My father tells of the other extreme – camping in Death Valley and turning his pillow over to find the “cool” side even hotter than the one he was flipping.
But I know what you mean – the worst night physically for me ever was New Year’s Eve Y2K – made the mistake of going with friends to a cabin in the woods and the woodstove never warmed the place at all. SHAKING in the sleepy bag, unbearably cold. Growing up, I was told I could complain about the heat or the cold but not both, and I completely choose the heat, and I can’t stand it over about 65 F. But being too cold in bed sucks–heaty blanket and heaty mattress pad for me.
I’ve bundled up and gone outside for a walk just for my own amusement at -30 F (that’s -35 C). I have not had an opportunity to experience a colder temperature, but as I was not at all uncomfortable during that walk I assume I could endure colder temperatures yet.
Admittedly, I have fantastic winter clothing and gear.
I haven’t reached it yet, either. When I spent a winter in The Pas, Manitoba, I had to bundle more than I’m used to for the
-40ºC temperatures, but I still went out walking in them. If I had to guess, I’d say -50ºC is probably my lower limit - that’s really freaking cold.
ETA: Come to think of it, I’ve probably been out in -50 - those -40 temps were before the wind chill. Yeah, I haven’t discovered my lower limit yet.
Was he new to extreme cold? That shouldn’t happen. You breathe through your nose when it’s that cold, or through your scarf if you’re exercising (if you’re out in -30 without a scarf, you’ve earned what you get).
I can’t find the original email (it happened at least 4 years ago) but he was already a veteran at that point (about 8 or 9 trips, some multiple months and some year-long). I did find this response when I mentioned it to him:
“I’m better at not freezing the inside of my mouth now - that sort of thing is considered a big laugh down here, so you never mention it to anyone but friends back home and then you try and sound like a hero rather than someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing:)”
So I imagine it’s rather like working in low spaces - the rookies all smack their heads repeatedly and the long-timers still do it once in a while but laugh it off as a dumb mistake. He did mention arriving sick (generic sniffles) so that could have impacted proper breathing technique as well. My little walk in extreme cold I wore a neoprene facemask and I made it about 30 feet outside my front door before it was covered in little icicles from the moisture in my breath freezing solid. And the fun feeling of frozen nostril hairs when it starts to dip below freezing.
45 to -50 c (-49 to -58f) when i was a youngin. I used to go out in the bush all the time when I was 10 or 12. Just me and a rifle. No wind at all. that made a huge difference.
Course there is no way I would do that now. Its going be -27 tomorrow night and thats plenty cold for me. Around here tho, everyone I know goes skidoing at -40c no problem.
I do think its what you get used to. Mexico and the southern states are just too hot for me. best temp for me is about 22 or 23c (71 - 73 f) in the summer.
When it’s any colder than -20F, it’s simply miserable to be outside for any length of time. I hate the cold and dislike it being colder than 40F but I’m functional all the way down to -20F…lower than that and fingers don’t seem to work properly, even when wearing gloves. Fortunately, I don’t recall the true temp (not windchill) getting below -30F here. The few times I’ve been outside with a -40F windchill, though, I thought I might not survive.
I don’t really like to be outside for very long if it’s below -15C and windy. Without wind, -20 is okay, but not fantastic. I really like down to about -10C.
I was a little ashamed to bail on xc skiing this morning simply because it was -9F. Well, it’s still early in the season; I’ll get used to it again.
As has been said before, as long as I’m dressed properly, I’ll go out xc skiing or snowshoeing despite low temps. I will often wait until it hits 10F, since I know it’ll be more pleasant.
Walking outside 1-2 miles or less - probably around 0 F. This wasn’t uncommon in Madison, where I went to school and lived about a mile from the Engineering building.
I have camped outside though in winter in just a flimsy nylon tent. I think it went down to maybe -5 F. Not the greatest experience but it wasn’t horrible.
Wind of course makes all the difference. If it’s cold, dry and there’s a sharp wind blowing - well, it can cause frostbite pretty quickly. I remember a few days where school was cancelled just due to windchill. I remember on days like that it was pretty damn intolerable walking outside for more than 5 minutes with any exposed flesh whatsoever, even though the temp was probably in the teens.
All temps in C. I walk four miles to my office unless I don’t. The direction is SE which means the wind is usually at my back (and, believe me, that makes a difference). I take a commuter train home. When I was younger my limit was -25. Nowadays it is more like -15, although if the wind is light and the ground dry, I might shade that to -18 or so.
Sometimes I would put on a ski mask and then I would arrive at my office with icicles dripping down from the area over the nose.
Anybody else waiting for Nunavut Boy to pop in here? I’ll bet he’s got some cold weather stories!
My coldest was cross-country skiing in Michigan’s UP. Nice, sunny day, about 10*F. The sun was so warm we were peeling off layers and tied our parkas around our waists. Then it got cloudy, the temp dropped and the wind picked up. I’ve never experienced such bone-rattling cold. We raced as fast as we could back to the warm cabin, but it seemd like it took forever to actually feel warm again. Ahh, youth.
I’ve delivered mail at -15 F, on the street for 6 hours, in relays of about 20 minutes with a couple of minutes to move the truck in between.
Several layers of clothing, starting with silk longjohns and topped with a standard Postal parka, gloves and liners.
It’s brutal. Don’t let management tell you any different.
I don’t know that I have a rule for when it’s too cold, but I wanted to share a semi-relevant bit of information anyway. I work at a preschool. Our township has a rule that preschoolers can’t be sent outside for recess when it’s -10C or colder.
School kids, on the other hand, can be sent out to suffer regardless of the weather
Thinking back to my childhood in Saskatchewan, we somehow never thought of it as suffering - it was time to build snow tunnels and play in the snow, man! And try to trick someone into getting their tongue stuck on something metal!
