I’ve been carrying the same “emergency pack” with me every time I’ve gone hiking for the last several years.  I enjoy going to the mountains best in early spring because it’s not too cold and not too hot.  Although every once in awhile, I’ll get caught in some unusually cold weather for that time of the year.

Even though the weather has never gotten to the point of unbearably cold, I’m happy to know I have my emergency blanket available in case I may need it someday.  It’s so compact I can fit it into my pocket folded up and at the inexpensive price it doesn’t make sense not to have one.

The most important thing to know is how to use it because the blanket can be nearly worthless if not used correctly.  For the blanket to reflect up to 90% of a person’s radiant body heat, there must be a layer of “dead air” between him/her and the blanket.  This means the blanket won’t work properly if there is nothing between it and the user’s skin, like clothing for example.

I always make sure to bring an extra set of clothing in my emergency bag, which I can change into, if for some reason I can’t use the clothing I’m already wearing.  Then, if I ever have to pull out my emergency blanket, I can be assured it will work effectively because I have that extra layer between the blanket and me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 1:27 am and is filed under emergency prep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.