Winter is almost here.

Wild. Can you even shut your truck off when it's that cold?

I noticed Fairbanks has been around -30 for a while now

Awesome! I want snow. I drove my sled 160 miles in one day in 2010. In 2011 I put 50 miles on for the whole season. Argh!

Snow... Snow ... Snow.

BTW, I have never seen -40F. -30F with a -100F windchill is my lifetime max. Yours?

MnDave

Ive been in -35 twice when I went skiing, both times in the mountains in New Hampshire, coldest ever at my house in my lifetime was -20, two nights in a row in 1994. Minus 35 was in the morning, that cold air will wake you up quick

That's not winter. That's Bizarro World Hell.

Agrrrrrrrrreeeeeed.

My wife and I took a trip to Ely Mn to sled for the weekend. We were driving at 2 AM and had not seen another vehicle for over an hour. It was -29 F out. The next day it got to -20 in the morning, we barely got our sleds to start but we went out and rode 90 miles. The day we left the temp bounced up into the 20's above. Our truck threw a belt but a super nice guy helped us out and got me to a parts store and we were back on the road in an hour.

I sometimes think of what it would have been like if we broke down just a 100 miles sooner. Bizarro World Hell Yah
We sold that truck and got something more reliable. But I will now carry a winter survival kit on all our "up nort" trips. Canada and Alaska blow my mind.

MnDave

Good advice.

Yeah that is cold.

Good gawd that is chilly. I watched the mercury drop off the bottom on a -40 thermometer once. Out at a friends camp. You could feel the cold coming up through the bottom of your boots as soon as you walked out the door. Of all the trucks we had out there that weekend, only 1 would start (the oldest, most banged up beater in the bunch - go figure). Hoods up everywhere. Some folks at neighboring camps were using Coleman stoves to warm their oil pans. Looked like an auto graveyard. The following trip up to the same place, a friend brought an extra 5 gallon can, and let the truck idle all night. That was extreme for us.

Coldest night I've experienced since then (last year at my place) was -34. That cold snap didn't last long. But that was a good test of the stove.

Lately temps have been all over the map. Got a pretty good dump of snow last week, @-10c overnights, then this weekend, rain and mild. I think mother nature is toying with us a bit.

It was 70 today here in southwest ohio, weird for Dec 3rd. I hope we get a repeat of last winter here, no snow and average temps in the 30's-40's. I did not use much wood at all. Keep those temps up there in AK!

I not so fondly remember a day when I left home it was -52 and windy. Even when I stopped, I left the truck running and had cardboard in front of the radiator. Dang interior of the cab never got warm enough so I could remove a coat. In fact, I stayed bundled up all day and boy was I ever happy to get home that night. Too cold for me. On the other hand I fondly remember a couple days of -30 and -35. Clear sky and windless, it was beautiful and felt great to be outdoors....for about the first 10 minutes. Then the cold just seemed to sink into your bones.

Agree. Walking out onto the frozen lake at night, deafening silence - you could hear a twig snap on the shoreline a mile away. A hundred million stars, no streetlights or other city "glow", the Milky Way, the odd planet. Or the full moon over the frozen lake and those clear blue ice crystals sparkling like a billion little lights. Or walking back, facing the north sky, and occasionally seeing the northern lights dance in technicolor (the lights seem to be partial to these cold nights). Can't even begin to describe these visuals. So good for the soul, kinda like in the way the wood stove warms the body.

Wow.... Coldest I ever experienced personally was about -20F at night on a winter expedition camping trip to Maine when I was in the Boy Scouts. Yes we did sleep outside in that. It was coooooooooooold.

I remember wearing 2 layers of thermal underwear, heavy German army wool pants, us army double insulated boots with inch thick wool liners. Your face would freeze if you didnt cover up with a scarf. We had to wear our canteens on a lanyard around our neck under our coat so the water wouldn't freeze. Even our white gas camping stoves didnt want to ignite well until you preheated them with a solid fuel tab.

It was fun building snow shelters and XC skiing everywhere through 3ft of snow, but i think if I did it again at this age id sleep in a cabin