Some friends used to wear summer clothing way into the fall and even winter, supposedly to toughen themselves up for mountaineering trips. I've always wondered if this was a good idea.
Some definitions for discussion below (note…I have no credentials concerning this topic, which is why I'm bringing it up). They concern feeling the cold and actual rate of heat loss:
1) Psychological acclimation – no change in rate of heat loss, you just learn to grin and bear it.
2) Physiological acclimation – no change in rate of heat loss, instead your nervous system becomes less sensitive to the cold so you don't feel it as much.
3) Physiological adaptation – body changes regulation strategy in response to cold and thus lowers heat loss, i.e. the hypothermic response (skin and vascular contractions limit blood flow to extremities, etc.)
4) Anti-hypothermic response -Wim Hof and others apparently can inhibit their hypothermic response and cause their body to generate lots of heat in response to cold. I'll ignore this below since hardly anyone can do it.
Items 1-3 likely operate to varying extents in everyone. My question is whether 1) and 2) are good things to nurture. I.e. wouldn't it be better to be acutely aware of your rate of heat loss rather than suppressing this feeling or knowledge? If you get into the habit of ignoring or not feeling heat loss, convincing yourself everything is fine, then you might find yourself not turning back when you should, or with precious little reserves when you need it.
Or are there other factors at work here I'm ignoring?
