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A video of our own plunge test will be up soon.
Twenty-five years ago a guy named Jim Phillips invented some goofy foam clothing for winter wear. He found it handled moisture and kept the user warmer in a far superior fashion than anything else (including wool, or other synthetics). Some local newspaper got interested in his stuff and challenged him to put his clothing to a life or death test. He accepted.
In January, at 18 degrees, Jim went out to Utah Lake, cut a hole through 18" of ice, and, with reporters present, sunk himself up to his armpits for 15 minutes in the freezing cold water, wearing his goofy 1", homemade foam clothing. In a t-shirt and jeans a normal person would die after 4 minutes. He then got out, squeezed the water out of his clothing, walked around a little, then slept out on the side of Mt. Timpanogas in a sleeping bag made out of the same material as his clothes. His complaint in the morning was that he was too hot and muggy all night from all the evaporation going on in his sleeping bag. And, his wet foam clothing he never changed out of? Well, it was nearly dry. Needless to say the reporters were very impressed.
Last Saturday a hand full of individuals re-enacted part of that same test with Mr. Phillips present. At 5pm, with an ambient temp in the mid-20's, we went out west of our little town to a large pond, cut a 3'x3.5' hole through 12" of ice, and prepared to prove or disprove Jim's story. Can someone fall into freezing cold water, during the winter, get out without changing clothing, and be warm, even start to self dry? Will their insulation protect them in this worst case scenario from hypothermia?
Five people agreed to participate. Three were dressed in 1/2" foam clothing, one in 1" foam clothing, and the last was the control for the experiment. He was dressed in some very fine Rocky Mountain Hardware gear, a layered system of synthetics, and fleeces, with breathable/water coat and shell. Just the stuff that Poltax advocated in a previous post. Four of the five dippers were hooked up to an electrode to measure their skin temp. on the right side of their shoulder. One by one each went into the ice hole, got totally saturated with water, then came out. Some of the braver one's even went all the way under soaking their hats. The guy in the layered system from Rocky Mountain Hardware went in last.
Then they stood around for 2 hours on the ice, out in the wind, and waited to see what would happen. As it got dark the outside temperature dripped a bit more. Temperature readings were periodically taken and each watched the other for symptoms of hypothermia (like voluntary shivers, numb toes and fingers, slurred speech, etc..)
The four in the foam warmed up! No shivers, no numb fingers or toes, nothing. Two of the foam wearers were in tennis shoes, but their core temps were high enough to warm-up their wet toes, despite the poor footwear. All the foam wearers had warm fingers inside their foam mittens. Some were having so much fun they went in for a second dip.
What happened to the guy in the standard layered system? Well he got colder and colder. Shivers set in after a few minutes of being out of the water. Then he began shuffling his feet around to warm up his toes. The moisture couldn't escape his clothing, and he stayed wet. Readings from the electrode recorded a steady drop of skin temp. By the end of the two hours period he'd lost feeling in parts of his feet, and several of his fingers. His speech began to slur, and his motor skills began to deteriorate. He began to feel very tired. He left early before he hit the next stage of hypothermia and any damage became permanent.
So if you were out snowmobiling, snowshoeing, skiing, or had to evacuate in the middle of the winter with your family which system would you rather be wearing? We know what our answer would be......
Thanks to all those who participated!!
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