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[22]Worst Case Scenario | [23]Death
The man who refused to freeze to death
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
(Credit: Getty Images)
By William Park
27th February 2020
Lost, wet and alone in a freezing, snow covered landscape, an Icelandic
fisherman’s story of survival against the odds reveals the human body’s
remarkable ability to adapt to the cold.
T

To mark the end of a turbulent year, we are bringing back some of our
favourite stories for BBC Future’s “Best of 2020”
collection. [26]Discover more of our picks here.

Heimaey is the largest of the Westman Islands, an archipelago south of
Iceland mostly inhabited by puffins. On Stórhöfði peninsula, at the
southernmost point of Heimaey is an outcrop that juts into the Atlantic
Ocean. The local weather station here [27]claims to be one of the
windiest places in Europe.

It was here, in the early hours of March 12 1984, that 23-year-old
Guðlaugur Friðþórsson stumbled towards salvation. His bare feet were
bleeding from deep cuts caused by the volcanic rock hidden beneath the
snow, his clothes soaked in seawater and frozen to his body. He should
have already died several times over, but something deep inside
Friðþórsson propelled him forwards.

The night was clear and cold. The air temperature was -2C (28F) but
with strong winds it would have felt much colder. Despite the freezing
temperatures, he paused at a bathtub filled with water left out for
sheep for a brief respite. [28]Punching through the centimetre-thick
ice he began to gulp down water from the trough.

You might also like:
* [29]The tragic tale of Mt Everest’s most famous dead body
* [30]What it’s like to survive a shipwreck
* [31]Can you survive if you run out of air?

It is perhaps strange that a drink of ice cold water was a primary
concern at a time like that. But dehydration is a surprising concern in
cold environments as the air in sub-zero temperatures is essentially
freeze-dried. With no moisture in the air, when he breathed out, he was
losing vital fluid from his lungs. It is why you can see your breath
hanging in the air on a cold night.

But the cold also appears to [32]blunt our sensation of thirst, meaning
many people do not take in enough water. If you are working hard to
stay warm, and breathing heavily as a result, it can quickly lead to
dehydration.
A French soldier melts snow as part of a training exercise (Credit:
Getty Images)

A French soldier melts snow as part of a training exercise (Credit:
Getty Images)

“You tend to see a lot of problems with cold compounded by
dehydration,” says Mike Tipton, professor of physiology at the
University of Portsmouth.

Having found fresh water, however, dehydration was not Friðþórsson’s
biggest problem. His wet clothes were quickly making his condition
worse, putting him at risk of hypothermia, [33]which occurs when the
core body temperature drops below 35C (95F). While exercising, he could
keep his core temperature high. But having stopped to take a drink, his
source of heat – generated by the movement of his muscles – had been
cut off. While he still had calories to burn, he had to keep moving.

At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a 2kW fire – Mike Tipton

“A man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man,” says Tipton. “If you
keep moving and you are reasonably insulated you will produce enough
heat to stay warm. At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a
2kW fire. When you exercise reasonably hard you can do that in shorts
and t-shirt in the cold. Even when you have to shiver you are
essentially engaged in light exercise.”

People at high altitude might find exercising more difficult. Tipton
says that climbers on Everest might only be able to manage one step
every 10 seconds. Heat production at this rate of exercise is minimal,
so staying warm is very difficult.

Records of climbers who have succumbed to the cold at altitude are
plentiful, often because radio communication can be maintained until
they fall unconcious. In one harrowing account of several climbers
stranded on Peak Lenin in a blizzard in 1974, their final moments were
relayed to base camp.

