What's the coldest/most severe weather you've ever skied in?

[hiroto]

-22 at the base of Ragged, with my son then 7 years old.

We went inside after every single run to warm up, but otherwise,
there were no wind and sunny so it wasn't too bad.

 

[snowmonster]

- 20 and dropping (with winds) at Jay Peak in February 2006. My breath froze my balaclava solid. The Green Mountain Freezer was a torture chamber. I day tripped it so there was no way in hell that I was just going to take a few runs and sit in the lodge so I did my best to do it bell to bell. At about 3 pm, there were about 6 of us on the hill and 2 of them were patrollers. At the end of the day, my toes were turning whitish and I had to warm them up before going home.

The other character building exercise was last March at Tucks. Basically, I hiked up in a monsoon with temps hovering just above freezing. There was no one else on the mountain except the caretaker at HoJos. Everything I had was soaked. High avy danger in Tucks itself and travelling solo meant I just did the Sherburne. Basically, I hiked up in cold, wet clothing for about 2 hours to ski one 15 minute run. To make matters worse, I wear glasses and the rain was coming down so hard, I was either skiing with water on my lenses or without glasses (in other words, skiing blind). Oh well, all snow, all conditions!

 

[Geoff]

The thermometer at the top of the K1 gondola this morning read -15F.

 

[hardline]

Stowe, -32, -80 Windchill

3 runs even though there was a foot of fresh. I would've stayed out for more had I had better gloves. By half way down the third run my hands were so cold that it was excruciatingly painful. I spent a half hour in the lodge eventually getting them warmed back up and by then I decided I wasn't going through that again.

January 1993. Stowe, woke up in the morning and it was -35 below without any wind. Most cars would not start. Took a few runs, go warmup. It did hurt to breathe though!

the winter of 93 was freaking cold. there was one day when i was working at the gondi that it was so cold mountain ops where considering closing the mountain because so many people where getting frost bite. any exposed skin would freeze in a couple of min. i thing it was around -45 before wind chill with the wind chill it between -65 and -75. o this was at the base. i forgot what it was at the top but it was colder.

 

[ripzillia]

Those are some impressive numbers,plus that darn wind chill. But the Snow is super. I had the experience of living in the Yukon Terr.of AK as a R/D Metrerologist. You want to talk about Artic Winter! Took 20 minuters to get dressed.

 

[JD]

Those are some impressive numbers,plus that darn wind chill. But the Snow is super. I had the experience of living in the Yukon Terr.of AK as a R/D Metrerologist. You want to talk about Artic Winter! Took 20 minuters to get dressed.

That sounds fun. What was the coldest ambient air temp you recorded?

 

[ripzillia]

Well now that's a trick question right there.;-)
However,Ambient temp. w/o W.C. around -60F. & w/-75F.
You see when it gets down to a certain ambient temp. w/ a wind chill factor it can get only so cold and no colder. Why because WC only measures how fast a body will freeze and how much energy (K/Cals) are being used in a period of time. It can get colder but WC is not the correct way to measure true Ambient Tempretures. Those MET. parameter measurements are used for testing machines/equipment not men. Sorry I guess It got away from me.

 

[ripzillia]

A little research from the WWW.
A much overused and misused measurement
Wind chill factors are supposed to measure the effect of the combination of temperature and wind speed on human comfort. It is important to remember that these do not have the same effect on inanimate objects, or even on other animals or on plants. Nor is this effect felt by humans who are sheltered from the wind.

Wind chill factors can be expressed as an equivalent temperature on either the Celsius or Fahrenheit scale, or in units of power per unit area. In Canada, wind chill factors are often reported as heat loss in watts per square metre.

Wind chill factors are often published as tables. There are many such published tables here in the U.S., and most of them don't agree exactly on all the equivalents.

 

[billski]

You want to talk about Artic Winter! Took 20 minuters to get dressed.

I don't think I'd be taking any clothes off until spring!

 

[Marc]

Well now that's a trick question right there.;-)
However,Ambient temp. w/o W.C. around -60F. & w/-75F.
You see when it gets down to a certain ambient temp. w/ a wind chill factor it can get only so cold and no colder. Why because WC only measures how fast a body will freeze and how much energy (K/Cals) are being used in a period of time. It can get colder but WC is not the correct way to measure true Ambient Tempretures. Those MET. parameter measurements are used for testing machines/equipment not men. Sorry I guess It got away from me.

