We use our hands a lot during outdoor recreational activities. In cold weather or even cooler days in the warm weather we may need help keeping our hands warm. As ''extremities'' our hands are one of the first places to get cold. They have quite a bit of surface area that allows heat to escape and the flow of blood to warm them is somewhat limited by location and the size of blood vessels supplying blood to the fingers. Your toes are even more susceptible to the cold. Furthermore, when your body starts getting cold it limits blood flow to the extremities in order to maintain heat to your organs that is critical to survival. Using (exercising) your fingers and toes can help keep to keep them warmer because it increases blood flow.
Keeping your hand warm is a lot more than just for comfort. We need our hands to perform a myriad of tasks in camp and on our vehicles and vessels. Cold hands get stiff and loose strength, significantly reducing dexterity and our ability to perform necessary tasks. You don't want to let your fingers get so cold they get stiff and you can't safely manipulate controls and tools. Letting them get TOO cold risks frostbite and permanent damage.
Gloves and mittens are the primary ways to keep our hands warm when needed. Gloves provide more dexterity; mittens do a better job of keeping your fingers warm. Any kind of sturdy gloves you use for manual tasks will help to keep your hands warmer, but as the temperature drops you are going to want to get insulated gloves or add glove liners. For OHV riding you can by ''Windchill'' gloves that are designed to keep your hands warmer or you can add glove liners to your regular OHV gloves. We have found simple, inexpensive knitted gloves work pretty well as glove liners. Mittens help keep your fingers warmer because they allow your fingers to share heat and reduce the exposed surface area for heat loss but you sacrifice some dexterity and control. Light weight "kiddie"gloves usually fit better under regular OHV cloves than heavier jersey gloves.
Many outdoor activities require good dexterity. You need it for operating almost any kind of equipment in camp, on the trail, on the road, or on a boat. For that you need warm gloves that allow you to get a good grip on whatever you need to do. Ski gloves work pretty well in many cases but sometimes they are a little too bulky and even though they work well in snow are not always waterproof enough to protect your hands from rain or from splashing on your boat. You might need to look for waterproof gloves for those situations. For OHVs go for Windchill gloves or put some liners in your OHV gloves. I've seen guys try to use latex gloves inside for another layer and bit of moisture protection but it seems to me usually all it does is capture the sweat inside!
When gloves are not enough you might want to try hand warmers. A common type of hand warmer is a chemical hand warmer. These come in foil packets which, when opened, allow air to activate a chemical reaction inside the packet to create heat. You normally crumple the packets in your hand to facilitate activation and can usually boost the warmth after they begin to cool down by taking them and and crumpling and shaking them again. You place them inside your gloves. You can put them on your palms if they won't be in the way of whatever you need to do with your hands (like grip an OHV handlebar) or on the back of your hand. Either way they provide extra heat inside your gloves to help keep your hands warm. Chemical hand warmers usually are designed to last about 8 hours. Sometimes you can reactivate them if they begin to cool down during use by taking them and and shaking them in the open air. There are also reusable hand warmers that typically run on the same fuels (lighter fluid or butane) as cigarette lighters. Reusability is a nice feature and you can use them for almost an unlimited time as long as you can keep supplying sufficient fuel. However, they tend to be stiff and bulky so they sometimes interfere with necessary dexterity more than chemical hand warmers.
I have seen and even tried battery-powered electrically heated gloves. While I really like the idea I haven't found the ones I've tried to be terribly successful. Might just have been the ones I tried, but they didn't do a very good job of warming my hands in the first place and the batteries seemed to run down pretty quickly as well as adding uncomfortable weight to my hands and arms. I found just wearing warmer gloves worked better for me -- and were less expensive!
Lacking hand warmers, just rubbing your hands together or using them actively can help stimulate blood flow and help warm them up. Rubbing them together can generate friction that creates a little heat and stimulates the muscles to increase blood flow. Another trick is to tuck your hands someplace next to your body where they can get extra warmth such as under your arms or between your legs. Putting them in the pockets of your coat or pants can also help. Doing so usually provides some additional insulation and protection against heat loss and often allows heat from other, larger parts of your body to help warm them. Also, as you get cold, your body restricts blood flow to extremities to preserve core temperature, so putting you hands nearer your core will allow them to absorb extra heat from body parts that still get more blood to keep them warm. Skin-to-skin will warm your fingers faster than through gloves and/or clothing but even tucking your gloved hands into your armpits of your jacket for a while will help take the chill off.
Most of the glove options for OHVs and camping would work pretty well for boating too, although the added probability of getting them wet may dictate the use of water resistant or waterproof gloves. I found that knit gardening gloves with rubber or latex grip worked well on my sailboat. They weren't waterproof, but they protected my hands and would dry out without being damaged or losing functionality when I did get them wet.
A common injury from cold hands is frostbite. Obviously you want to avoid this if at all possible. Frostbite is when your skin begins to freeze. The water inside your cells will expand as it freezes, damaging cell walls. In the earliest stage of
frostbite, known as frostnip, there is no permanent damage to skin.
Symptoms include cold skin and a prickling feeling, followed by numbness
and inflamed or discolored skin. If you begin experiencing frostnip or seeing in your companions, take immediate action to warm the affected areas before permanent damage occurs. Contrary to a popular folk treatment, you should NOT put affected areas in snow or rub them with snow. The best treatment is protect the affected areas from further damage, warm them up, and, if necessary, use pain medication for added comfort. Avoid hot, dry sources of heat. Warm water is a good way to thaw frozen fingers. Holding them under a hot air dryer may cause more damage. It is not uncommon for over-eager attempts to warm frozen body parts to result in burns since the frozen parts don't have any feeling to warm you when they are getting too warm.
Campfires and wood stoves are good places to warm your hands if you are careful. Just don't get your hands close enough or leave them long enough to get burned! They are also good places to warm your gloves or mittens before you put them on for a little additional comfort. Once again, exercise caution to make sure you don't burn them or get them TOO hot before putting them on!
One way to warm your bare hands is to blow on them. Blowing with an open mouth will provide warm air to you hands. Blowing with pursed lips will simply act as a breeze to cool them, like it does cooling your soup or hot drink. I heard a story of medieval knight who was accused of being a witch or wizard because he could blow both hot (to warm his hands) and cold (to cool his soup). BTW, to blow cold, purse your lips and blow a small fast stream of air; to blow warm, open your mouth and breath out large slower puffs of air.
Keep 'em warm!
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