The group, led by [34]Elvira Shatayeva, were attempting to become the
first all-women group to scale the mountain, in modern-day Tajikistan.
As they grew colder, their thoughts became increasingly disoriented and
they spoke of how weak they were becoming: “Another has died,”
Shatayeva is recorded as saying in one of her last messages, “... I do
not have the strength to hold down the transmitter button.”
At maximum exercise, heavy layers of protective clothing are not
required to stay warm (Credit: Getty Images)

At maximum exercise, heavy layers of protective clothing are not
required to stay warm (Credit: Getty Images)

While there is evidence that extreme heat affects people’s cognitive
abilities, it is less clear what, if anything, extreme cold does to the
mind. In one paper, [35]people dunked in 2-3C water for three minutes
(enough time for someone to develop and get over the cold shock
response) saw a decline in their short-term memory but improved in
other areas, like their alertness. Another paper found that [36]people
brought very close to the point of hypothermia (their core body
temperature was lowered to 35.5C) suffered no decline in cognitive
function at all.

[37]It would appear that our brains are much better at coping in the
cold than dealing with being too hot. This is because our bodies’
survival strategies centre around keeping our vital organs running at
the expense of less essential body parts. The most essential of all, of
course, is our brain. By the time that Shatayeva and her fellow
climbers were experiencing cognitive issues, they were probably already
experiencing other organ failures elsewhere in their bodies.

Our bodies are very good at reducing blood flow, through a process
called vasoconstriction, to our hands and feet to preserve our core
body temperature. But in doing so, we sacrifice heat in those
extremities. [38]Human tissue freezes at around -0.5C. As fluid in our
tissues begins to freeze, our cell walls break leading to necrosis, or
cell death. We call this frostbite.

However, being close to the point of death from hypothermia can
apparently do strange things to the mind. In some rare cases, people
suffering from extreme cold appear to feel hot in the moments before
they die. Some bodies of hypothermia victims are found partially
dressed, or even fully undressed, in a phenomenon called “paradoxical
undressing”.

It might be that at the very last moments before death, the mechanism
that holds blood below our fat layer fails, causing it to rush to the
surface of the skin and giving the sensation of being flushed with
warmth. In reality, the victims suddenly lose huge amounts of heat.
Getting undressed only speeds up how quickly they die.

[39]Most of these cases (67% of men and 78% of women) involve people
who have consumed alcohol, [40]which is known to inhibit our
thermoregulatory response.

Like with paradoxical undressing, it would appear that in the very last
moments before death the victims are overcome with confusion

In other unusual cases of death by hypothemia, victims have been found
hidden behind wardrobes or under beds. [41]This phenomenon is called
“hide and die syndrome” or sometimes “terminal burrowing”, although
examples of people who have burrowed are extremely rare.
Even at -32C (-20F), people who are strenuously exercising do not need
gloves. The best gloves will only work for up to 3 hours at rest
(Credit: Javier Hirschfeld/ Getty Images)

Even at -32C (-20F), people who are strenuously exercising do not need
gloves. The best gloves will only work for up to 3 hours at rest
(Credit: Javier Hirschfeld/ Getty Images)

Like with paradoxical undressing, it would appear that in the very last
moments before death the victims are overcome with confusion. [42]About
a quarter of these people also undressed themselves before hiding.

Those few people who have been found frozen to death and paradoxically
undressed frequently fell victim while walking home at night in
improper clothing, sometimes drunk. For anyone in a survival situation,
there are three lines of defence that protect against the cold.

“Clothing or equipment is the first line of defence, shelter is second
and third is fire,” says Jessie Krebs, a former US Air Force Survival,
Evasion, Resistance and Escape (Sere) Training Instructor. “People will
skip right to fire after clothing has been compromised, which is a
mistake. If they are not successful they die trying to start a fire.”

This was the situation that faced 30-year-old adventurer Tyson Steele
at the end of 2019. Thick snow blanketed the remote, forested corner of
the Susitna Valley where Steele’s cabin stood. He slept wrapped up warm
against the freezing temperatures outside while the remains of his fire
glowed in the wood-burning stove.

A tiny ember drifted up the chimney and settled on the tarpaulin, that
formed much of the roof of his hut, where it quietly smoldered. At the
smell of the fire, Steele dashed outside to find flames bursting from
the plastic roofting. Within a few minutes the whole hut was ablaze.

