So What's The Coldest You Ever Been Out In?

For me it was at Lake Colden in the winter of '76. Our recording thermometer maxed out at minus 35 deg. so we don't know how cold it actually got but Old Forge had -40 the same night. It was interesting for some of us in lighter sleeping bags.

bcskier

For me it was -30 at Slant Rock (Adirondacks) in January of 2008. Stayed warm all night, though, thanks to awesome gear! Coldest with windchill factor was on top of Marcy (early-mid 2000's), when it reached -85 windchill. THAT was fun

About -15 with 50 mph sustained winds on the Twinway between Zealand and Guyout. Need I say we turned back??

Sub O F with 100+ mph steady winds on the Mount Washington Auto Road, which we crawled to the summit after climbing Damnation gully on SAR for two missing folks, who turned up toasty at Lakes of the Clouds hut, surviving by breaking into the upstairs from the emergency basement refuge room and burning most the furniture (I think that they paid a hefty restitution, but not sure about a fine back then).

-56f

I often think back that while growing up on the western side of the Adirondacks I remember several times, once or twice a season almost every winter for a night or two we'd see -30 and a few times as low as -40. That doesn't seem to happen anymore although last night it was down to -21.

I was in Fairbanks at Eielson AFB for over a month in the winter of 1975. We landed at a temperature -56F. Interesting thing, jet engines even at idle are so much more thrust efficient at such low temperatures that as soon as we planted down we had to shut down 2 of the 4 engines so we could stop on the runway. For the next 8 days we saw -50 frequently and it never got above -40 at any time, then on day 9 it went up to +40 before going back to stay down negative the next day.

I actually did some hiking during the 3 hours of available daylight to see the oil pipeline being built. 90 minutes out, 90 minutes back before it got dark. All bundled up in arctic gear, what do you think gets cold? It's your knees. With every step your knee flushes out the insulated air around your kneecaps and brings in -50 degree air.

Don't know how physiologically true this is but we were told at the time, assuming you don't suffer immediate frozen airway damage, that if you try to exercise for warmth at -20 or below you are losing more heat to increased respiration than you gain from the exercise.

The coldest in the DAK's was in January, '97 when I climbed Algonquin with my cousin. We didn't get an exact reading as neither of us had a thermometer which went low enough, but based upon temps reported in nearby towns, it was likely in the sub -40's.

The coldest in the Whites was a Washington climb where the summit temp was -27F, and the winds in 60+mph range. That wasn't as insane as it sounds as it was a brilliant sunny day, and as hikers familiar with the winter Lion's Head route know, there are spots where you're more or less sheltered from the wind. The last 1/4 mile to the summit was a different story.

Edit: I should add that when I was growing up in Pittsfield, VT in the '50's and early '60's I saw temps in the -40F's a few times. Grade school (1-8) was never cancelled because nearly everyone lived within walking distance. We rode a school bus to HS, 13 miles away and it was closed only once in those 4 years, for 3 days when the pipes froze. I'm not suggesting we were any tougher, but there was a different set of values of what was safe and what wasn't.

Overnight:
-30F -- -40F. IIRC, we measured the -30F the next morning. Tenting below timberline. XC ski trip.

Daytrips:
-17F, high winds. -75F windchill. Short excursion above the trees to an exposed summit. Hike.

-15F (high for the day), all day below timberline. XC ski trip.

Doug

-28* on lake Umbagaog dog sledding and camping. That would have been 1991 I guess...

As cold as it was, the huskies still slept outside, except for a few of the older ones who got to sleep in the two big tents.

That was the first time I had a headlamp, and i have to say, it made getting up in the middle of the night to, um, well, check on the dogs much easier!

The other coldest trip was driving on the ALCAN to visit the lower 48. When we stopped in TOK it was -60* on the thermometer, the lowest it went... That was cold. We drove with the heat on full blast and still were covered in our sleeping bags and fleece blankets. We had emergency gear all ready and easily accessiable just in case. That road can get a little scary with the icing and hills and so little traffic in the dead of winter.

