Frozen nose hair: what are your extreme cold experiences?

[TheVat]

I was reminded this morning, walking outside, that -10 F. is roughly where my nose hair freezes and crackles if I don't put on a face mask or neck gaiter and there's some breeze.  We are headed to minus 20 tonight, and possibly minus 22 tomorrow, which is about as cold as I've personally experienced since Dec. 3, 1970, which was minus 29 in Lincoln, NE.  We children were out that day, but since it was a week night (and school was rarely cancelled there for just cold), the parents vetoed staying up into the wee hours to have the full Shackletonian experience. 

The windchill tomorrow night could reach that magical number that is the same temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, minus 40.  

In most of those years since 1970, I did not solve the extreme cold weather problem of wearing both a scarf or neck gaiter, and glasses.  Some breath always worked its way upwards from the scarf and fogged the glasses.  It was the discovery of the securely fitted and valved N95 mask that finally fixed that.  Not stylish, but it does the job.  

 

 

 

[iNow]

My beard hairs grow fat bulgy icicles after a few minutes out clearing snow. The humidity in my exhaled breath is enough to make me look like I just had a juicy make-out session with Frosty’s crystally curvy wife. ⛄️❄️

 

#The air shouldn’t make my face hurt 

[TheVat]

6 hours ago, iNow said:

look like I just had a juicy make-out session with Frosty’s crystally curvy wife. ⛄️❄️

Ha!

Perhaps she felt her husband's carrot was in the wrong place.

 

[Mordred]

Lol currently I'm at minus 42 Celsius. Gotta love Canada

[zapatos]

I had an early morning class Freshman year of college. I remember walking to class with the wind blowing in my face. By the time I got there I had little balls of ice on my eyelashes. Don't know the temperature that day but it was my weirdest experience with the cold.

[Genady]

In my early teens, I flew from my warm southern city of Baku to Moscow first time, in winter. I remember a shock of the first breath when I got out of the plane. I simply couldn't take it. My nose was shut with ice.

[iNow]

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

Perhaps she felt her husband's carrot was in the wrong place.

Lol. Frosty had no carrot!

They rode that poor eunuch hard and put him away wet. 
 

54 minutes ago, Mordred said:

Lol currently I'm at minus 42 Celsius. Gotta love Canada

We’ll be that cold tomorrow night. At least when I’m clearing snow before then tomorrow morning it’ll be relatively warmer at a “feels like” temp of only -30F… -8 actual. 

9 hours ago, TheVat said:

what are your extreme cold experiences?

Depends rather a lot on whether or not I’ve had coffee, how much, and how long ago ☕️ 

[CharonY]

Missing a bus and waiting for ~30 mins at around -35 C was fairly unpleasant. 

[TheVat]

Icy beards and eyelashes, minus 42 C., Baku to Moscow for first time, minus 35 C. bus wait - all sound fairly unpleasant.  When the cold gets to things like ears and feet and hands, the misery is great.  I find feet the trickiest to maintain warmth.  As, apparently, did members of Robert Falcon Scott's tragic expedition.  

Any warming tips anyone has to offer (that aren't the usual obvious ones)?  When I was a child, carrying a freshly baked wrapped potato was a common one.  Handy for at least 20 minutes, and if your mittens got wet or your hands just got frozen anyway, you could wrap hands around the spud.  Now they've got the exothermic hand warmers that use sodium acetate or similar.  But you can't eat them later.  

[Sensei]

 

On 12/21/2022 at 6:38 PM, TheVat said:

what are your extreme cold experiences?

Does dry ice (-78.5 C) count.. ?

and/or Liquid Nitrogen and/or Liquid Helium?

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Sensei

[geordief]

16 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Any warming tips anyone has to offer (that aren't the usual obvious

A friend used to carry a pet mouse in his pocket..

When I once  worked in a fish  factory we used to fill the freezer storage room at the end of the day and my fellow workers included  me in their ongoing game of locking each other in.

