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Dec. 1997, Holiday Valley, NY. It was one of those days where there was a patch of warmer air above the ground level. It was raining, but surface temps were right around freezing. I was soaked to the bones, and even with the heat on full blast the entire drive back to Fredonia I was still shivering until I had a hot shower back at my apartment. I've been out on colder days, but have never felt that cold before or since.
Easy. I've skied at minus 30, minus 35 and even one day at minus 40 F, but the coldest ever was a zero day at Killington with the wind 15-25, gusts to 40, stuck on the old K1 chair for almost two hours.
I'd gone beyond shivering, I was pretty sure I was gonna die.
Burke Mt Vermont, -40 and howling wind. For some reason my dad wanted to keep skiing so my brother and i were playing drinking games in the lodge.
mid January '99. First ski trip ever to escape reality after my dad died. Night skiing at Keystone, not sure but I think temps were around 0 and winds were up there too. Couldn't talk right for awhile after cause my face wasn't moving right.
Waiting in the tram line before dawn on a crisp, -30 (it later warmed to about +10) Jackson Hole morning. You can only move so much when packed like a sardine for three hours.
Growing up racing on the EC, its hard to remember the coldest. I do remember being on the Madonna double at Smuggs once with the lift stopped banging against the top tower. Loogies were freezing on impact. Once the windchill meets a certain level, it is simply ridiculous cold. Temp does not matter.
-17 at the bottom of Kmart, I was at the top of Skyelark about to run GS, stripped down to GS suit (which is like wearing long underwear and nothing else), winds gusting 50+, I'm in the gate and...the timing system breaks. Was probably 10-15 minutes, but felt like hours.
I've skied -40 twice, but wasn't as cold.
I was skiing there that day, or at least a day just like it.Quote:
Originally posted by Dexter Rutecki
-17 at the bottom of Kmart, I was at the top of Skyelark about to run GS, stripped down to GS suit (which is like wearing long underwear and nothing else), winds gusting 50+, I'm in the gate and...the timing system breaks. Was probably 10-15 minutes, but felt like hours.
Oh hell yea...me too...-15 and winds howling at 25MPH...Killington peak...i thought i would freeze right then and there and never make it down the mtn...the best was the frozen snot coming out of the ski mask :eek:Quote:
Originally posted by funkendrenchman
I was skiing there that day, or at least a day just like it.
Some years back, riding a quad at Sunday River, Maine with three strangers- we had just come out of a nasty cold spell, temp was about 15 above - this guy is bitching about the cold, how you New Englanders were crazy to ski in this, yada, yada yada - he's from Cali, talking about how much better at Tahoe the weather &skiing is, what are we all doing out that day etc.. now this is the first day out of single digits/below zero in weeks.. I look at the other two guys and we all start laughing - "Pal: this is fucking BEACH weather!":p :p
As far as the coldest day I have had way too many to pick one, but I can tell ya Colorado CAN get there occasionally as well- I've driven up to Summit Cty, taken one run and got right back in the car and headed down on several occasions..
This winter, january maybe
-25, with winds at 25-30 mph.
it was a catch 22.. you wanted to go faster, but the faster you went the colder you got. There was noone skiing, so it was tempting to go very fast. Stupid cold.
This was during the ice age that decended on VT this winter. i remember throwing a cup of boiling water in the air, and it would turn into steam and float away- nothing would hit the ground.:eek:
that was a first.
You know, when your mask freezes solid it actually keeps your face warmer. It blocks the wind better.
I did 3 days this year that were beyond description at Killington and Sugarbush. So cold that only a handful of crazy SOBs were out on the slopes. The upside of course is no lift lines. The downside, in some cases...no lift!
Sprite
Got stuck on a chair up near the Pisaillas Glacier at Val d'Isere wearing a hoodie. Wind was ripping, temperature hovering about -15. Went hypothermic in about fifteen minutes. Very weird experience.
Two years ago at brecken-fridge. My own fault, dressed for a bluebird day, which it was, until I got on the T-bar. The windward side of my face basically quit working. Almost fell over, like a true gaper on a surface lift, while trying to put on a warmer hat.
Coldest temps, probably Poland New year 91'-92'...coldest I've been skiing, Scotland, Glenshee racing in +3C 100mph wind and lots of rain....padded racing jumper did nothing to keep me dry or warm.....was cold til south of Glasgow on the way home with thw cars heater on Max.
-22 at base -29 at top 30-40 mph winds at night
Stowe - 0 degrees at base, with -40 windchill. No idea what it was at the summit. I put my arms out and was blown uphill at the lift summit. I pulled off a skin layer(s)on my ears the same shape as my earlobes that was dead and solid from frostbite. However, they had received 3' in the past 3 days and it was snowing while I was there, so it was well worth it. Did it again the next day, but it wasn't as windy. Probably one of the best skiing weekends of my life.
Skied in -20 high temps in Quebec, not nearly as cold.
Probably when I was a teenager (about 7 or 8 years ago at Stowe and Sugarbush. The word was that the day we skied Sugarbush it was 60 below with the wind chill, and they recorded 90 below with the wind chill at the top of Mount Mansfield. I think my mom officially quit skiing that weekend.
