THE WINTER OF 2014

THE WINTER OF 2014 

Written by: Jeffrey R Hilton

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BACK IN CANADA

 IT WAS THE WINTER OF 2014

 IT ROLLED IN LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN WITH NO BRAKES

IT WENT ON AND ON BUT NOT THROUGH

NO IT JUST KEPT COMING

EFFECTIVELY CANCELLING SPRING

EVEN THE BIRDS SAID WHO US...SING

PEOPLE HUNG THEIR HEADS AND SHUFFLED THEIR FEET

CURSING AND MUTTERING IN SNOWY STREETS

OLD MAN WINTER ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

SURELY YOU'RE DONE FILLING YOUR BOOTS

WE'RE PULLING OUT HAIR BY THE ROOTS

WAITING FOR WARMTH AND SUNS BRIGHT GLOW

IT WAS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING WEEKS AGO

***

 DO HAVE A GOOD DAY

AND SPRING PROPER ASAP

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Written edited and published by

Jeffrey R Hilton

Worst Canadian Winters

Canada is a vast land of extremes. Winters here are something that we as Canadians have adapted to and have been conditioned to survive the harshest of what winter can throw at us. Human beings are essentially tropical animals that are not equipped for even mild cold winters. It's only because of our behavioral adaptions,  appropriate winter clothing and shelter that we manage to survive and even thrive through our tough winters.

THIS IS NEVER A GOOD SIGN

The most frigid major city in Canada in winter wins  mitts down,  the honor going to the city of Winnipeg,  Manitoba,   where the average daily temperature in winter is  -15.3 c.  that is of course without the wind chill factored in and -40 for weeks on end is as common in Manitoba.  The myth surrounding whether Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg is the coldest corner in Canada, and immortalized in song by The Guess Who as 50 below,  has been ruled out as just that,  a myth. While it is bloody bone chilling cold in winter alright, it is downtown and with the protection of lots of buildings for wind breaks, it can't help to be a little warmer than it will be out at the airport per say where it's always colder.  The prairies are colder anyway from lack of windbreaks,  natural and otherwise,  so when the winter winds blow up a blizzard, it's usually of significant proportions and comes with a huge downward spike in temperature.

In 1947,  Northern and Western Canada experienced one of the worst winters ever as cold arctic air moved into Canada from eastern Siberia  stalled over the Yukon for over a week setting a record low of -63 c. in Snag Yukon as 38cm of snow laid on the ground.  It went onto set other record lows as recorded in Fort Nelson B.C,  Jan.30/1947,  -51.7 and -50 in Fort McMurray Alberta, Feb.1/1947.  -58.9,  Smith River B.C,  1947.  A temperature was recorded in Calgary Alberta as,  -45 in 1893.  Calgary is lucky as it is situated in what is called a prairie steppe climate. The city is in a valley and subject to warm Chinook winds that can blow down from the mountains and raise the temperature up to 30 degrees in an hour and leaving Calgarians basking in the warm reprieve from winter for a day or up to a week or more.

NO SCHOOL TODAY !

  


To demonstrate the effect of prairie blizzards,  in Saskatchewan a train was halted in a blizzard that raged from, Jan.31 to Feb.9, 1947.  The train was then buried completely by a snowdrift 1 km long and 36.7 ft deep.  It was called the worst recorded winter conditions in the railroads recorded history.  All roads into Regina were also blocked in with snow as was all of Saskatchewan,  and the rest of the prairies didn't fare much better either. Many people were trapped in their homes for over a week.


With temperatures at -60, when you exhale, it makes a hissing sound as the moisture in your breath freezes in the air and vapor trails are created that drift upward up to 500m.
The lowest temperature ever recorded on the planet was -89.2,  July,21/1983,  in Vostok Antarctica.  Apparently, even the sled dogs wouldn't start and went on strike.  Canada is considered the coldest country in the world next to Mongolia and Russia.  The dangers of winter are mainly Hypothermia, driving,  loss of power and heat as strong winds and or ice rain knock out power lines.  Ice rain is restricted mostly to eastern and central Canada. 

