By Rick Shandley
Blizzard Survival gear and ReflexCell insulation technology offers worldwide application whenever natural disaster, or an unfortunate event, leave people without warmth or shelter.
That’s the beauty of these products, an unfortunate event can be as simple as getting lost when the sun drops below the horizon and you have enough presence of mind to stay put until help comes. These Blizzard Survival products are award winning, innovative, and are highly recommended for any two-legged being with a pulse.
Blizzard Survival products are currently used by U.S. Army and British Royal Air Force units as well as those Search and Rescue organizations that have discovered the invaluable qualities of insulation, lightweight, and compactness these Blizzard Survival product deliver.
We’ll discuss our experience with the Blizzard Survival jacket and sleeping bag on the individual level for folks who spend time hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, and any activity where one might be caught in an overnight emergency situation when temperatures drop, winds pick up, and hypothermia threatens to be a factor. For a unit cost of about $40.00 U.S., for the jacket or sleeping bag, the investment is negligible when you consider these are life saving products.
If you have the opportunity to acquire a Blizzard Survival jacket, sleeping bag, or blanket, it will become perfectly clear to you how this gear can be deployed to thousands of people stricken by potential calamities wrought by earthquakes, displaced by war, or stranded without power for any reason.
Keep in mind these products are designed for all-weather, all-season use. Getting lost or stranded can happen at any time, even on a road trip to see a basketball game in a neighboring state. If you’re the kind of person who looks out for others as well as yourself, read on. If not, go back to the flock and continue grazing.
The core technology behind the Blizzard Survival lineup of products is the ReflexCell technology. ReflexCell is made of three layers of durable, metallic-like, materials that work in combination to trap warm air through the use of compartmental cells. These cells are given a triangular shape by strategically positioned elastic cords.
On the exterior, the outer layer of material functions as a waterproof and windproof barrier. Even with wind-driven freezing rain and wet snow, the outer layer does indeed provide an impervious barrier. Rain, freezing or not, does not penetrate this material.
The inside layer of material next to your body, and the underside of the outer layer are silver coated to box-in radiated heat and retain it within the air-pockets that are created by the three layers. Between the layer next to your body and the exterior layer is a middle plastic film membrane with elastic cords running through it at spaced intervals to create air pockets.
The elastic also keeps the material close to your body by placing a constant constriction load on the garment. You can visualize this cell structure in the photo of the cross-section sample. The take-away information you’ll want to know is that these air-pockets use body heat and trapped still air to provide insulation and warmth.
At the waist, the elastic material is designed to keep the jacket snug around your body like a powder skirt on a ski jacket. In my experience, given a true emergency, my first thought would be to draw the waistline of the jacket even tighter with a belt or piece of rope. I say this because air can escape from the bottom of the jacket, unless you have a beer belly or lots of clothes on.
Next, I’d find a way to close-off the clear plastic membrane sleeve cuffs as this is another vulnerability that lets air in, and potentially scrubs off the insulation qualities this survival jacket provides. These observations are merely that, observations. We get harsh weather up here in the Northern Rockies, and I had countless opportunities to find a weakness, if any. The hood structure worked well even while wearing a baseball cap. In fact, a baseball cap can help to give shape to the hood and keep it from covering your eye, like any parka. But these observations are how one would possibly modify the jacket under real, stressed, survival conditions.
In assessing the Jacket at pretty high elevations where even moderate winds can combine with springtime evening temperatures, we can attest to the material being windproof. Don’t confuse wind resistance with not feeling the strength of the driving wind. You will feel the wind, and its chilling effect through the jacket. It’s no different than any of the super high-end mountaineering soft shells available on the market; the wind doesn’t penetrate the jacket, but you do feel the lower temperature of the wind.
In winter conditions with conventional under-layering, where low temperatures were often accompanied by driving wind, the Blizzard jacket worked very well. As mentioned above, you feel the volume of wind hitting your body, but the warmth of the insulation qualities keep the wind-chill off you. In a real survival situation with low temperatures, keeping the body moving, even if it is running in place, can have a huge impact on creating the heat-generating potential of the Blizzard Survival three-layer material. If you have to stay still, or are unable to move, the ReflexCell insulation does use your body heat in addition to generating heat from the trapped air much like how a down-filled jacket or sleeping bag works.
Color options are orange, silver, or green. Orange is a great color for either the Blizzard Survival jacket or sleeping bag because it also acts as an emergency color that is more conducive to being seen by a rescue party if your situation comes to that. Silver will also get you noticed.
There is nothing quiet about the ReflexCell material. It’s like you are wearing a giant tin-foil bag while you are standing in the wind. Noise is the least of your concerns when you are truly in a survival fix. Don’t expect fashion or quiet beauty from these Blizzard Survival products. Expect to get through the ordeal.
Each of the insulation and weather shielding qualities inherent in the Blizzard Survival jacket are also true for the Blizzard Survival sleeping bag. Having to roll out a sleeping arrangement on the bare ground is a daunting notion. The sleeping bag is so weatherproof in this respect that you can have the confidence the material will keep the ground temperature and moisture from getting through in many cases. If the ground is frozen or snow-based, you will feel the frozen ground through the material. However, there is enough space and insulation performance to get you through the night.
Neither the jacket nor the sleeping bag is necessarily comfortable. Yet comfort is a relative term when the goal is to get through the immediate emergency. The jacket, like the sleeping bag, are both durable enough so you won’t have to deal with tearing or ripping material. They both allow you room to move around and won’t restrict your appendages from operating normally.
All of the Blizzard Survival gear are completely reusable and are constructed well enough to rely on again and again. Although the best configuration, in my view, is to leave them in the original vacuum-packed state they are in right out of the box. Yes, take them out of the box and place them in your pack.
It is this configuration where the lightweight (less than a pound) and compactness are most advantageous. Even though you can compress either the jacket or the sleeping bag down into a manageable size to be used again, it is a cumbersome prospect. As an accessory, you can purchase the Blizzard Survival stuff sack, but still, it’s better to use it to store the factory-compressed bricks. It’s like once you let the cat out of the bag, don’t expect it to jump right back in to the same pouch. It will take some effort, but you can make it work.
Even if you never have to use them, the Blizzard Survival jacket and sleeping bag are two invaluable pieces of gear to have in your pack, saddle bags, SUV, private airplane and home. No one plans on getting lost or snapping an ankle eight miles into an all day hike, but it can happen.
Most folks who are casual hikers or outdoors enthusiasts don’t give much consideration to having enough water for a full day of hiking or even a first-aid kit. Wearing proper boots or clothes means nothing to them let alone having any emergency equipment just in case. And, in reality, there’s not much that can be done for this kind of recreational hiker. But often times, it is the person who is well prepared that comes to the aid of a stranded person who has become disabled in the back country. And it is this kind of situation, amongst any number of emergency scenarios, that the Blizzard Survival jacket and/or sleeping bag can make the difference between a person getting home safely or not at all.
