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Contest for the C-C-C-Coldest!

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It is winter and some of us are shoveling these days. What better topic for a contest?

Tell us about the time you were the coldest you have ever been.

Random.org will select the winners in a few days - yes, I said winners! There will be three chosen so everyone has a much better chance of winning. Here is what each winner gets: A $50.00 credit to buy anything in our store and, believe me, there is a lot to choose from these days: All Products — Captain's Choice - https://www.captainschoicestore.com/all

It may be after the winners are chosen that The Captain will tell a tale about his experience in the cold he won't ever forget.
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
I grew up in Cleveland, so I've shoveled my share of snow, but Cold is something else ... The coldest temperature I ever experienced was about minus -18° F, while hunting Up North in Michigan - our camp was 5 miles south of the Icebox of the Nation. But the coldest I ever felt was while ski camping in the White Mountains (New Hampshire) circa 1975, I did 2 nights and am still cold thinking about it. Something like - 10° F overnight, maybe 15° daytime if the sun came out. You had a tendency to get overheated while skiing & get wet with sweat, which was not good when you stopped. The tent wasn't equipped for all out winter camping - condensation from your breath freeze-coated the inside walls as you slept & got dropped on everything when you brushed a pole or wall when you woke up. Brutal. Never was tempted to go again.
 
We usually hit our cold spell in January here in northern MN and I remember about 25 years ago, give or take, we hit our cold spell of daytimes highs of around -25F to -30F and overnight lows of close to -50F. Coldest winter I had ever remembered. I worked evening shift and the company I work for has plug ins for our vehicles and I plugged mine in at arrival and when I come to leave my car would not turn over. I thought someone unplugged and when I grabbed the cord it shorted out and broke off. I, and about a dozen others, had to have our vehicles pulled into the building to warm up. It was so cold I could not even turn the wheel to steer it, the pickup and to skid in whatever direction I needed to go. It took about an hour to warm up enough to turn over and it fired up. Another half hour of letting it idle to get all the frost cleared from inside the car due to when it entered the warm loading docks. We usually hit these cold spells for 2 weeks but don't ever remember where we get beyond the -40F mark very often.
 
Ah yes, I remember it well.

Dec. 26th 1993 – Buffalo Bills vs. N.Y. Jets in Orchard Park, NY. Wind chill of -28. One of the coldest NFL games ever apparently.

We took a bus from Toronto to Buffalo and the only warmth of the day was in the bus to and from the game. Of course, having a few morning adult beverages in the bus on the way didn’t prepare me for the insane cold and wind I would have to endure all frigging day! Kicked out of the bus into a crazy tailgating party in the parking lot at 10:00am and outside in the freezing cold until 5pm. People were staying in the bathrooms to avoid the cold. It was insane.

I am Canadian and was freezing all day. Humans aren’t built for that kinda thing!
 
When we were kids my brother and I used to hook one of those old rail sleds to a rope on the back of the 4-wheeler. We'd lock our arms between the rails and the wood and the other would drive the 4-wheeler as fast and hard as they could through an open field and then whip the person on the sled around and over to see who could hold on the longest.

It was probably very unsafe and we are probably lucky to still be alive.

But regardless of how well you dressed for such an event you ended up with snow everywhere - in your gloves, down your coat, in your pants.

We'd come in shivering and sore but laughing heartily.

I miss those carefree days!
 
It was a sunny day in Greece. The temperature was 42C or 107,6F. Most of the people on holidays. I was working in a bread industry.

We had stock-taking (cycle counting) for that month, end of of August...my birthday date.

People with special suits, were working in the refrigerator. No other special suit was available. The temperature was -25C or -13F. There was a problem and I had to go in too with the others. I was wearing just my suit. I went in. I had to go in. I stayed there for 30 minutes with two breaks of two minutes. The job was done. I am still alive.

Just think of the temperature difference...
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
Probably on a construction site. Framing a house at the early stages. Outside with no shelter other than probably sitting in a truck which no one would do. I remember my hands being so dry afterwards with splits in this skin.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
My story was more of a month long period of too stinkin' cold.
Had to be around 1980, maybe a couple years on either side of it. It was in January. Maybe just after Christmas to the first week of February.
Michigan is really blessed compared to the folks in Wisconsin. Lake Michigan really keeps our temps moderate. But this one Winter it must've froze over early or something. Seems to me we had 40 days where the temperature never got even close to 32 degrees Fahrenheit for the high, most days right around 0 degrees. Lows that were low enough to freeze the stinkin' fuel oil lines; we were glad we had a woodstove!
I think that was the first winter I started dreaming of moving to warmer climes, like Ohio, lol.

