What is the coldest you have ever been ?

[stumblinhorse]

-56 below F. Occasionally where I’m at it is the coldest place in North America because of our distance from warming oceans and why we refer to the northern portion of Minnesota as the polar peninsula. Anyway, most of the time, a cold day is in the negative thirties or negative twenties warming up to the negative teens.

I couldn't find a really cold photo in my terabytes of photos and video library and life is too short to keep looking. I will say this: today my truck has been plugged into the wall for four hours because I'm going to start it and go grocery shopping this evening.

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We used to fight you guys for the “honor” of that, but we let you guys buy the rights to say that. Doesn’t actually make it true Depends on how you measure “

Coldest“

 

[cqaigy2]

Not really feeling cold, but deer hunting up on the plateau, trudging through snow just before day break. The water vapor had froze out and collected on everything, created these big flake type crystals. It sounded like you were walking through musical glass, tinkling different notes. The sun just broke over the horizon and lit all the crystals up in millions of brilliant rainbows. Very surreal. Didn't see any deer or even tracks but still one of the best.

 

[jyoutz]

January 1987 in Flagstaff, Arizona. Minus 44 F. And a 10-20 mph wind with 37” of snow. Brutal.

 

[Snobdds]

We used to fight you guys for the “honor” of that, but we let you guys buy the rights to say that. Doesn’t actually make it true Depends on how you measure “View attachment 780941Coldest“

Look at all that cold air settle right into the valleys.

I like kremmlling. I hit it up whenever rabbit ears is closed and I have to go through that pass I always forget the name of.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Coldest I remember is a deep snow we had here and like -10F that night. Told wife "let's run around the house naked!" and we did. I outran her and locked the door ...for a minute.
The coldest was me sleeping on a vinyl sofa that night without covers!

 

[PJRAM]

My Open Water SCUBA Instructor exam, at Dutch Springs PA. It was in May and the water temperature was below 50 degrees. We were in the water for hours with just wet suits on. When I came out of the water my chest was purple. I thought it was dye from the wet suit. It turned out that it was blood pooling in my chest to protect my vital organs. lol

 

[Citydude]

I owe my life to three friends when I succumbed to hypothermia while backpacking at 10,000 feet in 1982. An August hike above the tree line turned ugly with a snow squall and not the right equipment for the conditions.

 

[Jstpssng]

January 6, 1988; the wind was bitter and we set records for cold that day. The other crew of two men dropped me off at the start of my cruise line, promising to pick me up at the end of the day. I rode in standing on the back of a tote sled behind the snowmobile, with one hand over my face to keep from getting frostbite, so really didn't know where I got dropped off. The company wasn't happy with our production so I made up my mind to give them what they wanted... i watched the sun set as I finished my last point, then headed down an old road to the snow sled trail where they were supposed to pick me up.
They didn't show up, so at about 4:30 when I started walking back to the truck. I was beat anyways, and the last thing I needed was another long walk. After a couple of hours I saw a light; but it turned out to be the moon coming up. It was almost 9:00 that night when one of the guys showed up on the snowsled, and gave me a ride for the last 1/2 mile. The warden got there with our other crew member when we got back to the truck. I told them to call Dexter and tell him I was out of the woods; and that I was headed home the next morning.

There are two sides to every story but they said they couldn't get to the pickup point; so after waiting a while they went back to town, called the warden service and our boss to tell them I was lost. I think they just didn't believe me when I told them that I was going to be pushing daylight; and were afraid of missing supper as the restaurant closed around 7:00. I could have been a bit more forgiving if they had gotten me something to eat. Instead I drove 30 more miles to the nearest town, and still couldn't find anything except snacks.

That's the closest I've come to spending a night in the woods... and also the last time that I trusted somebody over my own judgement.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Between Christmas 70, and New Years 71. Boy Scout winter camp out, at a campground about six miles out of town. We hiked out and got camp set up on the 27th. Overnight it dropped to 30-below, with gale force winds. Wind was high enough that the tent lines were snapping. Frost bit a few fingers retying one on my tent. Litttle AHs I was sharing the tent with wouldn’t get out of their bags, and stand upwind as a wind break.

About 0900, the Scout master decides we should break camp and hike back to town. The older guys helped the younger ones break camp and get packed, before we packed up our gear and headed out. Teh younger kids were sent back in groups of three, with instructions to stop at the Methodist church that sponsored the troop, sign a check in sheet, and call their folks for a ride home. One kid left his group of three and went straight home with out stopping to check in. We got back in with the Scout master and Earnie hadn’t checked in. The Scout master called his folks, and hey hadn’t seen him. We got snowmobiles and went back out to look for him. Searched until dark, with no joy. His parents had come to the church to wait for the searchers to come back in. Next morning we met the Sheriffs Search and rescue guys at the church, had a pancake breakfast, and we went back out to look for Earnie.

