What's Your Coldest Day on the Slopes?

[ChileMass]

Sub-Zero skiing is GREAT!

The colder it is, the less people are out there. Tune the boards and let them rip!

Inspired by other threads, here's a way to cool off this summer. What was the coldest day/night you ever spent skiing?

Mine was a race day in 8th grade at Black Mountain in Rumford, ME. It was about -20*F air temp and the wind was gusting over 40mph. I could not believe my coaches didn't cancel, but we ran Slalom at 9AM and Giant Slalom at 11, as scheduled. Bundled up in my biggest parka until I was standing in the race gate next to go. Then had to take my coat off and race in my poly shell which was mighty cold!! After lunch we did a 7.5KM cross-country race to finish the day. By the time we finished the X-C race, the traditional fresh orange slices for the racers were frozen solid. Can't recall who won the meet, but it didn't matter. Somebody told me the wind chillf actor that day was less than -60*F when the wind gusted. Never skied in anything like that before or since, thankfully.......

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Late Jan 1971(?) Skied a couple of runs at Onset in -16 air temp. I decided it was too cold and went home. Ended up with Bronchial Pneumonia and in bed for 4 weeks.

I find the snow at temps below 10F to be very slow. The crystals get very sharp, sqeeky and slow. Need a good hard wax!

 

[Greg]

Nothing too impressive. Started a day out at Jiminy Peak at +1*F once. It warmed up to probably about 10*F that day.

 

[teachski]

Two years ago, Burke Mountain,VT
-24 on the bottom but there was a temperature invert and the top was -16.
Fortunately there was no wind, but it was still quite cold riding the slow fg quad. Skiing was fantastic so that kind of made up for the cold.

 

[loafer89]

My coldest day skiing was at Sugarloaf in December 1989(My first visit) We started out the day skiing on the Double Runner East chair with the temperature at -37F, thankfully there was no wind.

My second coldest day was at Mt Orford last January with the temperature at the BASE of -16F without the 10-15mph wind.

 

[Charlie Schuessler]

I just love skiing in sub zero weather. I broke one of my boots in 1989 when the shell shattered from the -28°Temp plus wind chill at Tenney Mountain in NH. Many times we have skied at KILLINGTON where our clip-on thermometers were bottomed-out and nobody but die-hards were outside. My favorite temperature to ski in January in sunshine is around -10°F. The mountain is empty, the terrain is consistent and we can go fast. Spring is for bumps, sunglasses and deck parties!

 

[nancie2k]

don't remember the year in killington, it was minus 20 or so and they said the wind chill was minus 70. they ended up closing the mountain (all of them)and giving vouchers to those who asked i remember getting warmed and sweaty doing needles eye and waiting forever to get on the old chairlift and then being the coldest i have ever been going down great eastern to the bottom. they had to shuttlle everyone to where their cars were . i couldn't stop shaking from the cold!!!

 

[Slimbwoozha]

YES ! i love WINTER

dude i thought that no one would ask the question! not last winter, but the one before! it was about -22 ish... i took my friend from cali and showed her what maine mtns were like.... she didn't like it much.. but i'm kinda crazy... letz see what she had for layers..... at least 2 sweatshirts.. fleece.. long underwear.. my north face down coat.. ll bean big coat... 2 pairs of gloves...it was so funny.. i gave her all my layers because she wasn't used to it.. i ended up getting frostbite on my cheek and i love it.. the is kind of a scar in the right light... but you know what .. it rocked because there was so much wind i could barely get going and all day the lift kept stopping.. but i will never forget it.. i could be crazy, but everyday on my lunch break i look at snow pix... becasue it's the only thing in the world that can make people happy.. snow is never the same.. it's always different going to the mountains everytime.. i love you sugarloaf

 

[Joshua B]

I would rather not think about it. I'm a warm weather skier.

 

[jimme]

Determined to squeeze every penny's worth out of the family season pass, my Dad took us to Gore one sub-freezing day. Because I never heard of temps so low all I remember (except for freezing my butt off) is that at the top of what is now the Adirondack Express chair was a chalkboard sign reading something like SUMMIT WIND CHILL -75! And of course we had to ride the summit chair that day. Also they were handing out blankets for the chair rides.