 

I didn't take the joke one bit well and I don't remember it happening again.

[mistermack]

6 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Any warming tips anyone has to offer (that aren't the usual obvious ones)? 

I don't know if this is one of the obvious ones, but they work really well and stay warm for hours. You can put one in your sleeping bag by your feet. There is no flame :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325472822274?hash=item4bc7b12402:g:~FkAAOSwlzNjVOZc&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoM3xJbY6eUX%2F3XLG0X09wgOJsA93nKiy%2FBPkUHj2HNP4MlEK5zVvxNhJDtljXy037UiY%2F2FaXaPWzmKhUwkFkbyw99ajyuqbCvqzdrNl4aAlQw0uFEq1oPRdL8vTtZk7U5rf%2BsyHmT2vt9xbcJ9QJ6JOZpC3T%2BuZYkKnh8s%2BahFAhp%2FFKZY9aUuLPiHPBaWlYa1y3IFo32T0Yl%2B%2FSrDURk0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR77d4IaoYQ   

If you fancy something more instant, you could try my own invention. I have a stainless steel bar, about 18cm long and 2cm Diameter. Quite a solid item. I heat it up with a gas lighter, it's a powerful one with three jets. Once it's nice and warm, you just hold it till it cools, which takes quite a while, and then you can warm it up again. You can do the same with a small glass jar, if you can't find a suitable bit of steel. 

I can remember years ago, we used to play golf in crazy weather. One day, in freezing rain, I put my hand to my head, and the top of my head was a sheet of ice, sitting on top of my hair like a hat ! I had to leave it, or risk pulling my hair out. 

[iNow]

14 minutes ago, mistermack said:

One day, in freezing rain, I put my hand to my head, and the top of my head was a sheet of ice, sitting on top of my hair like a hat ! I had to leave it, or risk pulling my hair out. 

That’s bananas! I’ve had hair freeze a bit from being slightly damp but nothing like that 

[mistermack]

1 minute ago, iNow said:

That’s bananas! I’ve had hair freeze a bit from being slightly damp but nothing like that 

Even weirder, the only time I've had anything like it was when I was a kid. We used to play in the undergrowth, and one time, my hair felt funny, and I put my hand on top of my head, and my hair was a solid crust. (in the summer this was). 

It was actually because a snail had somehow got on my hair, and gone around and around in circles looking for the exit. He was gone, but the slime trail he left had dried hard, and my hair was like a sheet of cardboard !  

[Genady]

6 minutes ago, mistermack said:

Even weirder, the only time I've had anything like it was when I was a kid. We used to play in the undergrowth, and one time, my hair felt funny, and I put my hand on top of my head, and my hair was a solid crust. (in the summer this was). 

It was actually because a snail had somehow got on my hair, and gone around and around in circles looking for the exit. He was gone, but the slime trail he left had dried hard, and my hair was like a sheet of cardboard !  

I also had once my hair in a solid crust, unrelated to ice. Back in Baku, after swimming in the Caspian Sea. It was a blob of mazut. Evidently, I swam through it. Caspian Sea, especially around Baku, was heavily polluted back then, as the main source of oil in the USSR was there.

[CharonY]

3 hours ago, TheVat said:

Now they've got the exothermic hand warmers that use sodium acetate or similar.  But you can't eat them later.  

You are not my boss, you cannot tell me what to do! I think most good ways to maintain temperature are actually the obvious ones (wear layers, cover exposed skin, shelter from wind, etc.). Many others things offer temporary relief, but once we are past the -20C (and wind chill!) things get rather complicated (or easy, depending on perspective).

 

[StringJunky]

Apparently, in mountaineering they avoid cotton next to the skin because it is hydrophillic a cotton layer can kill. Definitely avoid it in socks in the cold. 

[mistermack]

One tip not widely known. If someone is suffering from a severe case of hypothermia, it can be dangerous to warm them up by applying heat to the skin, like in a bath or shower.