How do the animals survive in temps that cold? What do they do to get through a cold spell like that?

Sometimes being close to the top of the food chain is quite nice.

Readers of this thread might find "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard worth a read...

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14363. Free.

-77.5F.

Doug

The coldest I have hiked was -55*, but I have hiked at -30* a few times with no problem.

The coldest I have camped was at Festiglace (Canadian ice climber's festival) back in '05 when it was -40* without the wind chill. I don't count it because we were in a tent where there was little to no wind. The first night it was -35*, the second it was -40*, and we (my older brother and I) thought we were pretty cool camping in the cold until we saw the girl scout troop walk by. It was a whole different experience at that temperature: propane wouldn't flow from a bottle, some white gas stoves wouldn't light, and most of the cars wouldn't start in the morning. The coolest thing though was the chipped beef in the morning (we used a coleman 2 burner stove that worked fine and we shared with others), which was boiling in the middle and frozen for an inch on the outside of the pot. We'd mix it into the middle, and by the time it was boiling, the outside would freeze again. We awoke to find the sleeping bags covered in snow that was created from our breathing throughout the night.

Lawn Sale said:

We'd mix it into the middle, and by the time it was boiling, the outside would freeze again. We awoke to find the sleeping bags covered in snow that was created from our breathing throughout the night.

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Great story! And, I thought that a temperature gradient from sauna-like near the wood stove end to freezing at the other end of the main room in the Huntington Ravine Harvard cabin was extreme. Probably frost rather than snow on the sleeping bags.

Winter of 72-73 I skied Grand Targhee in Wyoming, it was 35 below. That night temps dropped to 50+ below and my buddy or I would go out to start the car every 1-2 hours so it didn't freeze solid. The next morning we ventured over to Jackson Hole where it was 46 below. Temps were not expected to rise much so mgmt decided that for safety sake it was best not to open that day. I was disappointed that day, but in retrospect the mgmt made the right decision. What ever happened to that foolish young kid?

Two nights camped in a leanto along the Opalescent at Lake Colden, February 1967. Awoke both mornings to find our thermometer pegged at 40° F below zero -- lowest it would read.

Wool clothing, G.I. surplus "bunny boots" and surplus down sleeping bags kept us warm. Our campsite was well sheltered from wind.

On the second morning my partner stepped out on the iced over Opalescent to get some water for breakfast, and broke through. Wet to above the knees, his trousers were frozen solid by the time he made it maybe 75 - 100 ft back to the leanto, where we had a good fire going. No injury. Got everything thawed and dried out, and headed for home via the Calamity Brook Trail later in the day.

Back at Upper Works temps probably were around 0°. The old car engine growled as it turned over, and then sputtered to life (as it is said) before the battery croaked. That took care of concern over getting stranded at UW, which had been one of our great worries about the trip.

G.

-32 at the "PERCH".. The wind was howling and you could not even walk in the tree protected areas. The temp was going to get colder the second night so we looked at each other and said, @#+^%@~, WE bailed.

DougPaul said:

Readers of this thread might find "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard worth a read...

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14363. Free.

-77.5F.

Doug

Click to expand...

Doug, have you read "Minus 148"? Nothing beats that cold-weather story...

Back in February '85 or '86 we lived in a little trailer with an addition on the back with a woodstove, which we had never fired up that winter. The fuel line froze, but I didn't dare start a fire in the wood stove without making sure the chimney didn't have a bird nest or something in it. So at 2 a.m. I'm on my roof brushing out the chimney and it's -25F. The stars were spectacular. After we got the fire going I convinced my wife to bundle up and go out with me just to star gaze. We both grew up in PA and had never experienced anything close to that temperature, but it didn't matter. What a night!

A couple years ago a group of us went up Wildcat A. We stopped at the hut along the way. I don't remember the standing temp, but the windchill that day was -15 degrees. We made the summit of A and did not stay long. I don't know how much colder it was on the summit with the windchill, but I can at least say for certain about when we were at the hut.