Aw, tell mom to sack up and get back out there & ski....it couldn't have been worse then the childbirth.
And then run like hell.
Sprite
We've done this before...
-65 on the Madonna peak at Smuggs. Don't remember the wind speed, but it was howling.
Couldn't buy a lift ticket if you had exposed skin of any kind.
Not skiing, but 3 Rivers Stadium, circa 1992, Steelers v. Oilers playoff game. My molten nacho cheese froze within seconds of hitting the ground when spilled.
When I was in high school near Boston, I organized ski trips up to sunday river through my school.
One cold day we load up the bus at 5 a.m. and head out for a nearly four hour drive. When we arrive in the parking lot, a ski patroller meets the school's chaperone and explains exactly how dangerously cold it is, and that the management recommends we come back another day.:mad:
Ther stupid chaperone agrees, and we turn right around and drive back home again!
Or, there's the day when Me and a buddy decide to go ski tuckermans, on mt washington.
We load up our packs, and carry our skis up the access road. In the short time it takes us to hike up, our lunch has frozen, even the apples in my pack were rock solid.
When we get to the base of the headwall, it's time to boot up and start doing some front-pointing up the hill. Unfortunately, my partner's race boots are so cold and frozen stiff that he can't get his foot into them! Even the two of us together can't open them up enough to make room for him to slide in.
It was a long walk back down again.
i totally remember that game. fuggin' cold. our season tickets were in section 620, last row. and by last row, i mean last row. we could stand on our seats and look up and out of the stadium to where the clark building stands.
either way, the beer vendor still came out at the beginning of the fourth quarter and pulled one of these:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall.../p10browns.jpg
he used to come out and pour two iron cities over himself, but at some point had to switch to water. see him at pens games now and then also...
Was he the beer vendor who used to strip down to blue spandex pants and dance around?
i believe that's an affirmative.
It was cold and clear -20° down by my house the sun was just coming up, two good runs were had at hatchers pass, an inversion made the high country quite comfortable and the sun beat down on us as we hiked the savage beast that is darkness in november swallowed us temperatures dropped probably from 0 (quite comfy) to about minus 30 (not quite as comfy) when we had the bright idea to stop for lunch, while chewing frozen cliff bars and drinking awesome hot chocolate my gloves decided to freeze. With now frozen hands we started scouting a place for a kicker but in the cold all I could think about was my hands not freezing off. I threw off my gloves and put my hands on my bare skin to warm them up, no sooner were they warm and in the gloves then they were cold again. That was the only time I've been afraid of frostbite. I did get frostbite on my nipples once when I did a race in -4° weather before I learned that long underwhere goes under your spandex, sure as hell taught me a lesson
This year at Sunday River, there was a day where the high was minus 1 F. Not terribly bad; seen worse. But the winds were sustained around 20 and gusting well over 50. You have to love the wide trails at the River. They get that wind cranking up to hurricane force all the time. I have a Karbon race jacket from ski team in college. It's bombproof, and it blocks the wind perfectly. On this day, it cut through it like I had a mesh shirt on. I decided to traverse over to one of the peaks on the far side of the resort. I got over there, I got in line and as I was about to get on, they stopped me and said they were shutting the lift down. Missed it by one chair. Turns out they recorded 100 mph winds that day at the top of the lift. Took another chair to head back, and just before I got to the top (the part where it's all exposed), it stopped. I waited in the gusting winds for 10 minutes. Skied down, took another lift, and the same thing happened: got stuck at the top. I never seemto have a problem with the wind getting in around my goggles and helmet. That day I did, and it was enough to give me a headache.
One of the worst experiences I've had is trying to jump start a car in -25 F weather. The cables become so stiff you can hardly untangle them. Then you have to get the jumpers on the battery terminals. Any glove with enough dexterity does nothing to keep your hands warm.
spring break about 4 years ago at JH. 60 mph winds, everything worth a shit closed. frostbite under chin that did not thaw for about two days and under goggle line. I spend 3.5 years in Chicago and never experienced wind like that. My least favorite weather element took on a life of it's own that day.
There was this one day in Tahoe it was, like, 25 degrees. Freaking cold as shit ;)! We had to go in between runs for lattes.
I used to live across the street from Buck Hill in Minnesota and remember walking home one day convinced I was going to die before I made it the half mile to my house. Dunno the temp, mebbe -20? Windy too. Got two runs before I bailed, which took about six minutes.
Two times -
Skiing at Jackson for a few years I experienced some cold ass days waiting in line for the tram. Typically it can be -30 to -40 at the base and around 0 at the top of the hill. Nothing to do but try and keep the toes from freezing in tram line.
Skiing at Stowe as a kid. I remember getting stuck on the single chair (yes I'm that old) without a blanket during one of those balmy January days. Anyone else remember the blankets they would give you at Stowe? I would love to find one of those.
elevens
Sugarloaf, Maine.
December 2001.
"Gee, why isn't anybody riding the Timberline lift to the top?"
...because the winds were so horrible that they pushed me back up the hill as I was trying to bomb down.
Note: only bombing because it was so friggin' cold I didn't want to waste a millisecond before getting into a lodge. I believe I actually plopped myself down in the middle of an entire family who was sitting together... didn't even apologize.. didn't have to.. they knew.