour of misery. Make the party do it too, out loud, at the bottom of every climb
- Put a layer on the moment you stop. The insulated jacket lives at the top of the pack and goes on at every break
- Dry socks and dry gloves in a waterproof bag. Gloves get wet; plan on it and carry spares
Food, water and pace
- Water: cold suppresses thirst but not need, and cold dry air takes moisture with every breath. Dehydration is common in winter and it accelerates cold injury. Insulated bottles, stored upside down so ice forms away from the lid, or bottles inside the pack against the body. Bladder hose lines freeze; do not rely on them
- Food: more of it, all day, because shivering and moving in cold burns far more than the same route in summer. Eat before people are hungry. Something warm at a break is worth a great deal for morale as well as heat
- Pace: slower, more breaks, shorter breaks. A long lunch in winter is how a party gets cold
Daylight
Sunset in the Adirondacks in mid-December is before 16:30, and the woods go dark before that. Plan on a bit over eight hours of usable light, start early, and put a headlamp on every person, not in every pack. Winter darkness is not an inconvenience; it is a change of conditions.
From the field
A client is soaked through the base layer at the col because he refused to stop and vent on the climb. It is 12°F with wind. You get his shell off, a dry base layer from your pack on, the insulated jacket over, food in his hand, and you turn the party around. He will be fine, and he will vent next time.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.