When you get really chilled, the body directs warm blood to the core, and lets the extremities get cold. If you then apply heat to the skin, it sends a false message to the system, and the body directs cold blood from the extremities to the internal organs, including the heart, and that can cause failure in a healthy heart. It's best to just dry and wrap the patient, and give hot drinks, allowing them to warm up from within. 

[CharonY]

2 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Apparently, in mountaineering they avoid cotton next to the skin because it is hydrophillic a cotton layer can kill. Definitely avoid it in socks in the cold. 

If I remember correctly the issue is that cotton actually does retain water rather well. Once wet, they do not provide thermal insulation. In contrast, contrast, wool can wick moisture due to capillary actions fairly well. Also, hydrophobic materials do actually work well as undergarments- a lot of thermal underwear is made with synthetic and synthetic mixes.

1 hour ago, mistermack said:

. If you then apply heat to the skin, it sends a false message to the system, and the body directs cold blood from the extremities to the internal organs, including the heart, and that can cause failure in a healthy heart. It's best to just dry and wrap the patient, and give hot drinks, allowing them to warm up from within. 

I think one of the things we were told was to slowly warm up persons, starting with the core (not the extremities, due to the reasons you mentioned).

[mistermack]

9 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Apparently, in mountaineering they avoid cotton next to the skin because it is hydrophillic a cotton layer can kill. Definitely avoid it in socks in the cold. 

I think it's more to do with how cotton behaves when moist. It loses it's 'spring' and goes floppy, and hence the strands tend to stick to one another, and the vital air gaps disappear. That then also inhibits evaporation. Materials that keep their spring when damp allow the air gaps to remain so are better at evaporating moisture, and of course they don't flatten as much as damp cotton.

[StringJunky]

The first time I experienced  0f in the late eighties, I remember lifting a metal bin lid and my fingers sticking to it quite rapidly.

[iNow]

16 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

The first time I experienced  0f in the late eighties, I remember lifting a metal bin lid and my fingers sticking to it quite rapidly.

Metal sucks in this weather. Tool use is painful 

Merry Christmas, StringJunky and all other readers 

[StringJunky]

To you and everyone else.

[TheVat]

Happy Xmas, Festivus, Near Solstice, 7th day of Hannukah, and summertime in Australia to you all.  And more snowcats and generators to Buffalo NY. if possible.  

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/25/1145468209/millions-in-the-u-s-are-hunkering-down-from-a-freezing-and-deadly-christmas-stor

 

I remember what a pleasure it was replacing our metal-handled broom with a wooden one.  The wooden handle, if it's not real cold out, you can sweep snow off the porch and not need to get gloves.

IIRC wool fibers absorb water inside the fiber rather than let water permeate the spaces between the fibers, thus preserving the air pockets.  The water inside each fiber then migrates to where it will most rapidly evaporate and not just drip/ooze into the spaces.  The fibers are also more kinked than other fibers like cotton, which increases the total number of air spaces.  Nature is amazing.

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by TheVat
bfleprndk

[Janus]

When I was growing up in the '60, living in Northern Mn.,  my dad was driving to work early one morning, passing through a small town, and noticed that he was feeling chilly.  He checked the car heater and it was full on, and since it usually did a good job, he suspected something was wrong with it.  Just then, they announced the temp in the town he was in over the radio.  it was -40 degrees.  He thought, "Ah, that explains it." and continued on into work.  ( He worked in the iron mines, which were open pit mines, which,  during the Winter, sunlight never reached the bottom of, so who knows how cold it was there.)

On 12/24/2022 at 7:21 PM, StringJunky said:

The first time I experienced  0f in the late eighties, I remember lifting a metal bin lid and my fingers sticking to it quite rapidly.

During one recess in grade school, someone stuck their tongue to the outside of a metal door during the dead of a MN winter. (like in "A Christmas Story")

However, instead of the calling the Fire Dept, and pulling him loose, a teacher simply poured warm water over the area until it heated up enough to free him.