coldest temperature you’ve experienced?

[Justin Baker]

14 degrees… maybe less.
Hey…. you asked. Never said it was impressive :)
It was in Cache Creek Natural Area. Cash Creek froze over about an inch solid. I was using a 35 degree bag and I had very limited firewood. I was warm enough though.

[Roger Caffin]

Ukraine, Poland … etc, this week, this year: -40 C/F

Cheers

[Jeff J]

When I was a kid (late 80s), I walked to elementary and middle school. One fine Michigan winter, when I got up to walk to school at 630 or so, it was -30F. That same day in the afternoon, once school got out, I walked home and it was +30F. 60 degree temperature swing. I know we're counting backpacking and hiking days, but I still remember that. And I hiked to school, right? I had a backpack; counts.

[Jim W.]

"Ukraine, Poland … etc, this week, this year: -40 C/F"

Roger: You might put a shirt on….

I'm glad to have experienced the two lines crossing (granted it was at an alpine resort with nice warming huts). I don't care to go colder!

[Kenneth Rexach]

-22F Temp, -60F windchill, Syracuse NY. Felt pretty brutal.

[Christopher Chupka]

In Alaska spring of 89, US Army Winter Warfare School.

Hoohah, Airborne!

-44 degrees Fahrenheit

[Doug Smith]

It's funny, Jim W and I are both from sunny So. Cal and had our coldest moments in Banff, AB. I was living there for about 6 months in the early 90's. We had a month where it never got above -30*F. That was chilly. One morning hit everyone by surprise and I think there were about 5 cars in town that were running…everyone else had forgotten to plug in their engine block heaters. Haha

[Steve S]

Hmmmm, must have been on a winter climbing trip in Idaho's Lost River Range back in the 80's. We did a new route on Leatherman Peak, and we spent three days with day time temps -25F and night time dipping to -30F. Our water bottles were old electrolyte bottles, and they froze and the plastic exploded. We drank boiling hot Kool aid for energy drinks, and we had to wrap our old nalgene bottles in our sleeping bags in order to keep the water from freezing in just a few minutes. I remember taking our leather climbing boots to our factory work place, and then using the staple guns to attach our old lodden Chounaird over gators to them! Our feet still froze and we had numb feet for weeks afterwards! Ahhhh what a great trip! :)

[Benjamin Destrempes]

I just got back from an 8-day backcountry skiing trip in Quebec. Temperatures of -56C were recorded at night up on the mountains (950m). Luckily, we were camping at roughly 850m so it wasn't just as bad but it definitely was one of the hardest thing I have ever done (woke up two days in a row with stage 1 hypothermia). 8 days in snow shelters with only 1 of our 3 burners working…

[Dustin Short]

I'm with you Nick, I think the coldest I've experienced is 119F ;)

Anna, you're picking up on what I've noticed too. That said…

When I lived in Boston I got caught in the 2005 blizzard crossing the Charles River. I had about 2 feet of snow, temps right around 0, sustained +30mph winds. My gear was skate shoes, hoody, leather jacket, jeans, no gloves (I'm from the desert after all). Took me 20 minutes in an ice cold shower to warm up my extremities. Even though icy, the water felt like it was boiling my feet and hands.

Since then I've come back to my beloved 6 months of summer.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I was a Nordic ski patroller at Lake Placid for the '79 Pre-Olympic World Cup Championships. The last day it was -40 F/C and the snow was like sand to ski on. Spit froze in mid-air and all games were cancelled. We had lots of snow.

In 1980 for the Olympics we had a very mild winter and, due to a poor snow winter, all snow for XC racing was man-made!

Lots of frostbite on faces and ears of athletes that week of sub-zero temperatures.

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