Last season I did a night (well, 1 1/2 hours anyway) at Jiminy Peak when the base tep was -2. It was too cold for me. Another layer would have helped some, but the extremes are not for me anymore. I may try +5 if I have to. Other than that +10 is about my limit.

Jimme

Funny the weather people can tolerate. I met a couple from Maryland at Jiminy Peak on a +45 or higher degree day and they were bundled up like we are in sub-zero temps. It was kinda funny. . .all us Northerners were hatless, in sweaters or other light gear and those two were not exposing any skin at all.

 

[ChileMass]

Jimme -

Remember the old East Chair double at Gore that went up to the top of Showcase? Man was that thing slow and cold. Just before the station at the top it crosses that little col/wind tunnel and one day I remember the chair stopping for about 10 minutes right there in about a 30mph wind. Thought I'd never get the feeling back in my fingers and toes.......thank goodness they replaced it.....

 

[GadgetRick]

Cold days...

I prefer it cold actually. People laugh at me on the slopes because I ski in a vest much of the year. Anyway, the coldest day I remember was probably the season before last. I believe it was like -23 or so and very windy. I seem to remember a wind chill of like -60. Well, needless to say, I didn't ski with just a vest that day! People were shocked I wasn't in my vest.

The Rickster

 

[jwind]

ehhw...way too many too many to nail down just one. There were quite a few for the books this past season. I skied a few single digit days for sure. If i had to make a guess at my coldest day i'd have to say sometime back in highschool at the loaf. -10 and wipin' wind. The Loaf is is a cold one for sure.

 

[David Metsky]

On slope, either a day at Killington many years ago or Jay 2 years ago, both around -25.

Backcountry, probaby close to -31 up in northern NH. Don't need much kicker wax on days like that.

-dave-

 

[skican]

Cannon, Cannon, Cannon, Cannon, Jay, Sugarloaf. We were at Sugarloaf during that really bad cold spell we had last January. Loved it! I love to ski the really cold weather days. You pretty much had the place to yourself. Three years ago my husband and I tried to ski Jay after years of dreaming about it. The day before we arrived they got 3 feet of snow, the day we left for Jay it was 40 degrees and raining. The next morning it was 4 degrees and snowing sideways, and the next morning it was -4 and still snowing sideways. The mountain never opened except for the Tbar and I had these really old gortex gloves on with a very small hole in them. My fingers literally froze and I was almost in tears when we finally got back to the car. They gave us 4 free lift tickets. We are still trying to make it back.

 

[Zand]

I skiied at Wachusett on January 9th last year and it was -1 at the bottom and -10 at the summit. I skiied in below-zero temps 4 times last year.

 

[jetboy1004]

Skii'd Lake placid two years ago. Spent the night in my RV at the mountain....the heater broke and It was -40F overnight. One VERY Cold night indeed. But we got up and skiid the whole day. Temps never got above -20 and the wind chill made it at least 20 deg. colder. :blink: :blink: :blink: ....The skiing was increadable though.

 

[ChileMass]

As a native of the Adirondacks I can tell you the Lake Placid/Saranac region is the coldest in the Northeast. Snowmobiles aren't just for recreation up there - people go to work on their snowmobiles when the car or truck doesn't start in January/February.......

Whiteface is known locally as "Iceface" when the wind blows.......

 

[pragmaticskier]

About ten years ago -34 at the bottom of Jay, 20 - 30 mph winds. Tram, and Green Moountain chair were on wind hold. Did two runs from the quad and called it a day. I had a great day at Killington on New Years Day (1999?) -15F at the bottom no wind no crowds lots of sunshine.

 

[NickKopan]

Sun Feb 16, 2003 was one of the coldest days in VT that season, and in VT history. Jay's summit temp high was -28 F, with moderate winds and gusts. You could only take one run before going inside, and everyone got temporary frostbite somewhere. The woods (in the shade) provided some warmer air and wind shelter.

Sat Jan 17, 2004 (maybe Sun Jan 25?), the Lincoln Peak summit temp was -30 F at 7:00 AM with light wind. The summit warmed up to -15, but the upper lifts were all closed that day.

Whiteface gets chilly, but no place is as cold as Cannon and the Whites, although Jay is close. The White Mtn peaks regularly get in the -20's during the day time. There's nothing like skiing light crisp snow crystals on an empty mountain in sub -20 weather!