[Heretic]

Weather Elements & Navigation

The 5 heat loss mechanisms are:
Conduction – heat moves from hotter to colder, like your body being submerged in water
Convection – heat loss due to air movement across body (wind chill)
Radiation – heat lost to the space around you
Respiration – heat loss due to breathing
Perspiration – heat loss due to wetness (the sweating system attacking you)

The cold shock lasts between 1 and 3 min, the cold is the number one killer for wilderness survival, and space blankets are ideal for unkind weather, in emergencies you can use dry foliage to keep warmth in (think scarecrow)

Using space blankets (get visible color) to avoid exposure…use fetal position to reduce surface area

The use of layering is extremely important and is accomplished using the ECWCS or the extended cold weather clothing system: The entire ECWCS ensemble (1st generation) consists of polypropylene (1) undershirt and (2) drawers, polyester fiberpile (3) shirt and (4) bib, (5) nylon/cotton trousers, Gore-Tex (6) parka and (7) trousers, liners for the (8) parka and (9) trousers, (10) white (snow camouflage) parka/trousers cover, (11) gloves, (12) glove inserts, (13) mittens, (14) mitten inserts, (15) mitten shells, (16) white mitten shells (snow camouflage), (17) cap, (18) balaclava, (19) nylon socks, boots—both (20) cold weather and (21) extreme cold weather—and (22) M-1950 trouser suspenders. The system is to be used in an insulated, triple-layering fashion, with the polypropylene undergarments as Layer 1, the polyester shirt/bib, liners and cotton/nylon trousers as Layer 2, and the Gortex-Tex outer garments as Layer 3.

For traveling, use the plainsman stride, in which all the weight is on either one leg or the other, to speed up increase you stride, avoid dodging objects and plan ahead to miss difficult terrain. Using the plainsman stride can rest the body every stride, and it look like how John Wayne used, placing one foot directly in front of the other

When traveling unknown territory, mark your direction somehow, best way its with florescent colored ribbon or tape every 100 meters, and occasionally look back to see your way back from the proper perspective to note landmarks, lighting differences etc

Metals and even jewelry can affect the correctness of a compass

A stick and two stones can be used to detect north, place the stones at the end of the shadow over a 1-2 hour interval, and then a line drawn between the two stones is east west oriented

One stick placed in the ground and pointed directly at the sun, once a shadow is produced later that day, the new shadow marks east/west, not as accurate as the two stone method

Night time navigation is of course more difficult, but the north star (Polaris) is in direct alignment with the two stars making up the bottom of the big dipper constellation. Use the big dipper to find Polaris can you found true north (close but not exact). You can also use a stick method to align up two separate sticks separated by a few feet, and the tops of these sticks lined up with Polaris giving you a ground plotted northern line

This northern line is called celestial north, and can be used in comparison with daytime observations to determine various navigational goals, such as using the celestial north combined with the solar north determined before, and the ground angle should be the antithesis of the cord angle method described below

Using the same stick during the day, and a notch you carved into the lining stick to find your Latitude, at sea level the lines should create a 45 degree angle, otherwise a non 45 degree angle gives us latitude, a combination of the shadow stick method with the celestial north method can give you a more definitive result

A watch can also be used to determine direction using local time. Take a small stick and place it directly over the “hour minute hand” junction and rotate you watch until the stick shadow falls across the hour hand. Once done…halfway between hour hand shadow and 12 o clock is true north – for digital watches, simply draw a circular watch face on paper or in the dirt, and use the same steps