Snow Blindness facts
While investigating facts about Snow Blindness, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian commando in WWII. The lone survivor of an ambush, he survived an avalanche, severe frostbite and snow blindness, having to amputate his own toes, and being relentlessly pursued by Germans for nine weeks before being whisked to safety in Sweden by locals.
Fresh snow can reflect 80% of UV light and can cause "snow blindness" which is a painful sunburn on your eyeball
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 9 of the best facts about Snow Blindness I managed to collect.
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Early Antarctic explorers used a novel treatment for snow blindness- cocaine.
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During WWII, prisoners in a Russian gulag escaped into the Siberian wilderness, walked hundreds of kilometers through blinding snow to Lake Baikal, crossed the Mongolian border, traversed the Gobi desert and hiked across the Himalayas to reach freedom in India. 4000 km... entirely on foot.
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Butterfly weed can be also used in treatment of diarrhea, snow blindness, snakebites, sore throat, colic and to stimulate production of milk in the breastfeeding women.
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Mountaineers can also suffer from snow-blindness and frostbite. When the weather is extremely cold the blood circulation to peoples" fingers and toes can stop, damaging fingers and toes so badly they have to be cut off.
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Norwegian commando Jan Baalsrud. His patrol was ambushed by the Germans and he was the only survivor. He evaded capture for two months, suffering severe snow blindness and frostbite, and was forced to amputate his own toes to prevent gangrene before being whisked to safety in Sweden.
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Eskimos made snow goggles out of caribou antlers to combat snow blindness.
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Reindeer are the only mammal that can see ultraviolet light, so they don’t suffer the effects of snow blindness.