This was the start of what would become a three-week ordeal for Steele,
[43]stranded 20 miles from the nearest town in sub-zero conditions in
the Alaskan wilderness. Over the following 20 days or so, he faced a
battle to stay warm and alive in the hope of rescue.

Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which
under the circumstances was not a bad one. After clothing, shelter is
next in the hierarchy of defence against the cold. He salvaged some
canned food and blankets, built a shelter out of debris from his hut,
and lit a fire.
Tyson Steele waves to the circling State Trooper helicopter surrounded
by the debris of his hut (Credit: Alaska State Troopers)

Tyson Steele waves to the circling State Trooper helicopter surrounded
by the debris of his hut (Credit: Alaska State Troopers)

At this point, Steele’s outlook was pretty positive; his three lines of
defence were in order. He stomped out an SOS message next to his hut
and waited for help.

“If you know help is coming, you are better off digging a snow hole and
staying put,” says Tipton. “People in Canada say all you are doing is
staying put until you die because no one will find you. But if you are
fit and have food, if you sent a mayday and you know they will be
coming you are better off building a snow hole and not heading into a
blizzard.”

While staying at the cabin he had kept in touch regularly with his
family, [44]and posted on social media. But when those messages went
quiet, his family grew concerned. Fortunately for Steele, his silence
was noticed and ultimately saved him, not his SOS.

“The SOS signal is what most people know, but the downside is it is
very curvy,” says Krebs. “Most of nature is curvy – it is rounded hills
and lakes and streams, so curvy blends in.”

In the military Krebs was taught to use the letter “V” to request
general help or an “X” specifically for medical assistance. The long
straight lines stand out on a hillside. It also takes less time to
create two straight lines 30 feet long compared to two loopy Ss and one
O, each 10 feet high.

Provided you are certain that the pilot has seen you, lying down quickly
communicates that you are hurt or sick and therefore need assistance urgently
– Jessie Krebs

The footage of his rescue, recorded from a helicopter circling above
him, shows Steele waving with two arms aloft to his saviours while
standing in front of his SOS. While two arms in the air is widely
recognised to be a request to be picked up (only one arm could be
misinterpreted as a greeting), Krebs says the most effective way to
communicate distress is to lie down on the ground. Provided you are
certain that the pilot has seen you, lying down quickly communicates
that you are hurt or sick and therefore need assistance urgently.

Other forms of ground to air communication include using signal
mirrors. A mirror from a car sun visor can be repurposed for this.
[45]Holding the mirror over one eye and aiming by fixing the target
between your fingers held out in front of you in a “V”, a signal mirror
can draw attention up to 50 miles (80km) away in clear skies. Other
alternatives are smoke signals – the water in branches and leaves from
fresh vegetation creates white smoke when burned, which is useful in
dark forests. Burning rubber or car tyres can produce black smoke that
will stand out against snow. But Krebs warns this is only really useful
if there is an aircraft in the area.

Steele later admitted he had no formal survival training, but had
picked up some knowledge from YouTube videos. A few matches, a candle
and some birch bark helped him to start a fire, which he could use to
keep dry.

Being able to maintain and repair clothing is essential to increasing
your chances of survival says Krebs. In a worst case scenario, wet
clothes can be wrung out and pushed through powdery snow to absorb some
water. But in Friðþórsson’s case, he was already way beyond this point.
A soldier takes part in Sere training in Colville National Forest,
Washington, on a freezing January morning (Credit: Getty Images)

A soldier takes part in Sere training in Colville National Forest,
Washington, on a freezing January morning (Credit: Getty Images)

Friðþórsson had fallen into the sea just east of Stórhöfði peninsula
when his the small fishing vessel, Hellisey VE 503, ran into trouble.
At 10pm, her trawl net caught on the ocean floor capsizing the boat so
quickly the crew had no time to send a distress signal.

Her five fishermen were thrown overboard. Three of them managed to
scramble onto the keel of the upturned fishing boat, two never
resurfaced.