TREES IN SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO COVERED IN ICE AFTER AN ICE RAIN

THE LAST THING A CANADIAN WANTS TO SEE OUT THE WINDOW IN THE MORNING BEFORE WORK

OOPS, AT LEAST HE'S NOT BLOCKING THE ROAD

I KNOW OUR HOUSE IS AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE

Scholastic.ca

FROSTBITE AND FROST NIP EXPLAINED

Women are less prone to getting frostbite than as are men because they have a higher gradient temperature from skin surface to body core. However that makes women more susceptible to surface damage of the skin,  rather than the deeper damage occurred by men exposed to freezing temperatures.  When temperatures drop well below freezing,  exposed skin can freeze in less that 3 minutes.  When windchill is factored in, it can mean a matter of seconds instead if the winds are strong enough and the temperature low enough.  Elder's are at risk of heart attack from shoveling snow in winter and many Canadians get back injuries from shoveling snow.


Before you get frostbite, you get frost-nip.  Your extremities begin to get sluggish as blood leaves the skin surface to try and warm the core.  This is why your fingertips and your ears get cold first and lose sensation,  making it hard to even do up a button or feel your ears.  Even nerve cells transmit more slowly as blood flow is diverted away from the extremities. Frost-nip is when the surface layers of your skin freeze.  Frost bitten skin has fallen below freezing and ice crystals form in living cells,  killing them. Surface blood vessels dilate,  muscular contractions begin and shivering actually produces 5 times more heat production for the body to try and warm up with.  Skin turns pasty white and loses all sensation. 


Deep frostbite turns the skin blue,  black and purple and means extensive tissue damage and even muscle and bone damage  causing the need for amputation.  If frostbitten skin is rewarmed to quickly,  it can cause serious damage to the skin causing it to swell and blister.  When frostbitten skin hardens to a black carapace,  if it's not too severe dead layers of skin slough off and it's a painful experience.  To survive extreme cold,  you have to raise your body temperature by generating enough energy.  The only way to do this is to first have the right kinds of food in your body that provide good fuel and secondly preventing heat loss by what ever manner we can manage. If fire and shelter isn't an option, choices are limited.  


When we get cold we  have to pee more often and this is just your body's defense against the cold as it tries to eliminate as much water out of your urine as it can.  Both children and animals are at high risk from frostbite and must be protected from extreme cold weather.  Do not leave dogs outside for too long or for extended walks without foot protection.  All to often,  a common sight in winter in Alberta is young children of immigrant families going from their house and jumping into cars barefoot and even babies  carried or in a stroller outside in bare feet.  That is extremely irresponsible on the parents part and this practice should be stopped.  

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*WARNING THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC IN NATURE * 

        

Canadians have a love hate relationship with winter and you either like it or you don't.  We ski,  skate,  toboggan,  snowmobile,  race motorcycles on ice,  play hockey,  ice climb,  ice fish,  and even take annual polar dips. Ya,  we're a little crazy.  We're Canadians, Eh?     A large and growing number of Canadians opt for warmer climates in winter and the sooner I am among their numbers,  the happier I will be,  as winter is my least favorite season in Canada.

Thank You for your continued support of this blog.

Do Have A Good Day And A Warm Night

Jeffrey R Hilton

   

Can You Say Alberta Search And Rescue ?

Can You Say Alberta Search And Rescue ?

Written by : Jeffrey R Hilton

***

Ah winter ! Yes.Some people swear by it. I swear at it.

It's gained a huge popularity and a lot of fans I'm just not one of them much anymore.

Years ago I got my first pair of cross country skis and toured through the city parks with them enough to somewhat know what I was doing,  and get some great exercise at the same time.   At that time I had never been down hill skiing yet.  A good friend called and asked if I wanted to go try my skis in Kananaskis Country in the mountains.   Sure I would.  We left early on a Sunday morning and headed into the mountains, leaving our wives together back in the city.  We would join them later in the day for supper. At least that was the plan at the time.  At the trail head, we parked and after reading the trail sign and map. We decided on a long narrow loop trail and set upon it.