I don' t mind. People think wind chill has something to do with the actual temperature. It really doesn't. There's only one true air temp at a given location, moving (wind) or not. Wind chill temperature, from what I understand, correlates heat loss from an average human (what you were saying, ripzilla). So an average human loses X kW of heat (per time) at -30F and blowing 30 mph, then the wc factor is -50F (for example) because an average human would lose X kW at -50F with no wind blowing. Hence -30F and 30 mph should "feel" to the average human like -50F and calm. Of course energy transfer from a human all depends on who the human is and what they're wearing, etc. etc. I still rather they just report the ambient with the wind speed and humidity and I'll figure out for myself what that means to me.

Is that about right rip?

 

[Geoff]

You want to talk about Artic Winter! Took 20 minuters to get dressed.

20 minutes... Hmmm... Big Jack Daniels stash?

 

[ripzillia]

Xactly Marc. As close as you can get. The Wind has a way of draining Energy from a person that even measurements aren't exact. A Temp./Humidty Index graph is used to get a time/temp/activity frame. That's what is all about. Hot or Cold can kill you. Did a B.S. paper on Weather Folklore. Good stuff.

 

[ripzillia]

20 minutes... Hmmm... Big Jack Daniels stash?

There was some drinking done....:lol:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Xactly Marc. As close as you can get. The Wind has a way of draining Energy from a person that even measurements aren't exact. A Temp./Humidty Index graph is used to get a time/temp/activity frame. That's what is all about. Hot or Cold can kill you. Did a B.S. paper on Weather Folklore. Good stuff.

I miss my weather and climate class with the Vermont State Climatoligist..it's fascinating..if I run out of skiing things to look at online..then I look at weather sites..

 

[ripzillia]

here'a my little weather link page you might like to scope. GC
http://www.ridgeview-acres.com/weathermaps.htm

 

[drjeff]

NOT yesterday

 

[billski]

here'a my little weather link page you might like to scope. GC
http://www.ridgeview-acres.com/weathermaps.htm

Unisys seems to have carved out a nice little market niche in meteorology. And to think they were once one of the dominant computing players!

 

[jaywbigred]

Park City Mountain Resort back in 1977 - thunder snow! The wind was blowing from directly behind the chairs and they were running it slowed down, powered by the diesel auxillary. Thunder Snow!

Lol. Thunder snow = what my gf and her family call it when you fart audibly while skiing, as in "Dad, what was that?," "Oh that was nothing sweety, just some Thunder Snow." Love it.

the winter of 93 was freaking cold. there was one day when i was working at the gondi that it was so cold mountain ops where considering closing the mountain because so many people where getting frost bite. any exposed skin would freeze in a couple of min. i thing it was around -45 before wind chill with the wind chill it between -65 and -75. o this was at the base. i forgot what it was at the top but it was colder.

I dunno how cold it was but I got frostbite on both my ears that winter at Stowe during a blizzard. Snow was fabulous though.

Other than that, I've skied in the -20 to -30 range (non WC) a few times, where lifties wouldn't let you on the lifts if you had skin exposed. Its amazing how a small breeze makes a big diff. on days like that.

 

[Angus]

my coldest day was sugarloaf mid-January '82 - went back a few years ago and saw that record cold was set on or the around my visit. five runs - frost bite each time, sent back to the lodge. remember skiing down and the cold was penetrating through my jacket which was a huge down-filled thing & a couple of sweaters. It was horrible. I did not ski for the rest of the year - gave up my student pass and didn't ski the following season either. discovered the joys of sugarloaf during the winter of '84. the wind whipping across the valley was unbelievable. a few years back I skied at wildcat on a very cold day with very heavy sustained winds - below-zero air temp at the base all day long - and it was completely comfortable with all the new ski-wear- pants, jackets and masks.

 

[bobbutts]

too long ago to remember details but one time less than -30
could not breathe well in the valley but was warmer on the hill
another time -10's or colder with a strong wind
mild frostbite on my ears through hats and very cold even with gear both of those times