Cold and snow stories?

[pulykamell]

@Urbanredneck

Have you ever been out in extreme winter weather where you were really worried you might be severely injured or even die?

I relayed this story a few years back, but when the most recent blizzard came by right after Super Bowl Sunday (this must have been 2012 or 2013) I was out walking my dog in the aftermath. I crossed a street and jumped across a puddle into a small snowbank when suddenly I felt what I thought was a nerve pinch in my leg and my knee buckled and I collapsd into the snow. I thought I had just landed on my foot wrong. Then I heard my 70-lb pit bull yelping pitifully in the snow. At that point I thought I had accidentally landed on him in my fall, so I pulled him out of the snow and placed him down near the sidewalk. He began running in circles, tail between his legs, barking and biting at the air, shitting himself, and I eventually calmed him down and realized, when I stepped a bit backwards into the snowbank, that I felt that nerve pinch again. That wasn’t a nerve, that was stray electrical current from a downed power line a couple feet from me. (The power line I didn’t see until after calling the police and only then did I realize how close to it we had been.)

The dog was badly shaken up for the rest of his walk, walking all the way home trembling with his tail between his legs (which I’ve never seen him do), but he (and I) ended up being okay. That could have gone a lot worse.

[Machine_Elf]

@August_West

My college team held a popular winter rugby tournament every year.

My rookie year, the temperature (with wind chill) at the start of the first match was -73°F according to the local airport.

Along with several layers of long underwear on my body, I wore a stocking cap duct-taped to my head and tied a t-shirt around my face as a sort-of scarf. At one point in the game, I blinked my eyes and they froze shut!. I had to take off my gloves and rub them with my hands to open them up.

The referee’s whistle froze to his lips.

There were 2 players from a Milwaukee area club who demonstrated their bravado by playing in normal rugby shorts and socks on their legs, they both spent multiple days in the local hospital with severe frostbite.

When it comes to winter sports in extreme weather, it’s hard to beat the 1967 NFL championship game:

@Wikipedia

Dubbed by the sports media as “The Ice Bowl”, the game-time temperature at Lambeau Field was about −15 °F (−26 °C), with an average wind chill around −48 °F (−44 °C); under the revised National Weather Service wind chill index implemented in 2001, the average wind chill would have been −36 °F (−38 °C). Lambeau Field’s turf-heating system malfunctioned, and when the tarpaulin was removed from the field before the game, it left moisture on the field, which flash-froze in the extreme cold, leaving an icy surface that became worse as more and more of the field fell into the shadow of the stadium.
…
The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (then Wisconsin State University–La Crosse) Marching Chiefs band was scheduled to perform the pre-game and half-time shows. However, during warm-ups in the brutal cold, the woodwind instruments froze and would not play; the mouthpieces of brass instruments got stuck to the players’ lips; and seven members of the band were transported to local hospitals for hypothermia. The band’s further performances were canceled for the day. During the game, an elderly spectator in the stands died from exposure.
…
Prior to the game, many of the Green Bay players were unable to start their cars in the freezing weather, forcing them to make alternate travel arrangements to make it to the stadium on time. Linebacker Dave Robinson had to flag down a random passing motorist for a ride. The referees for the game found they did not have sufficient clothing for the cold, and had to make an early trip to a sporting goods store for earmuffs, heavy gloves, and thermal underwear. Packers quarterback Bart Starr attended an early church service with his father, who had visited for the game, and as Starr later said, “It was so cold that neither of us talked about it. Nobody wanted to bring it up.”
…
The officials were unable to use their whistles after the opening kick-off. As referee Norm Schachter blew his metal whistle to signal the start of play, it froze to his lips. As he attempted to free the whistle from his lips, the skin ripped off and his lips began to bleed. The conditions were so hostile that instead of forming a scab, the blood simply froze to his lip. For the rest of the game, the officials used voice commands and calls to end plays and officiate the game. At one point during the game, CBS announcer Frank Gifford said on air, “I’m going to take a bite of my coffee.”

[Urbanredneck]

@pulykamell

I relayed this story a few years back, but when the most recent blizzard came by right after Super Bowl Sunday (this must have been 2012 or 2013) I was out walking my dog in the aftermath. I crossed a street and jumped across a puddle into a small snowbank when suddenly I felt what I thought was a nerve pinch in my leg and my knee buckled and I collapsd into the snow. I thought I had just landed on my foot wrong. Then I heard my 70-lb pit bull yelping pitifully in the snow. At that point I thought I had accidentally landed on him in my fall, so I pulled him out of the snow and placed him down near the sidewalk. He began running in circles, tail between his legs, barking and biting at the air, shitting himself, and I eventually calmed him down and realized, when I stepped a bit backwards into the snowbank, that I felt that nerve pinch again. That wasn’t a nerve, that was stray electrical current from a downed power line a couple feet from me. (The power line I didn’t see until after calling the police and only then did I realize how close to it we had been.)

The dog was badly shaken up for the rest of his walk, walking all the way home trembling with his tail between his legs (which I’ve never seen him do), but he (and I) ended up being okay. That could have gone a lot worse.

Wow, now thats a story!

[Icarus]

Back when I was in Boy Scouts, we would regularly do winter camping. I recall it wasn’t too awful cold. But it was Michigan so it was winter. We would sleep under the stars next to the fire. I remember the embers from the fire would pop and start mini fires on our sleeping bags so we were constantly smacking those out. We also had a tradition of a midnight naked run (streaking was a thing back then).

The coldest I ever experienced was in Fargo ND where the temp was about -30. I recall that my parka was supposed to be good to -20, so I thought I was in trouble.

As for snow danger, once we were sno-mobiling in the U.P. near Lake Superior and we decided to take a break and walk to the shore. The short trail was buried in snow. As we progressed we ended up trudging through snow up to our waists. We decided to turn back.

[chacoguy]

I’ve camped on the beach of Lake Michigan in January. Everything froze, except what was in the cooler since it was insulated.

I’ve canvassed door to door in minus 30 degrees. (Forget what the windchill was.)

I’ve done the 360 on the highway more than once.

The best story was from my Dad, he was working on a tractor in extreme cold in North Dakota and his crescent wrench shattered.

[hogarth]

@Spoons

Recently, I travelled from Las Vegas to Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. My trip required a connecting flight through Calgary. [etc.]

I once had a flight from Toronto to Saskatoon via Winnipeg at Christmas-time; no switching planes, just picking up more passengers.

The plane landed, picked up more passengers, and then the captain said we had to wait for the wings to be de-iced. After a significant wait, the captain announced that the wings had been de-iced, but in the meantime they had discovered some kind of mechanical problem and it would be fixed momentarily. After another significant wait, the captain announced that the mechanical problem had been repaired, but in the interim the wings had gotten icy again so now we needed to wait for a re-de-icing. After yet another wait, the captain told us…that it was now too late to take off so the flight was cancelled. They pulled us off the plane, put us up in a hotel, and flew us out in the morning.

[pulykamell]

@Urbanredneck

Wow, now thats a story!

Actually, it looks like it was just almost two years ago in Feb of 2015. Probably a more accurate account, since I wrote it right after coming back from the walk.