I never understood that concept since snow seems so dense and compact that it wouldn’t provide enough hydration in a life or death scenario. Wouldn’t it be a viable method?
In: Biology
You lose water when your body does work (through respiration). Only liquid water can be used/absorbed by your cells. If your body needs to do the work of melting snow so it becomes liquid, more water is lost through extra work done by your body to maintain body temperature when eating snow than is made available by melting snow internally. So eating snow literally dehydrates you further.
If you can get something else to melt snow (like a fire or focused sunlight), then melted snow (i.e., liquid water) will sustain hydration levels.
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