Earnie had gone home and gone to bed. When his folks were at teh church worried sick about him, he got up fixed himself a snack, and gone back to bed. After his folks left for the church trhe next morning, he had gotten up, had a bowl of cereal and spent teh day watching tv.

Meantime, I’m out in the subzero getting frost bit on my nose, ears, cheeks, and six toes. His folks went home at the end of the day we spent searching, and there he was on the couch.

 

[jjeff]

The last two posts sound like a couple of blue falcons.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

As a pipe welder working on a new power plant. I was about 300 feet in the air on top of the boiler. It was in the single digits on the ground, the wind was blowing off the river too. Had to put my sandwiches inside my coveralls so they wouldn’t freeze. Don’t know what the windchill was that day but it was tough working 7/12’s that winter.

I feel you. Right now it is about 12°F outside with 25mph winds and I am supposed to be swapping studded tires and wheels onto my RZR for a new non-turbo ice-racing class out on a local lake taking place on Sunday, but I'm looking out my window at the wind bend the tree branches on what otherwise appears to be a nice sunny day, thinking, I will let the wind die down first.

Cold wind chills can be brutal!

 

[MinnesotaEric]

We used to fight you guys for the “honor” of that, but we let you guys buy the rights to say that. Doesn’t actually make it true Depends on how you measure “View attachment 780941Coldest“

On my way to the Christmas Eve Service at church last month. LOL

 

[stumblinhorse]

On my way to the Christmas Eve Service at church last month. LOL

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I don’t even wear a jacket at -21….

 

[Jstpssng]

I don’t even wear a jacket at -21….

I don’t either, if the wood stove is doing it’s job.

 

[Cougsfan]

One of a couple of my "cold" experiences:
I went cross country skiing on the side of Crater Lake once when I was in College. It was fairly rough terrain and it was very cold and windy. I was probably a mile or more away from my car I caught the tip of my ski under a tree root and broke it off. It is next to impossible to ski with a broken ski tip, and next to impossible to get around in deep snow in rough terrain without skis or snow shoes. I was working so hard at getting back to my car that I built up a good sweat. I eventually was forced to stop to rest when I did, the sweat froze and it pulled all the heat out of my body. I barely made it out. It could have easily turned out differently.
They do make emergency ski tips to put on broken skis. I never went out without one again.

 

[Cougsfan]

My other "cold" experience:

I spent the winter of 1967 at Glasgow AFB in Northeastern Montana. We had a stretch where it got to an honest -40 F (no wind chill factors back then). We used box vans (bread trucks) as a work station to work on our aircraft that were parked outside on the flight line. For heat they had modified the trucks by locating the engine's radiator in the open area in the back of the van. We parked the vans in hangars on the off shift. One day someone left a van outside overnight. It wouldn't start so we decided to push it with a tractor to start it. It was so cold that the oil in the rear wheel differential was frozen up and the wheels just skidded along and wouldn't even rotate.

Our chow hall was maybe 200 yards or so from our barracks. One evening I decided rather that dress up in a Parka and Bunny Boots to go that little ways, I'd just run (sprint) over to the chow hall. What a mistake! I froze my lungs and spent the next week or two in considerable pain (only when I breathed).

 

[Jstpssng]

This wasn't me, but I was there the next morning. I used to moonlight for a caterer, who would feed the National Guard when they were having a weekend. Or it might have been the Marines that time.

One extremely cold winter morning we showed up and the diesel heaters for the tents had congealed... I guess nobody here knows anything about THAT!!!

Those poor guys were frozen, all they were interested in when we go there was a cup of hot coffee. I don't recall if they drank it or wrapped their hands around the cup to warm their fingers.

 

[/pine]

Don't think it's the coldest I've been...but...once I was staying in a hunt camp in a small travel trailer it had elec. but no heat...one morning it was so cold...I just stood in front of the open refrigerator feeling the much warmer air...!!

 

[jaydee325]

If you are a fan of science, this is cold.

 

[MikeFarm]

Hi

Yes, I have also always taken a spare ski tip when cross country skiing, though not had to use it.

I'm not sure if this counts but the coldest I have been is 18 °C (that's 64.4 °F). That's body temperature.
I was cooled down to that temperature on the operating table when they replaced my aorta valve last year.
Sorry I fortunately can't recall how cold that felt - I was out of it

Mike