Participating in a live action role playing event can mean a lot of things when it comes to location, atmosphere and temperature.
Personally I love LARPing in the winter but I have noticed that a lot of people go home sick after an outdoor winter LARP event.
I decided to find out the best way to stay warm so I would have less sick days after enjoying a winter event and as it turns out, it’s fairly easy too.
On my quest to keep myself and other LARP players warm while we frolic in the snow I turned to the Canadian Armed Forces. After all who would know how to stay warm in extreme winter conditions better than the men and women who have to trek all across northern Canada whenever the occasion arises?
I found it interesting to note that they have a very simple motto about staying warm in even the most severe sub-zero temperatures. Ironically enough they call it C.O.L.D.
C – Clean
O – Odor
L – Layers
D – Dry
Clean – The hardest natural element to warm up or cool down is air, but if YOU are not clean then the layer next to your skin is not air – it’s oil. The oils of your body heat up and cool down very quickly just like cooking oil on the stove. This property of your skin’s natural oils are key to the way sweat works to help cool us off, but in this case that’s exactly what we don’t want.
Odor – If your cloths smell like sweat, or anything other than clean then it’s time to change them. Just like in the above explanation for Clean, if there are foreign substances in your cloths then you are loosing heat faster than you should be. By keeping your cloths clean the only things left are your warm cloths and the air between them that you have used to keep warm. Which brings me to my next point.
Layers – Most of us have heard at time point that we need to layer to stay warm, but you need to make sure that you are layering properly. Remember that statement about air being the hardest natural thing to warm up and cool down?
Laying is not about trying to get into another 6 layers of skin tight wool – it’s about creating pockets to capture the air around your body. When you layer properly you should have pockets of space between each layer that you wear. Your body temperature warms up the air around your body and the pockets that your layers have created trap the air close to you which keeps you warm in return.
Part of layering properly is wearing cloths that fit. If your layer is too big then the pockets become too big and the hot air that you have created will escape.
As a guideline, if you can slide your hand between you and your layer of clothing (or between layers) then you have a reasonable amount of space. However if you make a fist under your layer and it doesn’t change the way the garment hangs off of you then it’s probably too big.
Dry – Simply put, make sure that you and your clothing is dry. Wet clothing, whether from the elements or from your own body sweat, creates a chilled spot. This will cause you to quickly lose heat in those areas and once that happens the rest of your body’s temperature will be affected.
Bring a few changes of cloths with you so that when you get wet over overheat and start to sweat you have something to change into. One of the most common areas for environmental wetness or sweating to occur is the feet so be sure to bring as many extra pairs of socks as you can, and if possible extra footwear.
Best wishes in your future LARP endeavors,
Kevin Tjia
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