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possible to drown in snow?



 
 
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  #11  
Old March 9th 06, 03:37 AM
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"Jeff Davis" wrote in message
...

Technically speaking, you'd suffocate, not drown. Happened years ago


There's no difference unless you survive only to succumb to the
aftereffects of having water enter your lungs.


drown |droun| verb [ intrans. ] -- die --


suffocate verb -- die --


Everything after these 2 words is a detail.


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  #12  
Old March 9th 06, 09:37 PM
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In message , Jeff Davis
writes

Sloppy sloppy! Care to retract?


No, I'll raise you an accusation of pedantry.

--
Sue ];(

Teamwork - a few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction!
  #13  
Old March 10th 06, 01:59 AM
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In article MpNPf.126908$H%4.65028@pd7tw2no,
Norm wrote:

Everything after these 2 words is a detail.


Au Contraire! To drown you must inhale water. To suffocate you must
merely suffer from the lack of oxygen until death. You're on my
dumbass list now... Nobody inhales water when they suffocate in snow.
They soffocate because the ice crystals that form around their nose and
mouth fuse into an air tight barrier. The cavity is depleted of oxygen
and they die.

Norm...you're happy sitting in the middle of the bell curve, aren't you.
--
According to John Perry Barlow, "Jeff Davis is a truly gifted trouble-maker."

  #14  
Old March 10th 06, 02:03 AM
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In article ,
Sue wrote:
In message , Jeff Davis
writes
Sloppy sloppy! Care to retract?


No, I'll raise you an accusation of pedantry.


Let's see... Inhaling water v. lack of oxygen until death. So because
I'm smarter than you and I can read I'm pedantic? Better that than
suffering in ignorance and cognitive destitution.
--
According to John Perry Barlow, "Jeff Davis is a truly gifted trouble-maker."

  #15  
Old March 10th 06, 10:11 AM
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I have once experienced really light fluffy snow
that I could imagine sinking a long way into.

I and wanted to cut across between two pistes
(boring reason missed out). There was a small deciduous
wood (50 yards across) in the way and I skied into it.
I was barely moving and sank into the powder
up to my chest at times. It was unbelievably light and fluffy,
even with the snow up to my chest I was able to keep moving.
This was just as well:-)

Even though the group I was with were only a few yards away
it could easily have gone wrong. Still it was fun.

  #16  
Old March 10th 06, 03:08 PM
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"Jeff Davis" wrote in message
...

Sloppy sloppy! Care to retract?


No, I'll raise you an accusation of pedantry.


Let's see... Inhaling water v. lack of oxygen until death. So because
I'm smarter than you and I can read I'm pedantic? Better that than
suffering in ignorance and cognitive destitution.


Point being the OP may have been incorrect in his use of the term drown, but
what he really wanted to know was has anybody ever died from it. Either way
you would still be dead, so the answer, whatever it might be, remains the
same. Dead is dead.


  #17  
Old March 10th 06, 03:57 PM
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Norm wrote:

"Jeff Davis" wrote in message
...


Sloppy sloppy! Care to retract?

No, I'll raise you an accusation of pedantry.


Let's see... Inhaling water v. lack of oxygen until death. So because
I'm smarter than you and I can read I'm pedantic? Better that than
suffering in ignorance and cognitive destitution.



Point being the OP may have been incorrect in his use of the term drown, but
what he really wanted to know was has anybody ever died from it. Either way
you would still be dead, so the answer, whatever it might be, remains the
same. Dead is dead.


And asphyxiation is asphyxiation. If you "inhale water", you will
indeed suffer a lack of oxygen that will lead to death if the situation
is not corrected.

  #18  
Old March 10th 06, 04:16 PM
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"Mary Malmros" wrote in message
news:ulhQf.6
Sloppy sloppy! Care to retract?

No, I'll raise you an accusation of pedantry.

Let's see... Inhaling water v. lack of oxygen until death. So because
I'm smarter than you and I can read I'm pedantic? Better that than
suffering in ignorance and cognitive destitution.



Point being the OP may have been incorrect in his use of the term drown,
but what he really wanted to know was has anybody ever died from it.
Either way you would still be dead, so the answer, whatever it might be,
remains the same. Dead is dead.


And asphyxiation is asphyxiation. If you "inhale water", you will indeed
suffer a lack of oxygen that will lead to death if the situation is not
corrected.

Good point. Drowning is a subset of suffocation. Not all people who
suffocated drowned, but all people who drowned suffocated. It differs
somewhat in the method of application but the cause of death is still lack
of O2 brought on by an excess of H2O in one form ar another. This makes
drowning a lot more similar to suffocation than say, colliding with a lift
tower.


