Did You Know? That mouthful of snow you’re tempted to eat when you’re thirsty and freezing is a trap disguised as water — snow is mostly air, so roughly 10 cups of it melt down to just 1 cup of actual water, and the heat your body spends melting the rest has to come from somewhere. That “somewhere” is your own core temperature, the very heat keeping you warm in the first place. Which means the thirst-quencher is quietly nudging you toward hypothermia. The fix is almost annoyingly simple: melt it first — the next time in your a place where you need water, melt snow over a fire, or in a sealed bottle tucked inside your jacket, using your body heat, then drink the water, and leave the snow alone!
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