Not long after we came to some pretty scary hills, as in the kind where if you don't turn and follow the hill,  you go off a cliff instead,   and especially as I had never really been down any hills with my skis, let alone down the side of a mountain, this might be a bit risky.  I went cautiously as I could clearly see,  if I didn't make a few of the turns, I would simply drop off the side of the mountain. Ya no thanks !  I walked down 2 of the worst ones.


We got through the worst of it, and stopped for some lunch Before leaving we realized that there was a fresh Deer kill a few feet away from where we ate,  and were off again. Finding ourselves at another sign map that showed, we could join another loop trail and do a double loop, so to speak. This would make our time in the back country a bit longer than we had planned. A full day of skiing. Nice enough day. lets do it.  After a few more hours on the trail, things started to go wrong. I had fallen lots and as a result, I was getting wet, damp and cold.
My outdoor clothing was inadequate and not standing up to the back country cold or wetness very well.


The brightly lit day suddenly turned grey. We noted that it was getting late in the afternoon and still had a ways to go to get back.  That's when we decided to spring into action and put some juice on to get gone.  It seemed like only a matter of another 45 minutes on the trail and it was like someone switched a light off and left us in the pitch dark.
the sun was gone ! It would go down to minus 15 that moonless night.


I didn't feel good about this at all. thankfully my friend had a little more adept survival skill than I and we trudged on for a bit with his encouragement and could barely see each other at times 4 feet distant from each other. We took our skis off and began to walk.  My friend noticed that I was shivering a lot as we stopped again to assess the situation.  My thinking was already clouded and I was stumbling a lot. it was then that he decided that I would stay put on the trail and he would jog ahead and try to see where the trail went.


First we would build a small fire on the trail so I could reverse the hypothermia process a little if not slow it down.Once a small fire was going, my partner was off. After about ten minutes, the fire began to die down and I had to keep walking farther and farther to get bits of wood to try and keep it going.Just when I had a good start, my partner returned and said he would need to take a torch from the fire as he couldn't see at all and thought that maybe it wasn't that much further. So off he went again and I stayed and fought to rebuild the fire. It seemed like an hour had passed before he finally returned and by that time I was shivering uncontrollably.


Good day now a bad night and getting worse as my partner informed me that he could't see the way out so we would have to stay the night.  I had a bit of a fire going now and again another torch and off he went to find a suitable place to hunker down for the night. At least we had lighters and matches.  By the time he got back, I was turning into a basket case and in the grips hypothermia.  My partner had managed to keep himself a little dryer than I had.  He led me off again stumbling down the trail and pretty soon I was puzzled to see this huge glow in the sky. As I rounded a bend in the trail, I saw a very welcome sight.  There was a huge telephone pole sized log ablaze along with a few smaller ones close to a recess in the bottom of a cliff that was somewhat dry and sheltered.This fire was an inferno already.  My mate Scott,  had done a cracking job on this one.


We settled in and I  immediately stripped naked and hung all my wet clothes up on the log near the fire and began trying to thaw out, rotating around the fire like a possessed Popsicle stick.  I was a bit shocked at the size of the fire my friend built, but it worked a charm as it wasn't long before my clothes were dry enough to put back on.As a matter off fact, they were almost burned and my socks were singed but the clothes felt good to put on warm like that.  We resigned ourselves to stay the night and the next morning we would find our way out easily in daylight.  All we had to do was get through the night and I was more confident that would happen now.  Until then, the only experience I had of winter camping was when I was in Army Cadets and then at least we had tents and arctic sleeping bags.


Unbeknownst to us, our wives had alerted the RCMP when we hadn't returned by ten pm and Alberta Search and Rescue was called into action.  We chatted for awhile and both fell sound asleep as we hunkered down close to the fire as we dared get.  At 3 am I almost had a heart attack when I felt someone shaking me and I could see still sleeping beside me as I looked up into the face of a rescuer on skis with a dog by his side.  He said;  "Do you want to walk out now or wait until morning ? " "Um ya we'll go now as id staying until first light would make matters any better.  He informed us that another group of searchers were looking for us elsewhere on snowmobiles and radioed them that we had been found.  Yes of course,  why couldn't they have found us so we could of got a ride out ? Punishment for stupidity maybe ?


