Winterlust. Bernd Brunner
in a simple little fur cape and imagined myself to be returning home on a fresh winter morning. I was quite astonished when my traveling companion caught up with me and reported that the alcohol thermometer showed something very new: namely, 47.5 degrees of cold [−53.5°F]. Our quicksilver, disavowing its lively nature, actually froze into malleable metal. I had no idea that the temperature was so low, because there was not a trace of wind.” The traveler made a further observation. In calm conditions, his breath became “a thick fog” and “gave off a natural, protective blanket which held the body heat together” and “reminded [him] of the warming qualities of ladies’ veils.” As plausible and perhaps as romantic as this may sound, from a scientific point of view, the warming quality of fogged breath he observed cannot be confirmed.
Another intriguing phenomenon has been documented, and you can observe it when you speak or exhale in extremely low temperatures. It’s known as ice whispering: your breath freezes and makes a rustling noise that shadows the words you utter like a ghost, and when it’s backlit, you can see how your breath “swirls.” Some claim they can hear a faint ringing of crystals behind the words. In 2012, artist Juergen Staack traveled to Oymyakon, Siberia, one of the coldest populated places on Earth, and braved a mind-boggling minus 70.6 degrees Fahrenheit (−57°C) in order to track down these unusual sounds. The local people call the phenomenon “the whisper of the stars.”
Even a muff and a bearskin rug don’t seem enough to keep out the cold, 1878.
People who are continually or often exposed to cold may eventually develop a higher tolerance, and their temperature threshold for typical cold responses decreases. Scientists have also observed a very slight drop in core body temperature. With polar peoples, there’s even a significant expansion of the blood vessels, which is the opposite of what usually happens when it’s cold. Their heartbeat is also slower on average and their blood pressure lower than that of people in Central Europe. Mail carriers in the Canadian province of Quebec have significantly lower blood pressure and a slower heart rate after walking outside to deliver the mail all winter, and fishers and butchers adapt to having their hands in ice-cold water or meat for a long time and have no problem working with severely chilled hands and fingers.
Although body fat provides some protection against the cold, people who live in cold climates tend to be slim. This holds true for people of the Arctic as well as for the Alacaluf people of Tierra del Fuego, Chile, where the weather is extremely cold and wet and nightly temperatures hover around freezing. Not only are the Alacaluf slim, they traditionally wore little in the way of clothing.
Indigenous peoples of the Arctic have adapted to extreme conditions in other ways as well. Before the intrusion of European cultures, they satisfied their energy requirements, which are approximately one-third higher than those of Europeans, almost exclusively with seal and walrus meat and fat, as well as with elk, caribou, reindeer, and various birds. Whale meat was, and sometimes still is, on the menu as well. Fish are cooked, dried, smoked, and frozen. The Inuit, who rely heavily on meat rather than plant protein, manage to convert meat into glucose: the so-called Inuit Paradox.
Shivering, the body’s natural method of generating a modicum of warmth, can be induced simply by the thought of cold, and, even more astonishingly, it can also be stopped by sheer force of will—an example of mind over matter, at least briefly. What role do psychological factors play in allowing people to endure cold for extended periods of time? There are indications that the prerequisite is attitude, including a willingness to put up with low temperatures.
Biologist Laurence Irving observed students in Alaska who had joined a religious cult that required them to go around barefoot and only lightly dressed in the winter. They were aware of these strict rules, agreed to them from the outset, and could in fact endure the low temperatures. Others exposed to cold concentrate on mathematical problems to distract themselves from their situation. Scientists researching Tibetan Buddhists living in unheated stone huts in the foothills of the Himalayas discovered that just thirty minutes of meditation led to an 8-percent increase in the temperature of the skin on their arms and legs. And in India, a group of soldiers who had completed an intensive, six-month military training program were compared with others who had practiced relaxation techniques and controlled breathing instead. When they all had to spend two hours naked in a room at fifty degrees Fahrenheit (10°C), those who had practiced these yoga techniques maintained higher body temperatures, and significantly more time passed before they started to shiver.
People who bathe or swim in ice-cold water often gradually desensitize themselves first and have a warm-up session immediately before they plunge in. The adrenalin rush experienced by winter swimmers helps their bodies produce warmth. Finns and Russians are particularly known for favoring a swim in icy water, and some even dive under, submerging their heads. And they don’t only go for an icy plunge after a visit to the sauna; sometimes it’s the icy water alone that beckons. Many Finns are convinced that a cold dip is a good way to alleviate stress, though, unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any protection from colds or the flu. The origin of swimming in icy water is unclear; some see it as the modern descendant of baptism with ice water, a practice introduced by the Orthodox Church during the time of the Russian rule over Finland.
Polar researcher Henry R. Bower, who accompanied Robert Falcon Scott on his expedition to the South Pole in 1911, committed to a particular form of hardening himself against the cold. Bower is said to have dumped buckets of ice-cold water and slushy snow on himself before the eyes of admiring observers. Scott—known for his exclamation “Great God! this is an awful place”—praised Bower’s endurance and wrote that he had never seen anyone who was so little bothered by the cold. These measures did not save Bower from an untimely end, however: on the return trip from the South Pole, he froze to death in his tent.
Green mistletoe is a reminder that winter will not last forever, 1883.
Embracing Winter
LONG AGO, DEALING with winter meant escaping from it as much as possible. People either huddled around warm hearths or took to bed to stay warm, or they distanced themselves from winter by moving to places where its influence was not as intensely felt. Mountain farmers descended into valleys; other people became winter nomads, seeking places where they could be warm. During the cold, dark season, well-to-do citizens and pensioners, often with some excuse of lung disease, rheumatism, weak nerves, flu, or simply boredom, escaped to the coast in southern France or to the lakes in northern Italy. The Greek islands also beckoned. Doctors prescribed a winter in the south for rich patients suffering from winter depression.
In the late nineteenth century, in the southern foothills of the Alps just before you reach Milan, Ticino, the southernmost canton in Switzerland, solidified its reputation as a “sun room.” Carefully compiled climate data broadcast in the newspapers helped advertise the region as an alternative to the European winter. Expensive hotels were built. Here, the history of winter intersected with that of a mythic South. Palm trees, mimosas, and eucalyptus—not native to the area, but deliberately planted—created the impression of a landscape located much farther away. Railway connections followed: from 1864, Nice, on the French Riviera, was accessible by train, and Menton, somewhat farther east, on the Italian border, was connected in 1868. Afforded protection by the Maritime Alps, the region enjoys especially mild weather—with thermometers rarely registering temperatures below freezing—and an almost complete absence of snow.
Considering winter as a season to be avoided goes back many centuries. In ancient times, mountainous regions, higher latitudes, and the cold were associated with invading barbarian hordes, and these associations carried over to the cold time of year. It took the introduction