I have been told by a usually reliable source that adaptation to cold actaully changes the type of fats in the body. Basically, vegetable oil resists solidification, but lard doesn't, and cold-adapted animals (and people) have fats which resemble vegetable oil rather than lard. Since the hands are pretty much bone, fat and tendon, very cold hands could turn into big lumps of frozen butter, especially if the circulation system shuts down blood flow into them as part of the hypothermia reaction. This would explain my experience with my inadvertent swim in the lake in April, where my hands were functional in seconds, versus my non-cold adapted buddy's hands taking 30 minutes to thaw out. Add in adaptation of the circulation system too, to get the complete picture. Rob. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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