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

Looks like a lot of us have been out in very cold temperatures. Glad I'm not the only insane one. That is what my family and friends think for doing such things. My coldest hike was up Mt. Washington when the air temp was -24F and the windchill was -86F. I was plenty warm while moving. Didn't take long to chill when I stopped for a drink though. I remember when I opened my Gatorade it instantly flash froze over so it was like a slushy. It made my throat ache it was so cold. It was warm when I started and I had it in a OR bottle parka but at those temps not much helps. Maybe a thermos. I never did make it to the summit that day as the wind and visibility were terrible once I got above the winter Lion's Head trail.
The coldest I have slept out was near the ADK Loj and that was -26F. The trees kept waking me up with a loud crack that sounded just like a high powered rifle going off. I had a -40 Marmot CWM bag so I stayed nice and toasty. That night I had to try the tossing of boiling water in the air. I saw this on TV once and was amazed. Well, it does work. The water was instantly a million diamonds. Pretty cool. Or should I say cold?

Slept here Friday night at the end of Plate Clove Road in the Catskills...minus 5C...forgot the tent. Balmy compared to some of the other posts.

A few years back though...minus 20C at the base of Slide Mountain (Catskills).

Lowest temperature

I've worked outdoors (snowmaking) as low as minus 30 C (minus 22 F). I've been out (briefly) as low as minus 35 C (minus 31 F).

I can't tell for sure, but I'm guessing it was at, or close to, -20. We left the ski trail for Marcy Dam at 6:00pm that night, and it was -5. Some skiers met us at the Dam in the morning, and they said it was -13 when they left their car about 8:00 that morning. So, we we guessing with the slight elevation gain, being in the woods, and a few hours earlier it was in that area.

It was a cold night. My -20 bag was maxed out. I had to put on some layers on and I usually sleep in just long johns.

Tim Seaver said:

Perhaps Roy will share some his many non-skimpy "reports at the time" so we can all get the rest of the story straight. Unless they are top-secret, of course.

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Gee I didn't know I had a reputation for hiding things - I guess I need to step up my campaign for openness, truth, justice, and the American Way

As this incident occurred prior to the popularity of the WWW there probably aren't many primary sources online like there would be today. The incident was well covered in newspapers which probably are not online but only microfiche. There was argument whether Haas was a hero for running for help for his companion or a villian for in effect leaving him to die alone. Also some nasty comments in NH media about was this an official trip of a state school supported by tax dollars. And I remember reading from someone who got frostbite on one of Haas's earlier trips that one of the problems was that Haas was too slow and he had to keep waiting for him.

If you are primarily concerned with wind speed & direction I suspect the Mt Washington Observatory records could be of interest. Maybe somebody with the appropriate Appalachia can summarize the contemporary accident report. DM & I were both working at DEC at the time of this incident and perhaps he knows if their internal newsgroup has a public archive somewhere but I doubt it. The rescue team came up from Jefferson Notch and I seem to recall that Mike Pelchat was first on the scene if anybody who knows him wants to tap his recollections, particularly if the body wasn't on the exact summit but in the lee of one of the pinnacles it might indicate wind direction.

In retrospect the decision to go to the summit of Jefferson instead of retreating to Gray Knob (or even bypassing the actual summit to go direct to Sphinx Col) was poor but [in line with the original question of this note] not unexpected as they had after all deliberately chosen a winter Presidential traverse instead of something easier when they had some idea of the forecast. You can die any time but in extreme cold there's less margin for error.

When I was in high school we often (2 - 3 times per winter) headed home from "hanging out" downtown when it was between -35 and -45 (in a river valley). Temperature, not wind chill.

I've always considered wind chill as being something like "-40 and windy" or "-25 and really windy."

Twenty below zero on Mt Cabot was the coldest I had ever hiked in. We had the advantage of it being a windless and cloudless day. It was Jan 2004 and I did four hikes within six weekends that winter where the temps were below zero, three of them in the negative teens. I kept my camera battery in my mitt so that I could keep getting frames on all those hikes. Photos of the Cabot hike and the Adams hike noted below are here. http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2293673450027359582GHXRkJ

My coldest feeling hike was Mar 1999 on a hike from Gray Knob up to Mt Adams. Weather reports at the hut were 10 below zero with winds steady in the 50’s on Mt Washington. That’s really cold no matter what your wind chill chart says. Any exposed skin would have been flash frozen and flayed away in the wind driven snow. IIRC, peak gust on Washington that day was 103. It was my most exhilarating day in the mountains. I wrote a little piece on it on VFTT a few years back. I could not locate it with a search but here it is again for anyone who is interested.

Sometimes when the mountain is tempestuous, it passes along a special gift, a beauty that is always hidden during its benign moments. However, because of the special feeling the mountain gives to you in these instances, it can extract a price from you, a toll of sorts that you must pay in order to be a recipient of this gift.

Three of us climbed Mt Adams from Grey Knob camp early one March on a day so clear it made you believe you could see beyond the earth’s curvature. It was ten below zero and the winds were quite steady at about 50mph. Spindrift was blowing all around our ankles, the wind packed snow sounded and felt like firm Styrofoam while the wind virtually roared so loud we had to yell at each other from ten feet away to make ourselves heard. The crystal clear jaw dropping views and the raw power of the roaring wind and the numbing cold made me giddy with exhilaration and yet at the same time I was utterly and incontinently terrified. It was as if a large cat was allowing me to walk back to the safety of my camp, but with a gleam in his eye that told me that he could take me down any time he wanted.

On that day the mountain gave me a feeling that I’ll never forget. That’s why I go up toward the summit on days like this. But I now keep a close watch on the cat’s eye. When that look in his eye changes, it’s time to head back down.

JohnL

I've been out in -45 or so several times (once the bottom drops out of the thermometer, it's hard to know the exact temp.) But that was pretty much right outside my front door, not much risk involved.

jniehof said:

I've been out in -45 or so several times (once the bottom drops out of the thermometer, it's hard to know the exact temp.) But that was pretty much right outside my front door, not much risk involved.

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O.K. but that couldn't have been Brookline could it?

-20 once skiing at Cannon, it hurt a lot to go fast that day. Hiking I think only 5 below or so. I am more worried about my car not starting when it's cold out then I am of getting a chill because I always carry enough gear, some would say too much.

For me and a friend camping in Avalanche Pass in the late 80's, -35. A three day weekend turned into an overnight and out!

bcskier said:

O.K. but that couldn't have been Brookline could it?

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Nope. Thunder Bay, ON. I lived several miles inland (and two major "steps" up from the harbour), so we didn't get much moderation from the lake. A lot more snow and cold there than in New England, obviously, but they caused much fewer problems. Partly low population density, but mostly people simply learning to live with it. Every car was a rustbucket, everyone had block heaters (and most parking lots had outlets for them), most people tied cardboard over the radiator grill in winter, sometimes you just plain had to shovel your street out to the highway, kids didn't come in from recess unless it was at least -30C (-22F), etc. Oh, and we never talked about the windchill. We had at least one -40 day most winters.

About five years ago at the top of the Spillway chair at Sugarloaf......minus 54 windchills. My place is at the bottom of the mountain and I see lots of days in the minus 10 to minus 20 range on my thermometer....don't really want to know what it is up top !