Accidental Lessons … Boots Freeze!©

 

Ice camping on Cuba Lake, New York, circa 1978 or 1979.  Photograph courtesy of the Gerry L. Reynolds collection

Experience is a harsh teacher, it is the best teacher, but a harsh one and accidental lessons, many times, are lessons you will never forget!  This is the first article in a series of articles on accidental lessons and this one is about frozen boots.

Did you know that boots can freeze?  I do now, but when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I didn’t know that.  I sure found out the hard way though, when we pitched a tent on the ice of Cuba Lake, New York.  As I remember the temperature was between 10^oF (-12^oC) and 20^oF (-7^oC), the ice was thick and there was more than a foot (30 cm) of snow on the surface of the lake.  I was wearing a pair of shoepacs with felt insoles: that night when I took them off, as I got ready to climb into my sleeping bag, I casually tossed them into a heap in the vestibule of my two-man tent.  The next morning when I woke up and went to put them on, I found that they were frozen solid!  Worse yet, because I had thrown them in a pile on the snow, they had frozen flattened and bent and I couldn’t put my feet into them.  My tent partner had the same problem.  Luckily for the two of us we were able to walk in our socks the half mile (800 meters) or so to a warming hut on the shore, where we were able to thaw them out in front of a kerosene heater enough to get them back onto our feet! 

Lesson learned; I will never do that again!  The second night and ever since then, during the winter I have been very careful to put my boots into my turned inside-out stuff sack, under the foot of my sleeping bag, on top of my ensolite sleeping mat: and so far, I have never woken up, again to frozen boots.

Now 10^oF (-12^oC) to 20^oF (-7^oC) isn’t all that cold in the grand scheme of things, but what if where you are going it gets really cold?  How do you keep your boots from freezing then?

 

An excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166

The Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, 1949, has some thoughts about what to wear on your feet when it is cold and how to make sure that you can put them on in the morning.

 

Shoes, just like clothes, must fit loosely when it is cold, excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166

 

Don’t lace your shoes or boots tightly, otherwise it will cut-off the circulation in your feet; an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

 

It is important to keep your feet dry in the winter, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166 to 167

 

Tips on wearing leather boots in the cold, leather boots should not be worn when temperatures are below 20^oF (-7^oC); excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, The first and the last are from page 167 and the middle tip is from page163

 

Figure 5-2 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 162

 

Shoepacs should not be used in temperatures below freezing or 0^oC, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

 

Figure 5-7 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 168

 

Muklucks are excellent for extremely cold temperatures, but are not waterproof, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

Tips on insoles and socks in the cold; excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 167 to 169

 

Figure 5-5 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

 

Tips on how to care for footwear, excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 162 to 163

  

In addition, here are some tips on drying clothes from Alan Innes-Taylor’s Arctic Survival Manual.

 

Tips on drying clothes in the field, an excerpt from the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 78

And a final word, from the Arctic Survival Manual by Alan Innes-Taylor, on survival or emergency socks and insoles.

 

Emergency or survival insoles and “socks”, excerpts from the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 80

I hope that you have learned something from my accidental lesson, because it is always better if you can learn from someone else’s experiences.  Also, hopefully, you have found the information from the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor and from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information useful.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails

Sources

Innes-Taylor, Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm, 1957], page 64-65

Department of the Navy, Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, [Department of the Navy, 1949, Revised in 1950], p. 157-175,

https://ia600301.us.archive.org/27/items/navalarcticopera00unit/navalarcticopera00unit.pdf, accessed August 28, 2018