If you want to learn a potentially biography - carry through action , you want to do it . And if you need to memorize if your wearable and other paraphernalia is capable of saving your aliveness , you need to test it . This is how the Navy SEALs do just that for dusty weather emergency .
This article was in the beginning written by Kate Siberell for theSitka Gearblog and is reprinted here with license .
require to dress even more effectively than the SEALs do?Here ’s our guide to doing just that .
Go for a short walk , and you ’ll know if your gear gibe . You might notice the stretch , the light , the breathability , the warmth . But you wo n’t really lie with if it can keep you active .
You could take your habiliment maker ’s word for it . But if you ’re a Navy SEAL operate in frigid conditions where leave betimes is n’t an option , and holding your position is military mission decisive , you have to know precisely what your gear can plow . You have to test for yourself how it will perform in the worst potential conditions .
John Barklow photo ; and top photo .
And that ’s why Sitka Big Game Product Manager John Barklow and his fellow Naval instructors do up with the Rewarming Drill .
John was 19 when he enlist and formally cultivate as a Navy diver . He built up some experience climb and mountaineering in his off time , and took station in the Philippines , the southerly U.S. , and California . After 9/11 he ended up in Kodiak , Alaska , where he used his experience to teach seal how to survive like mountaineers .
For the beneficial part of a decade , part of his job was to develop vesture organisation and equipment . He tested every firearm of inhuman weather gear mechanism usable to consumer ( along with a few piece that were not ) and “ shook the boxwood to see what rise to the top . ”
After that he consulted for a few mountaineer companies as they modernize gear to keep US operators mobile , efficient , and alive . And today he ’s here at Sitka , help to build up future generations of the Big Game line .
We knew SEALs were a dissimilar stock . A few of them have become good friend , guy wire we care to catch a beer with or charge hard with in sketchy terrain . But they ’re usually middling tranquil about their service . So when John separate us about the training he put these hombre through , in especial the Rewarming Drill , it was the first we ’d heard of it . We just about fell out of our chairwoman .
“ It was meant to mime the scenario you hope to never encounter , ” John says . “ Maybe you hang in a river , or a rain storm catches you without your Gore - Tex , or you push too hard with the incorrect layer and you perspire out – however it happens , you get souse to the bone . The wad is , if you spend enough time out there , you ’re break down to get tight on a viciously cold day . And how are you go to keep affectionate ? How are you going to get everything wry and keep break ? ”
The practice went like this : After a three - hour patrol into Kodiak ’s interior , usually with a storm seething in off the Pacific , John would funnel the flock into a clarification . Only it was n’t a clarification . It was the aerofoil of a one-half frozen lake .
“ Alright ! ” John would say , his vocalisation cutting through jazz and freezing rain . “ This is the Rewarming Drill ! ”
DoD photo .
The troops would drop their camp on the shore and march before fully clothed until they were neck deep in frigid water . For 12 minutes they shivered until John give the order . With their wearing apparel sopping , violently shake , they emerged from the cold lake into cold air .
Just score intermission for a bit . Say you got soaked on a search . What would you do next ? What steps would you take to get warm ?
If you ’re like most of us , you ’d probably build a fervency , strip off your wet level , and render to dry them out over the fire . Except remember that it ’s sleeting , and the wind is ripping . Even in undecomposed weather , you ’d be ride that phone line between drying and burning your paraphernalia while exposing your cutis to the elements .
“ Getting straight off out of the ingredient and gaining control of the situation is imperative , ” John says .
So here ’s how John taught the SEALs to palm it : The soaking , shudder military personnel partner up , hit to their packs , and rip synthetical insulating material layers over their drenched base layers and diffused shells . One fix up the tent while the other got out the stove to melt snow and heat water . Then both human being crawled into their tents , into their synthetical dormancy bags , and lie down there shivering , waiting for water to boil out of doors . As presently as they could , they ’d sip hot boozing and scoop spoonful of rehydrated chili pepper into their quiver mouth , and then lie back down . There in the tent , the live food stoke their metabolism , warmth crept tardily back into their extremities , and they were no longer shivering . After several hour , they were strong and completely well-fixed , with dry stem layer , more or less damp mid layer , and heavy frost take in on the exposed arm of their gusty crownwork – trial impression that their clothing system was push wet to the outside .
DoD Photo .
It worked because the human body invest out a serious amount of heat , and because the operators were using a cautiously chosen combination of wet - wicking synthetic base layers , warm - when - blotto insularity ( not down ) , and warm - when - blind drunk sleeping base – along with well ventilated tents . The humans themselves were the heat source that heated the moisture , converting liquid water to water vapor , and each piece solve together to press the expand vaporisation out of the organization .
“ With a gravid clothing system there ’s no need to behave surplus layer , ” John says . “ It should be capable to do as a symbiotic system in the most sturdy situations . take off your wearing apparel and hang them in your tent is ineffectual at good , and requires you to deport more than is required . ”
It ’s crucial to remark that a undivided awry while would have greatly reduced the system ’s strength . Since cotton plant is hydrophilic , cotton boxers would have held moisture and slowed both the drying and rewarming times . Down also retain wet , and fails to insulate when smashed , so a down puffy or sleeping bag would have made for disastrous issue .
“ Most citizenry do n’t believe it works at first , ” John says . “ We did it with some industry folks once , and they did n’t really trust it . These were the Guy developing our military geared wheel . They ’d never hear of this before or done anything like it . And it ’s like , ‘ Well how do you know if your material even works ? ’ ”
But John did n’t leave it there . Since troops would n’t always have their collapsible shelter , sleeping bag and stove with them , he drill his operator without them – and in colder weather . He called it the Dynamic Rewarming Drill .
exchangeable to the unchanging translation , the operators cut holes in thick Kodiak meth , treaded water for 12 minutes , mount out , and pull out on their synthetic puffy layers . But now , rather of make bivouac John had them shoulder their pack and march , moving at a irksome , easy pace – fast enough to get heat to misrepresent their layers , but not so tight that they ’d sweat and create more moisture . Within an hr of walk , their al-Qa’ida and mid layers were dry . Two hours later , when they butt on into camp , they pitched tents , unfurled their sleeping bags and crawled inside , heat urine and rehydrating food to stoke their metabolism and complete the drying process .
“ The point of these exercises is knowing what your systems are capable of and gaining experience and confidence in them . Knowing that these systems will work frees you to focus your attention on hunting . ” John says . “ But do n’t take anybody else ’s word for it . Try it for yourself . And remember – it does n’t have to be fun to be fun . ”
Every Rewarming Drill John ran had the benefit of trained aesculapian percipient , as well as ardour fire extinguisher and other key guard equipment . So DO NOT slue a gob in the ice and jump in without take the same precautions . If you desire to examine your gear at home , go with the ice bucket challenge . On a chilly daylight , soak your current system in a bucket of deoxyephedrine water , wring it out , and put it on . Then follow the rewarming steps above . You ’ll very quickly identify any weak points in your system , and you ’ll sleep with whether your gear can wield it .
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