Brian

Wow....my coldest and most exciting adventure ever was my Outward Bound ski and dogsled expedition in the Boundary Waters, MN, Feb 2003.
First night sleeping out under tarps (no tents) -40.
-5 was our new definition of a nice warm day. Our last day it was 18 and balmy.
IT was COLD but the amazing thing was we rarely talked about it. It was business as usual and we were attired for the conditions. Everything froze. The dogs food was like a block of ice and we had to use an ax to chop it up, boil hot water, and make soup for them (plus kibble). We had a big pick to hammer through the ice to obtain water. We made snow benches, cut and chopped wood for fire, cooked and cleaned up. The cook tent was secured with ice screws. We traveled all day every day except for setting up and taking down our camp and solo day when we stayed put. Because of my Raynaud's I wore handwarmers in my mitts 24-7 and had no problem keeping the digits from freezing. I did get seriously hypothermic my first night out but my leaders did a great job warming me up. It took a while. I take full responsibility for the big event because I did not heed what they had instructed us to do to avoid this. It doesn't take much at those low temps to cause yourself a very serious problem. Had I been alone, I could not have saved myself. No doubt about it. We all had 2 sleeping bags ,2 closed cell ground pads.
YES...not a day goes by that I don't think about that experience. I have had lots of wonderful adventures but nothing that comes close to this.
I walked away with a brand new perspective on cold and on lots of other things to. It really is all about proper layering and avoiding the big chill, drinking and eating.
We had bkfst and supper and carried our "squirrel bags" that we could fill off the sled every morning. We snacked all day to keep ourselves going and had to drink a certain amount of water, thirsty or not.
MN...it's all good and it's all frozen!!!
The "fear" I had of the cold in that region was definitely the worse. When the reality of the expedition took over,
it was ALL GOOD! We were prepared and that made all the difference as we skied and sledded down the "road less traveled".

Like KR I went to elementary school in rural VT, there would be weeks in the winter when it never got above -20F and may have been -40F in the cold spots. My father was thinking of moving S until the cold broke and we had a day of 0F.

On a real summit it was probably -20F on The Horn of Cabot, there were over a dozen of us in the cabin with a Peak1 boiling water, the guy next to the stove checked his thermometer and it was -12F.

I was walking on the ME coast one day when it was maybe -25F, the salt water spray was freezing on the rocks instead of running back in and some of the bays were frozen. A couple guys spent that night on the summit of Mt Jefferson because the wind was too strong to retreat, but only one of them walked away.

Ahh the Memories...

Training for Denali, on a North to South Presi Traverse, in 1990. We deliberately waited for a nasty Alberta Clipper to come roaring through, and then hit the Crawford Path. We got to the Red Pond, and after being tossed around like rag dolls, we managed to set up our Kelty Windfoil in a "sheltered spot" ( HAH!) . The elastic in the poles was lifeless at -35 degrees, and we were unable to warm them, but we managed to get two out of three in place. We jumped into out -40 bags with our shiny new Wild Things altitude suits AND One Sport Everests on, and waited to get warm. About an hour later, we finally were warm enough to sleep, or at least attempt to as 80 MPH winds battered our sloppily pitched tent.

The next morning was clear and cold, but seemed warm compared to what we had just been though. We tuned in our little radio to hear the weather, which actually was going to get worse. After the night we had just been through, the thought of trying to get though an even colder and windier one at Sphinx Col was nothing either of us had any interest in. So we bailed down to Hermit Lakes a bit early in the day, and spent the rest of the afternoon using our snow saws to construct a snow wall along the edge of the lean-to platform to keep the howling winds at bay. The wall was still there a month later.

Needless to say, having arctic-grade gear can make this kind of trip much safer, but it was still crazy ( or at least the guides at IME thought so when we told them we were "up there" in that weather)