All time coldest skiing experience

[Plakespear]

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.

[iceman]

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.

[fez]

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.

[Theodore]

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.

[Schmear]

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.

[Foggy_Goggles]

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.

[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.
I've skied -40 twice, but wasn't as cold.

[funkendrenchman]

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.

I was skiing there that day, or at least a day just like it.

[KrisSkis]

Originally posted by funkendrenchman
I was skiing there that day, or at least a day just like it.

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

[DaveTV]

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!"
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..

[pointedem]

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.

that was a first.

[snowsprite]

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

[bad_roo]

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.

[This End Up]

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.

[Idris]

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.

[half-fast]

-22 at base -29 at top 30-40 mph winds at night

[bentskis]

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.

[Darkside]

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.

[snowsprite]

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

[EPSkis]

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.

[homerjay]

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.

[G]

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.

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.

[acostiga]

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...

[homerjay]

Was he the beer vendor who used to strip down to blue spandex pants and dance around?

[acostiga]

i believe that's an affirmative.