I arrived home at stupid o'clock in the morning in a zombie state and slept for only one and a half hours before getting up and and going to work for 7 am.  How and why I did that I will never know.  My face looked like a had a bad sunburn from being so close to the bonfire that probably saved my life along with my good friend that kept a cool head and secured us a great chance at surviving the night.  My thermal socks had holes burned in them as did all of my other clothes.  I kind of lost my taste for x-country skiing after that  and my skis went in the garbage.  It goes without saying that I am grateful to Alberta Search and Rescue for their efforts.  We probably would have been fine until the morning, but who's to say ?


Going anywhere near the back country now, winter or summer, means bringing along a survival kit tailored to the season.  Don't leave home without it !  I always had carried one and this was the one time I didn't bring it along.  I'm just grateful I am here to tell you about it, really.
Thank You Alberta Search And Rescue !

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Winter Driving

Winter Driving

Written by : Jeffrey R Hilton

Hey ! It's winter again, and that means driving on slippery and icy roads.  Just as in the summer there are dangerous and ignorant people behind the wheel that make winter driving equally or more dangerous.

SIGNALS

Many are guilty but what I often see is the more expensive the car the more highly the likelihood of the driver not to use signal indicators or use them only when they deem necessary, like maybe if a police car was behind them. I'm not sure if they think they are too good too signal or that only people with cheaper cars need to do that. What is that mentality ?

If everyone remembered to signal every time they turned or changed lanes there would be less accidents. it's that simple folks.

USE YOUR SIGNALS !

Don't make other drivers guess where you are going to go next.

If you put your signal on at the last second before making a turn, vehicles behind you are in danger of hitting you from behind.

Have a member of your family help you check that your signals work and fix them if they don't.

PAVEMENT PRINCESS

So you drive a pavement princess ? An SUV, Jeep, 4X4, All wheel drive, that never leaves the road ?  Yes with the correct tires and tire pressure, you will get a good grip on the road, but on ice, you are just as in danger of not stopping in time as any other vehicle if you are trying to drive at summer speeds and hope to stop.

SNOW COVERED WINDOWS

Oh and hey ! Don't be a lazy ass that endangers everyone around your bad driving habits.  Clean the bloody snow and ice off your vehicle before you set out.  You can also get a ticket for not having a clear unobstructed view.  Leave earlier to warm your vehicle up and have a clear window.  Always have extra window washing fluid on hand and keep it topped up. Don't wait until it's empty.

There is nothing more disturbing than having someone coming at you halfway into your lane because the ass piloting the car can't see where they are going. You are also endangering pedestrians by not being able to see the blind spots in your car as well as other drivers.

Oh sure ! slow down in the winter.But don't drive 10 miles an hour in the fast lane. move over so faster vehicles can pass safely.

HILLS

Hills ! Yes. If you are going to go uphill when the road is bad, don't keep putting your brakes on at the bottom so the car behind you has to as well, or you're both going to spin out without cresting the hill.  Get a move on and get up that hill.

GREEN LIGHTS!

Doesn't mean put the gas to the floor and spin until your gone.Ease into the takeoff gently without spinning your wheels. If more people practiced this then most intersections wouldn't be a constant skating rink of ice all winter.

GASSING UP ?

Shut your vehicle off.  Nobody wants to breathe your exhaust while they are trying to fill up their car.  Your car started to get there, it will start after you fill it up.  If you plan on travelling make sure you have all the necessities of  a winter emergency kit.  Hopefully you won't need it. But if you do.it could save lives and make you a lot more comfortable in an emergency situation.  This winter, be a role model for safe winter driving !

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DO HAVE A GOOD DAY AND ARRIVE SAFELY

JEFFREY R HILTON