You guys that have it ugly like in the Dakota's and Minnesota have my sympathy. If I'd have been born there I'd have moved to coastal Alaska by now!
 
Living in the west coast, we tend to get a month of "Winter" and then rest of summer. Even the coldest day will be around 40F which isn't too bad?

Looking back on past experiences, I could remember one time; it wasn't snowing but it was definitely cold. It was November couple years back in Las Vegas and my friends and I were just roaming around, looking for things to do. I remember it was pretty hot in the afternoon so before we headed out, I dressed up in polos and jeans. By 6-7pm, it was dark out and the breeze started hitting. Still roaming around, I find an In-N-Out in the corner. I just had to get a milkshake at that point so I got a healthy size of chocolate milkshake. Here I am freezing outside while eating a cold milkshake, regretting the purchase. My hands were freezing and my inside was ready to go back to the warm hotel. That was a memorable experience for me and it could've been prevented with a jacket and not getting the milkshake.
 
I had just taken a job with a retail company. One of my first assignments was to be sent to Puerto Rico in late February. I went from NYC to San Juan. After a few days, my boss called and said I was needed in Duluth MN. I left San Juan where it was 82 degrees F. My first stop was Chicago where it was -2 degrees F. In those days to get on a commuter flight you had to climb the stairs and be subject to the elements. The remainder of my flights would find me on North Central Airlines. I had on a summer-weight suit and a light raincoat when I boarded the flight. The next stop was Green Bay WI. I climbed down the stairs to get to my next flight. It was -15 degrees F. Two stops later I arrived in Duluth - where it was -20! To go from 82 degrees to -20 is cruel and unusual punishment. I never felt so cold.

The regional office rep I was working with told me he had booked us in a Best Western Hotel overlooking Lake Superior. Unfortunately, this motel had only outside door rooms. The result was that every time you opened the door the temp dropped what felt like was 20 degrees.

That began a career where I seem to visit the coldest parts of the U.S. in the winter and the hottest in the summer.
 
My story was more of a month long period of too stinkin' cold.
Had to be around 1980, maybe a couple years on either side of it. It was in January. Maybe just after Christmas to the first week of February.
Michigan is really blessed compared to the folks in Wisconsin. Lake Michigan really keeps our temps moderate. But this one Winter it must've froze over early or something. Seems to me we had 40 days where the temperature never got even close to 32 degrees Fahrenheit for the high, most days right around 0 degrees. Lows that were low enough to freeze the stinkin' fuel oil lines; we were glad we had a woodstove!
I think that was the first winter I started dreaming of moving to warmer climes, like Ohio, lol.

You guys that have it ugly like in the Dakota's and Minnesota have my sympathy. If I'd have been born there I'd have moved to coastal Alaska by now!

Not all of Michigan is blessed. I have traveled to Escanaba, Marquette, and Hancock MI where it can get extremely cold. In fact, I have never seen as much snow as I saw in Hancock. Their average snowfall is over 200" a year. When I visited that town I saw houses that were completely snowed in and the only access was from the second floor!
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Not all of Michigan is blessed. I have traveled to Escanaba, Marquette, and Hancock MI where it can get extremely cold. In fact, I have never seen as much snow as I saw in Hancock. Their average snowfall is over 200" a year. When I visited that town I saw houses that were completely snowed in and the only access was from the second floor!
This is true. "lake effect snow" is why the whole west side of any of our lakes get dumped on. Feels like even a pond can do it, lol!

I'd never move to Buffalo NY. Can't imagine. I have a young friend in Skool at Michigan Tech. Lol, you gotta tie a rope around yourself so they can pull you out of an immediate drift!

But our temperatures are hard to beat here.
 
