39 buried in Utah Avalanche!

[cracked]

scouts!

[sean_beanntan]

Hmm maybe they were still asleep because there was little O2 left inside the cave, thoses type of leaders need to figure out how little they know

[cracked]

A 6 by 6 by 6 foot room has enough oxygen to keep a man alive for a week (if I remember correctly. Catbird?). I doubt that O2 was a problem.

[10b4me]

one thing you learn in avy school is to be aware of what is above you

[Thinker]

one thing you learn in avy school is to be aware of what is above you

 

yeah, flocks of pigeons and migrating geese really suck.

 

but seriously, being aware of what's above you and understanding the consequences of what you see are very different skills.

[Ursa_Eagle]

I learned a lot in scouts. Mainly I learned that although it says Glacier National Park, it's not below freezing during the day in the summer. But hey, I saved weight by only carrying jeans because it's going to be cold, right? Who wears shorts in the snow? (I grew up in MA, what do you expect?)

[Bronco]

A 6 by 6 by 6 foot room has enough oxygen to keep a man alive for a week (if I remember correctly. Catbird?). I doubt that O2 was a problem.

 

I think he's talking about CO2 build up, not O2.

[cracked]

A 6 by 6 by 6 foot room has enough oxygen to keep a man alive for a week (if I remember correctly. Catbird?). I doubt that O2 was a problem.

 

I think he's talking about CO2 build up, not O2.

Either way, you have to be sealed in a cave for a long time before you die of asphyxiation.

[iain]

why are you stopping the debate? This has the makings for classic cc.com uninformed debate material. A multi-page manifesto about how long you would survive in a theoretical 6ft^3 cube

[Bronco]

Here's some good reading on an account in Australia where 4 men suffocated in a snow cave dug into a cornice. It's not that hard to do aparently.

 

http://www.vnrs.org/Trivia_etc/Deadly_White_Blanket/deadly_white_blanket.html

 

Oh yeah, it's just CO not CO2 dummy!

[cracked]

Excellent link, thanks.

[Thinker]

Cracked said: A 6 by 6 by 6 foot room has enough oxygen to keep a man alive for a week (if I remember correctly. Catbird?). I doubt that O2 was a problem.

 

Bronco said: I think he's talking about CO2 build up, not O2.

 

Bronco said:

Oh yeah, it's just CO not CO2 dummy!

 

Awesome! Bronco Billy just called himself a dummy....he's the only one who's mentioned CO2 on this thread. Smoke another bowl, dude!

 

There are 2 issues at play here. Normal human respiration (breathing) obviously depletes the O2 content of the air in a 'sealed' snow cave. The CO2 produced is not, in itself, toxic at levels humans could generate before death.

 

Add combustion in the form of stoves or candles to the equation and there's a higher rate of O2 consumption, plus the generation of CO, a toxic byproduct of combustion.

 

That's why it's critical to maintain a 'vent' in your snowcave, esp if you're cooking in it.

[Bronco]

Awesome! Bronco Billy just called himself a dummy....he's the only one who's mentioned CO2 on this thread. Smoke another bowl, dude!

 

Can't get anything past you, can I?

 

(note to self, lay off the self depricating humor, it's just not working around here, must be too subtle, even for the "thinkers")

[Thinker]

I wondered if that wasn't the case......

 

Here's to making fun of ourselves when the situation calls for it:

I do it all too often, as well.