An average person will survive in water colder than 6C for about 75 minutes,
to swim three miles in these seas would take hours

The survivors found themselves separated from shore by three miles
(5km) of 5-6C (41-43F) sea. [46]An average person will survive in water
colder than 6C for about 75 minutes. Accounts of people surviving for
longer are anecdotal and few. In laboratories, [47]test subjects begin
to suffer adverse effects within 20 or 30 minutes before they are
pulled out. To swim three miles in these seas would take hours.

Seawater cannot get really, really cold like air. Seawater freezes at
about -1.9C (28.6F), but around Iceland in March the sea is just above
freezing. It is theoretically possible to get frostbite in cold water,
then, but very unlikely.

On the keel of the upturbed boat, however, the sub-feezing air
temperature was taking its toll. The fishermen’s wet shirts, sweaters
and jeans were quickly exacerbating their coldness. Staying put was not
an option.

“When you come out of the water you get evaporative cooling,” says
Tipton. “This is a really potent way of losing heat from the body.”
Ordinarily you would want to strip off and put dry clothing on, but in
the absence of that, climbing into a large plastic bag will reduce
evaporative cooling and convective cooling.

“If you get someone wet at 4C and they have got a litre of water in
their clothing; if all of that water evaporates they are going to have
a fall in body temperature of 10C,” says Tipton. “If you put them
through the same scenario and then put them in a plastic bag they can
use their body to heat up that water. It is contained in the bag so it
cannot evaporate away. Those people lost half a degree, so they were 20
times better off."
The fishermen were separated from land by three miles of frigid sea
(Credit: Getty Images)

The fishermen were separated from land by three miles of frigid sea
(Credit: Getty Images)

Tipton says one of the big successes his team at the University of
Portsmouth have had was to encourage the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
to ditch their expensive foil space blankets in favour of cheap, tough,
plastic survival bags. Space blankets, the kind that are wrapped around
marathon runners at the end of races, are good at protecting against
radiative heat loss, but less good when it comes to evaporative heat
loss, because they do not trap fluid. In a survival situation, a
plastic bag would be far more useful.

Without a plastic survival bag, and now in the cold air with the
seawater evaporating off him, Friðþórsson’s risk of [48]freezing cold
injuries was very high.

In all, it took Friðþórsson six hours to swim to land, the two others
succumbed after 10 minutes

After a short while deliberating, the three men decide to risk the
swim. Within 10 minutes, the two others had succumbed to the cold. In
all, it took Friðþórsson six hours to swim to land. How was he able to
survive for so much longer than his compatriots?

For the fishermen, the first few minutes after hitting the water were
critical. [49]Cold water takes heat away from the body quicker than air
at the same temperature. [50]Those that succumbed quickly were probably
unable to control the cold shock response. Gasping and panicking, they
inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his
breathing.

He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim. He even
chose to get back in the sea to swim further along the shoreline after
the cliffs at his first landing spot proved too difficult to climb. The
presence of mind to do this probably saved his life.

Finally, Friðþórsson reached a village, and around 7am on Monday
morning he knocked on someone’s door. He was later discharged from
hospital having been treated for his cuts and dehydration. [51]There
was no sign that he had suffered from hypothermia at all.

Friðþórsson, now 58, is a large man. He stands 6’3” (193cm) and weighed
19.6 stone (125kg) in his twenties. A generous layer of fat about two
and a half centimetres thick wraps his abdomen. His body fat kept him
insulated, but it was also a vital source of energy.

Even so, his ability to stay warm was exceptional. Researchers who
conducted tests on Friðþórsson after his ordeal concluded that he must
have been able to maintain near normal body temperature for the
entirety of his swim.

Unlike other extreme survivors, Friðþórsson has not made his story into
a money-spinner. A 2012 independent Icelandic film is the sum total of
the mainstream coverage. The clothes that he wore, now on display in
the Eldheimar Museum on Heimaey in a small exhibit to the island’s
fishing history, are a modest recognition for his remarkable story.

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