crossing cold waters: with or without clothes?

[hunter63]

One particular "creek bath"....was 70's during bow season, and a couple of days on "camping" made a bend in the river look mighty inviting.
Slow water on the shallow outside of the bend was warm enough to strip down for a pleasant Ivory(floats) and water scrub down...
What ever possessed me to jump into the shady deep pool on the inside of the bend.......resulted in the foresaid gonad sucking, stopped heart, and the quick acquisition of the famed "toe walk" to the top of the sunlit bank.....in a nano-second...."OMG" was invented that day followed by the now famous WTF.....and is always a very religious experience, at least judging but the number of deities mentioned in the after event tirade.

Also a word to the wise....practicing the canoe roll in warm weather, in preparation of a cold weather canoe swamp and dump....(when the guns and ammo go down....and many of us have experience this tragedy more that once.

[DSJohnson]

Dang, I can not give you any "rep" for that Kyrats. I am pretty sure that is exactly what would happen to me!

[WalkingTree]

Once when in Kentucky I had to take a bath in a river...it was late winter/early spring and I found the river to still be quite cold. Quite cold. And the air was cold also. Well, I didn't get in the river but just splashed around a bit with it's water while on the bank. And oh boy, it was right past the edge of what I could take. That "splash bath" was kind of a struggle. And I already know anyway (before this time) that I just couldn't handle...and possibly not survive...a complete dunk in water that is truly cold. You can forget it. Ain't gonna do it.

[NightSG]

Once when in Kentucky I had to take a bath in a river...it was late winter/early spring and I found the river to still be quite cold. Quite cold. And the air was cold also. Well, I didn't get in the river but just splashed around a bit with it's water while on the bank. And oh boy, it was right past the edge of what I could take. That "splash bath" was kind of a struggle. And I already know anyway (before this time) that I just couldn't handle...and possibly not survive...a complete dunk in water that is truly cold. You can forget it. Ain't gonna do it.

If you have water and fire, there's really no excuse for taking a cold bath. I can get passably clean with a liter of water heated directly in the soda bottle in a pinch. Done it a couple times when I decided to go straight to church from camp on a Sunday morning. My preference, of course, is to boil about a liter, then dump it into a 3 gallon bucket and add cold until it's right, then "shower" with a cup, but those times I was packing and washing at the same time, or had already packed when I realized I didn't have time to go home and shower. (Used to always keep a sport coat, slacks and dress shirt in the car so I wouldn't have to go anywhere severely underdressed.)

[crashdive123]

Speaking of cold water bathing.........(sorry - this is kind of long)

In the mid 70's while on a cross country motorcycle trip (camping the whole time) I stopped at a State Campground in Colorado. It had always been on my list to camp along the Colorado River and take a bath in it (who knows why).

The campground was pretty wide open and I was the only camper there. Payment was on the honor system. I paid my $4 and another $4 for a couple of bundles of firewood. I pitched my little pup tent near the river, cooked up some supper and settled in with a few adult beverages.

I woke early (about 4 AM) and thought "Gee, why are the sides of my pup tent all pushed in?"

As I opened the flaps to the tent all I saw was a wall of snow. Much to my dismay, it had snowed a few feet overnight.

I got dressed, cleared a path to my firewood and prepared a fire. I poured a little Coleman fuel on it, but did not light it yet. Since I'm the only one in the campground, and the desire to bathe in the Colorado River was still strong, I striped down, grabbed a bar of soap and headed to the river.

The naked walk through the snow was chilly, but nothing like the sudden and complete immersion into the water. This was the quickest bath I had ever taken.

I got out and headed to my fire setup. Lit the fire and was quickly warming up and drying off in front of the fire thinking that I'm sure glad I'm the only one in the campground. As I started to warm up the thoughts of how I was going to get the motorcycle on the road entered my mind. A noise behind me (not all that far behind me) caused those thoughts to fly away. I turned (in all of my naked glory) to see what the noise was.

Much to my surprise, I was no longer the only camper in the campground. The woman that had just opened the door to her travel trailer exclaimed "Oh my!"

While I got to check camping and bathing in the Colorado River off my list, she is probably still having nightmares some 40 years later.

[Tony uk]

For river crossings i take the majority of my kit off, into the waterproof sack on my pack, rubber glove tops over the boots & socks, then walk through using the pack as a semi-float. Make sure to keep the knees facing into the water so they brace out.

Tonyuk

[Antonyraison]

Depends, If I fell into the cold waters, I wouldn't have much choice.
If it where a planned crossing, i would take off clothing put in a dry bag or packet.
Make the crossing and get dry and warm as soon as I can afterwards.
I have only done the "hypothermia" training on a course (doing my advanced survival) in the middle of winter here in SA in a dam for about 20 minutes..
and it wasn't very cold so too speak, maybe about 10deg celisus..
But all I can say is that it is not easy to start a fire when your could and wet, and possibly mildly hypothermic, your gross motor skills take a hammering, and it is not as easy as you would think to get a fire going under those circumstances..