Coldest conditions you've been outdoors in?


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I once started a new game in TWM and after a few hours a blizzard set in. The felt temperature (without clothes) was -73°C. My poor starting clothes hardly made anything better, only +3°C and no windchill bonus. Really love that cozy warm echo chasm cave. :)

Or do you mean irl? -20°C (in the early morning on top of a glacier) while skiing in Switzerland, then. No idea how much with windchill, maybe -30°C.^^ I wore skiing clothes, but it still felt pretty damn cold. Worst of all was that breathing was somehow painful. We went right into the next ski hut, drank some hot chocolate and waited for temperatures to rise. And admired a few locals who actually went skiing. :lol:

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Anchorage, AK, USA hit about -30F one day, it was in the middle of a two-week cold spell, double digits below zero every day. Thank the deities no wind chill! Dead calm, but breathing that air was an entirely new experience. Nose hairs froze instantly and sinuses got all dry and crackly. Dry-mouth took about three breaths. Nose & cheeks began to sting a bit in 5-10 minutes, just walking created an effective wind-chill factor. Vapor cloud from breathing just as opaque as the game depicts, they got that one spot on.

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Dubois, Wyoming, 1972. We owned a ranch at 8000 ft elevation. Calm, sunny morning and it was -52F below zero!! The people who owned the ranch next to ours (over a mile away) were outside talking, and you could hear ever word they said because of the atmospheric conditions!

Did the bare minimum of chores that day and stayed inside.

Even with 3 layers of clothes topped with a snowmobile suit, was too cold to be out more than a half hour.

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Twin cities MN, 1996 February. Extreme cold snap. One town further north was at -60 (-51C) air temp, not counting wind. Where I was, probably right at -40 or so (which happens to be the same F or C) Was in college, car wouldn't start had to walk to class for a test.

Long underwear, thick winter socks, pants, boots, sweatshirt, hat, ski gloves, heavy down parka. I stepped outside and before I got to the end of the sidewalk I turned right back around and got a scarf. I normally don't wear them, but needed something to protect my face from my glasses down. Even with stocking cap and a thick hood up, cold gave me a head-ache, even throught the scarf, my nose hairs would freeze together as I inhaled. It was a real pain keeping the scarf pulled up that high.

When it's that cold, it just grabs ahold of you.

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Two winters ago Chicago fell right in the middle of what they were calling "the polar vortex". We had a few days here where the windchill brought it down to -45 degrees (-43C). Most people wisely stayed home and the downtown of the city was pretty desolate, but of course I got the email from work that "we are expecting everyone to be here so dress warmly!". That was a fun walk.

Luckily I do a lot more winter camping than most Chicagoans and I had the gear needed to stay warm(er).

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  • 11 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Yellowknife in The Northwest Territories. The temperature dropped down to -38 Celsius; with the wind chill it was about -50 out. I was wearing full wool mitts, little polyester under gloves, sorrels, wool socks, liner socks, thermal underwear, thermal undershirt, old wool pants (army) with waterproof liners, scarf, ski goggles, wool toque, polyester blended vest, polyester blended sweater, wool sweater, and a gore tex monsoon. Of course that was for the little amount I was outside, most of my time was spent under a blanket.

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  • 1 month later...

I read this as what lowest temperature in game.

I walked outside of the gas station in Coastal Highway and within moments the "feels like" temperature was 42 below zero (Fahrenheit).  I even had really decent gear in all of the clothing/gear slots.

It was cold.

I posted a video clip of it on my XBox club "The Long Dark Survivor".

Needless to say, I quickly went back inside the gas station.

Ten

 

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Does anyone remember those hilarious video clips from the US a couple of years ago, when there was a particularly cold winter, of people filming themselves chucking cups of boiling water up in the air because they'd heard people say it would freeze in mid-air and fall to the ground as ice? And of course it didn't: it fell on their heads as drops of still very hot water!

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46 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Does anyone remember those hilarious video clips from the US a couple of years ago, when there was a particularly cold winter, of people filming themselves chucking cups of boiling water up in the air because they'd heard people say it would freeze in mid-air and fall to the ground as ice? And of course it didn't: it fell on their heads as drops of still very hot water!

Can't say I do although if the air temp is cold enough you can make some very neat effects doing that. Assuming you're using only a tiny amount of water of course!

For me, the coldest I remember was -20 to -25 with a 40 km/h north wind bringing the temperature down a lot! :D

We were out ice fishing so if you caught something the tips of your fingers would be turning white before you could get the fish off the line. By the time you got back to shore I could barely bend my fingers. I had a little butane stove that we had protected in the lee side of a snowbank. We had the stove on full trying to defrost our hands so we could clean them off and get our mitts back on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Irl.  Fairbanks, Alaska.  -60 F.  I was a 12 year old kid and a couple of is decided to hike out towards the Alaskan pipeline (oil), parents weren't home to keep us out of trouble.  A regular arctic explorer adventure!  It was about 3 miles maybe 4 each way (really rough guess).  We wore snowpants, moon boots, parkas, balaclavas, thick mittens etc.  We were dumb but not that dumb!  Almost there I broke through the ice over a small creek and submerged one foot.  The snow was deep and we were already exhausted as we didnt bring snowshoes or skis so each step was a highstep in heavy gear.  We turned around, were all freezing.  Now I was in a bad way.  I know the signs of hypothermia and we were all there, frostbite threatening my foot.  Except we were so physically exhausted there was no shivering phase.  You know kids are exhausted when kids stop talking smack and it gets quiet, plumes of steam from our breath, just laboring forward.  We were scared too.  At one point we took a break and we just laid down.  Ill never forget how I was so cold but not shivering, my foot didnt hurt anymore from the cold and laying in the snow- I could feel the little heat I had, my life, just being pulled out of me.  I wanted to sleep-and badly, even closed my eyes for a moment, but I had, we all had, read the survival books, the biographies of the arctic expeditions and I knew I would die if I slept.  It was maybe a mile or less back home and I got up, kicked at my friends until they got up (or maybe they kicked me-dont remember now).  We struggled home.  I got home, we were out for 5-6 hours,  took a hot shower (for nearly an hour)  and screamed and cried as my foot thawed.   That night I slept with ALL the extra blankets.  I had no permanent damage to my foot, thank goodness.  Through all of that the thing I remember most clearly is the sweet goddess mother nature, pulling the life out of me, as I lay in the snow, gently and painlessly coaxing me into the long night.  The cold is a patient killer. 

 

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Welcome to the forums @I am Spartacus! ^_^

Eerie story about life in the cold. I've been hypothermic too and I agree, it is very disconcerting! I've never been in that situation though. The few times I've been soaked going through ice or hypothermic I've always been close to a fire or running distance to a house. Thanks for sharing!

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