Arctic 25 – The Solution to Hypothermia

On Sunday, February 14th, 1981, The Ocean Ranger platform located of the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador was hit by a rogue wave during a winter storm. The impact of the wave caused a porthole to break resulting in the oil rig taking on water. As a result of flooding, the platform sank, disappearing from marine radar shortly after 2:45 am, Monday, February 15th. Of the 84 crew members on board, there was not a single survivor, 22 bodies were recovered in the days following the disaster with the cause of death determined to be drowning and hypothermia. It was an epic tragedy that is burned in the memories of Newfoundlanders and those around the globe in the offshore. What’s the solution?

When you consider the current options available to life preservation while at sea, you may think survival is slim. This is not a thought that delivers any peace of mind when the reality of exposure at sea is Hypothermia, a medical emergency that shuts down the body’s heat maintaining function and causes death.

Current immersion suits used in the offshore today, can only prevent Hypothermia for a period of six hours. This means rescue efforts have to succeed in a very short window of time. Many felt that six hours was acceptable – and then there was Mario, who didn’t.

Mario Vignola is the inventor of the Arctic

25 survival suit. He believed that saving lives from Hypothermia was a matter of extending the time people could be in the water without harm. So he created a super suit that protects offshore workers for up to twenty-five hours in the coldest, harshest arctic waters.

White Glacier is the company that was created to serve the offshore by mitigating hypothermia risk and creating an entirely new range of possibilities for safety at sea. White Glacier’s mission was to take Mario’s invention to market.

At the helm of White Glacier is CEO, Diego Jacobson, who is committed to infiltrating the oil patch with the White Glacier’s Arctic 25 survival suit. White Glacier is a cutting edge company that has developed a survival suit that protects offshore workers from Hypothermia and has amazing capabilities are astonishing features.

Creating a world class leading edge survival suit is no small task. It takes a smorgasbord of experience and expertise that understands the challenges at sea.The team leads of White Glacier include not only CEO, Diego Jacobson, but also inventor Mario Vignola and Vice President, Captain Alan Oshirak.

With similar backgrounds in the marine industry, the trio met through a shared commitment to save lives at sea. Their expertise combines military contracting of complex items, invention, years of active naval duty, and Captain Alan is a trained Navy Seal. Collectively, their vision is to eliminate death from hypothermia and they have the backgrounds and range of experience to do exactly that.

The vision

Inventor of the suit, Mario Vignola, has seventeen years invested in to the design and research of the Arctic 25 suit. During research, Mario identified inherent problems with suits on the market and focused on producing a product that eliminated the risk of Hypothermia in unprecedented ways.

Hailing from Mar del Plata, Argentina, a hub of marine activity and home to fishing industry, a military submarine base, and the last port of call before deporting to the shivering waters of the arctic for work, Vignola was exposed to the real life traumas caused by deaths at sea from a young age. He recognizes that during accidents at sea, people have many challenges to overcome: wave conditions, temperatures, durability of flotation devices, fire, smoke toxicity, height of jump during abandonment, procedures for climbing onto icebergs or rafts, falling asleep once in the water, and addressed sanitary functions. These criteria directed research and development of the Arctic suit by analyzing the potential of laminates, combining state of the art components, and upping the ante of what a survival suit can do.

Inventor, Mario Vignola said, “The actual solution for saving lives arises in defining “not a suit,” but a TRANSFORMER prepared for the heat and the cold. There has to be customizable options for warming and cooling while in the suit and the suit also has to allow you to sleep when you need to. The suit has to be designed to fully accommodate nature’s demands.”

Arctic 25 – A thermally protected personal life raft 

The exclusive international patenting of the suit is the only one in existence that blends a combination of non-neoprene materials and thermal stabilizing technology to sustain extreme conditions for a period of twenty-five hours. The suit takes approximately one minute to put on which supports vessel abandonment times rather than increases times during a crisis. Soles are slip resistant preventing slips and falls if ice is present. The suits fire resistant material allows you to pass through flames without incurring burns. While the suits buoyant properties allow you to drop from a height of 10 meters into the water safely.

Once you have abandoned the vessel and are in the water the built in face tent protects you from drowning by blocking waves from your face and mouth. The buoyant properties of the suit allows you to free your upper torso to use your hands to treat first aid complications that may have been encountered during abandonment. In addition, if abandonment occurs in temperate water the suit can be worn open to regulate body temperature.

Insulating against Hypothermia

The suits insulation system prevents hypothermia because of the three distinct layers that make up the Arctic 25. The insulation system’s base layer is composed of micro-aluminized contained air, the outside layer acts as a complete body bubble that provides excellent flotation, and the exterior material is a protective barrier to protect against abrasions and resists fire. This suits technology surpasses all other suits on the market.

Arctic 25 is the new standard

When considering the full capabilities of the suit it is hard to think why it wouldn’t change current standards and regulations for offshore safety survival suits. Current regulations for immersion suits require them to maintain body temperature for six hours but that’s not enough. The additional nineteen hours of hypothermia prevention Arctic 25 provides will hopefully cause regulatory boards to act and implement new survival suit legislation It may be the extended rescue window that makes the difference between life and death.

It’s clear that survival at sea is not where it needs to be, but the White Glacier Arctic 25 may be the exact solution we are looking for.