Medical – sloughing skin in high altitude cold wind?

The title says it all, after a walk to Mt Kosciuszko in fierce cold wind all unprotected parts of nose, cheeks, chin, neck, earlobes started sloughing watery skin, leaving everything rough when the water dried off for at least a week afterwards. It was difficult to tell “skin” from “dried secretions”. Peeling off surface resulted in more watery skin-like material replacing it. Not particularly red or itchy, so not sunburn or due to loss of blood circulation.

Frostnip.

Sloughing (pronounced “sluffing”) in biology refers to the act of shedding or casting off dead tissue, such as cells of the endometrium, shed during menstruation, or the shedding of skin in amphibians. In veterinary medicine, it may refer to the process where necrotic surface epithelial cells are discarded from the small intestinal mucosa following various infections which may occur within both monogastrics or ruminants. In medicine, slough may start occurring in Pressure Ulcer also known as Decubitus Ulcers or as Bed Sores at the stage 3, and in stage 4 levels of wound, infection, and damage. In plants, sloughing occurs during root growth, where cells from the root cap are shed to the soil where they are biologically processed by microorganisms. Also, when a root undergoes secondary growth (transition from a primary root to a “woody” root), the cortex and epidermis become isolated from the rest of the root and are eventually sloughed.

oh that :)

> Treat frostnip by coming in out of the cold. Don’t rub, so as not to injure the fragile skin.

That’s it, ta, had to be careful not to rub as the skin was very fragile.