The coldest I've ever been.

1973
Crystal Lake, Illinois.
I live on the south shore. My buddy Bill lives directly across on the north shore. Half a mile as the crow flies?
Our wives have gone shopping on a Saturday afternoon.
Bill calls. "Why don't you come over and have a beer and watch the rest of the Bears game? Leigh and Cary can play."
Sounds good.
The lake has been frozen over for a month, and there's about 6 or 8 inches of fresh snow on top of the ice. Why not put Leigh on her sled and just pull her across? Cool. Way cool.

She is two years old. I bundle her up in snow suit, mittens, boots, scarf, and stocking cap. I suit up in my parka, plunk her down on her sled and we head out. Half-way across the lake I realize I have made a big mistake. Bad daddy.

I don't remember what the temp was, but something similar to what's going on in New England now. Twenty to thirty knot wind whipping down the lake. Jeez. This is BEYOND cold. I pick her up, quickly (VERY quickly) unzip my parka, and tuck her inside. By the time we make Bill's house I have lost feeling in hands and feet and feel light-headed.

We go right to the fireplace and would like to crawl inside of it.
Bill calls me a crazy sonofabitch and I agree with him. Screw the beer. We get the schnapps out. Ahhh...that's more like it.
Bill drives us home later. This Alabama boy has a lot to learn about cold weather.

What's your coldest story?

Walking the qtr mile from my car to school.

-15°F, wind chill stated to be -35°F.

And I hope never to be that cold again! :scared:

when it was about 15 below, and windy as all hell - probably windchill factor putting it around 35 below. We started dorking around with a Frisbee, then one of us caught it, and it shattered into six perfect pie-shaped wedges - a brand-new Frisbee. It was that cold.

We went inside after that. None of us wanted to have a finger shatter and fall off, or something.

I was in Edinburgh, Scotland with a friend and we were looking for a restaurant. Well, it got so cold, we finally decided upon a pizza joint. The next morning, I found out that the temperature that night was 15 below. And that was pretty cold for a person who had at that time been living in South Florida.

Froze the shubbery off into the ground. This was at daylight at 7AM, when it hit -16. About that time our power went off (our only source of heat), my mother totally panicked, but Dad and I told her she had to get back into bed and cover up, which she did. The power came back on in 2 hours, and that was that. Our cars even started later.

stand-to.

out in the field, we all had to get out on a position for pre-dawn perimeter guard. that's the story. prone position (laying down) in an isolated area, on frozen ground, until the first sergeant says "bring it in"

maybe it seemed colder because there isn't a damn thing you can do but lay there, still, until someone else says you can move.

it sounds like Korea can be one of the coldest places on the planet.
Somehow I don't think latitude enters into it.

as the lousy gear they issued you :shiver: Hell, I've been almost shaking to death in California!

That was actually the first and last time I ever attempted skiing. The skiing gods clearly will not allow someone as stupid as I was to ever besmurge the slopes again.

I was in 8th grade, went with some friends to this little bunny hill in NJ. We all went into the shed to rent our boots and skis. I put my puts on, then I put the skis on.

I didn't realize you don't put the skis on until you're outside. I HAD NEVER DONE IT BEFORE, NO ONE TOLD ME.

But the time I realized my idiocy everyone was gone. And then I couldn't figure out how to get the boots out of the skiis.

Not wanting my mistake to be discovered by my failure to show up at the hill, I took my feet out of the boots and walked in the snow to the skiing area. It took about 5 minutes for my feet to freeze and I spent the rest of the day inside the lodge with my feet by the fire.

That was my bunny hill stomping ground in NJ at least

My car won't run because the battery is too frozen! So I've been walking. I can certainly relate to COLD stories today!

I was never there in the winter. It must have been fun (well, perhaps not on such a cold day) to cross the lake that way. A girlfriend and I once rowed across it when we were 8. Jeez did we get into big trouble.

My coldest weather story is the Christmas about 20 years ago when the temperature was 27 below.

Naw, just water. It can only get down to freezing.

Brrrrr.

180

Dating myself...

In my area in 1979 Mocassins were the big thing with 11th grade high school buffoons such as myself (you know the types just made out of suede without any type of a sole what-so-ever?)

Needless to say I ended up with frost bite that particular Winter!

and it is damned cold here tonight. I was just in Berlin, NH - and passing by Mt. Washington, it was -25 on my car thermometer. Here's what it says on their site:

http://www.mountwashington.org/index.html


On the way up north, I heard a story on NHPR about a hiker who was found frozen, somewhere in the area. It was -44 last night, with a windchill of -100. Holy frio, Batman.

The wind is whipping around here, and my feet haven't thawed out all the way, and I've been home for an hour. Oh - and all I did was ride in a car that took a while to warm up - and I was wearing fleece socks and insulated boots.

:scared:

working for my state's largest daily. My feet froze to the ground while snapping pics and I had to have the firemen hose down my boots in order to lift them from the ground. They put me in the heated cab of the fire truck after that. I can remember I was so cold I was crying.

It got down to -40 degrees F (with no wind chill) about once a year. If it got below -30 degrees early in the morning they would delay school for a couple of hours so the kids wouldn't freeze while waiting for the school bus. But if it was -29 degrees it was just a typical day. In the middle of winter it's wasn't unusual to go weeks on end without the temperature ever climbing above -10 degrees.

And I don't remember ever being uncomfortably cold the whole time I lived there. We just innately knew how to dress warmly to survive up there.

I was living in near Rochester, New York and it was around 5F and fell through the ice on a creek. Walking back to the house was pretty cold!