  #19  
Old March 10th 06, 04:47 PM
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wrote in message
oups.com...
I have once experienced really light fluffy snow
that I could imagine sinking a long way into.

I and wanted to cut across between two pistes
(boring reason missed out). There was a small deciduous
wood (50 yards across) in the way and I skied into it.
I was barely moving and sank into the powder
up to my chest at times. It was unbelievably light and fluffy,
even with the snow up to my chest I was able to keep moving.
This was just as well:-)

Even though the group I was with were only a few yards away
it could easily have gone wrong. Still it was fun.


I did something similar to this at Meadows on Mt. Hood. I was skiing with
two friends and didn't see them turn and I followed two boarders. I stopped
and heard my friends call to me, there was about 50 yards between me and
them. So I headed towards them in un tracked snow not knowing it was so
deep. As I got about 20 yards into this open area I realized that my poles
wasn't hitting ground or any thing and I fell. The snow was about 5' deep I
began to wonder how I was going to get out of this situation. My skis up on
top of the snow and me deep down in the snow. I used me pole to get one of
my skis off so I was able to stand on one leg with other still on top of the
snow. I was really beginning to worry that I would have to dig my way to
them. I struggled there for about 15 minutes trying to get back on top of
the snow I did finally make it back up using my poles down in the snow.
Lucky for me I had a lot of flexibility, I fell back down maybe three or
four times trying to get the one ski back on. when I go it back on and was
standing I just slide the skis across the snow almost like a cross country
skier. I was exhausted when I finally got to my friends and they laughed at
me for being so stupid. I normally ski in the east and we never get that
much snow that you would sink so deep so that situation was new to me.

Later that same day fog set so thick you couldn't see a thing and the
goggles I was wearing that made it even worse. At the top of one run I
couldn't see thing so I went to stop and fell. I had vertigo and didn't
know up from down, whether I was moving or not. I began to panic knowing
there was a 10' drop into some rocks not being able to see and thinking I
was still sliding. I am kicking and flopping around like a fish out of
water in all that movement my goggle got knocked off and I then noticed I
wasn't moving at all. Again my friends had a real good laugh wondering what
the hell I was doing. When I told them what had happened they were a little
more understanding but still thought it was very funny watching me bouncing
around. We went down to the lodge to buy some clear goggles and I threw out
those other goggles, I wasn't going to go through that again.

All in all that was still a great day.

JQ
Dancing on the edge


  #20  
Old March 10th 06, 07:56 PM
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Jeff Davis wrote:
Norm wrote:
Everything after these 2 words is a detail.


Au Contraire! To drown you must inhale water. To suffocate you must
merely suffer from the lack of oxygen until death. You're on my
dumbass list now... Nobody inhales water when they suffocate in snow.
They soffocate because the ice crystals that form around their nose and
mouth fuse into an air tight barrier. The cavity is depleted of oxygen
and they die.

Don't ask me why I'm jumping in here, but here's a slightly different
viewpoint, based on the definition of "drown".

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drowning (about mid-way down the

page):
"Water entering the upper airways
If water enters the airways of a conscious victim, the victim will try
to cough up the water, or swallow it, thus inhaling more water
involuntarily. Upon water entering the airways, both conscious and
unconscious victims show laryngospasm, i.e. the Larynx or the vocal
cords in the throat constrict and seal the air tube. This prevents
water from entering the lungs. Due to this laryngospasm, water enters
the stomach in the initial phase of drowning and very little water
enters the lungs. Unfortunately, this can prevent air from entering the
lungs, too. In most victims, the laryngospasm relaxes some time after
unconsciousness, and water can enter the lungs; this is called wet
drowning. However, about 10-15% of victims maintain this seal until
cardiac arrest; this is called dry drowning as no water enters the
lungs. In forensic pathology, water in the lungs indicate that the
victim was still alive during drowning. The absence of water in the
lungs may be either a dry drowning or a death before submersion."

As someone who has experienced numerous laryngospasms (ObSki: none
while skiing) I can definitely say that one could easily be caused by
snow. Should the laryngospasm be severe enough, it could possibly lead
to a "dry drowning". Granted, the odds are pretty slim, but it would
be difficult to determine post-mortem whether that was the cause or if
they just plain suffocated. As Norm pointed out, they'd still be dead.
For those of us predisposed to these occurences, even a small particle
hitting just the wrong spot can trigger one. I had a tortilla chip
cause one once, as did some red pepper on a sandwich bun. Not fun at
all. I even have had one trigerred once by chomping on some ice. So,
to answer the OP's question, YES, it is possible to "drown" in snow,
but it is much more likely that you'd suffocate.

 




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