My honeymoon. My wife and I live in Arizona. We were pretty broke from the wedding itself (and student loans, and a new mortgage), but we wanted to go somewhere that actually had a real fall season. A friend of ours offered the use of their home in New Hampshire that they only use in the summer. This was early October and the lows were around 15 - 20 F. Perfect weather...if you have heat.

We didn't find out until after we got there that it was a 110-year-old farmhouse with no central heat. The fireplace hadn't been used in over 20 years, and being AZ and CA natives, neither of us felt comfortable enough with our ability to clean out the fireplace properly and not set the 110-year-old house on fire. Since they only use the house in the summer, they didn't have any heavy blankets either. Luckily we brought our warm pajamas and robes. Not exactly the honeymoon either of us was expecting, but it was certainly memorable.

I actually owe my wife a do-over for the honeymoon. We were planning to do that last year, but the dreaded C-word has postponed it.

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FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I had just taken a job with a retail company. One of my first assignments was to be sent to Puerto Rico in late February. I went from NYC to San Juan. After a few days, my boss called and said I was needed in Duluth MN. I left San Juan where it was 82 degrees F. My first stop was Chicago where it was -2 degrees F. In those days to get on a commuter flight you had to climb the stairs and be subject to the elements. The remainder of my flights would find me on North Central Airlines. I had on a summer-weight suit and a light raincoat when I boarded the flight. The next stop was Green Bay WI. I climbed down the stairs to get to my next flight. It was -15 degrees F. Two stops later I arrived in Duluth - where it was -20! To go from 82 degrees to -20 is cruel and unusual punishment. I never felt so cold.

The regional office rep I was working with told me he had booked us in a Best Western Hotel overlooking Lake Superior. Unfortunately, this motel had only outside door rooms. The result was that every time you opened the door the temp dropped what felt like was 20 degrees.

That began a career where I seem to visit the coldest parts of the U.S. in the winter and the hottest in the summer.
There was never any question, but you are a better man than me! Wow. Reminds me of a trip home from Spring Training. I think it was a 90 degree swing.
 
Can't remember the year or the temp. I was chaining up my truck on I70 in Colorado after chaining one side of the truck I had to go back into the cab to warm up after chaining up the other side and putting chains on one set of tandems on the trailer got back into the cab and fell asleep for about 2 hours. After climbing to the summit and then started down the mountain I pulled over took my iron off found a truck stop went to sleep until the morning. I never felt so cold in my life during that ordeal.

Sent from my SM-T387V using Tapatalk
 
Where I live now in South Dakota we regularly experience temps below zero in the winter. We typically see lows in the -20 degree range sometime during the winter. This winter it has been unusually mild. Knocking on wood. However the coldest I have ever been was during the Winter of 1980-1981. I was at Great Lakes Naval Base near Waukegan, Illinois. I had the midnight to 4 am security alert watch which had us making rounds on foot in minus zero temps. Our uniforms were not up to the task of keeping us warm. I remember going to bed right after for a few hours and I was still cold when I got up a couple of hours later. I was frozen to the bone.
 
I think I was about 13 years old when we went on a winter Boy Scout camping trip in upstate New York near the Canadian border. I don't remember checking, but the temps had to be below zero. We were near a lake, and examinng the ice-fishing holes showed the ice thickness was about three feet.

After pitching our tents for the night, we piled snow (2-3 feet deep) up against the tent walls to improve the insulation effect. Somehow overnight, the foot box of my sleeping bag became soaked, and must have moved in my sleep, because when I woke up, the sleeping bag (and my feet) were outside the tent. Fortunately, I don't believe I suffered frostbite, but I have rarely felt such pain as I did while my feet warmed up! The rest of the campout was a blast, though!
 
It's been a few years ago (maybe 2012 or 2013) that we had a cold snap. The high temps did not get to zero for 40-some odd hours and then poked up to +1 and right below. Once the temps started to rise, we had all kinds of fine snow that had to be removed. I really have come to appreciate mild winters.
 

KeenDogg

Slays On Fleek - For Rizz
I walked 12 blocks to school with my brother in the blizzard of 93. He didn't wear a coat and it was 1 degree outside. We woke up late, walked the whole way up there, only to find out school had been canceled for the 5th day in a row. The building was locked, we couldn't warm up inside. Luckily a McDonald's was 3 blocks over. We went in to warm up, then walked back home. What a day.
 
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