I’m one of them, I admit it. I’ve gone snowmobiling 20 miles up the river at -30F for the fun of going… I went once at -65F, and had a wind chill on the machine of -110F..(and I was over dressed and go too hot ironically!)
But some pople just ARE crazy, and do other things… Like Ice fishing in the middle of a lake. A BIG Lake. I get by with -40F to -50F normal winter temps, and the stuff I do, even at -65F because we have 0%(or close to it) humidity here in the winter… Alaska is an arctic Desert. Its DRY. Dry cold, is Cold, but not COLD…
Where I’ve gone ridding along and accross the river at -30F is like that, its wetter and feels worse than -30F away from the river… almost bone cutting cold if your standing still very long…
But -30F in the humidity you have on a lake, even one froze over with 4 ft. of ice??!?! NO THANKS!!
we went to the Lake of the Woods over the weekend to do some ice fishing.
For those who don’t know, this lake is considered to be the Walleye Capital of the world. It is the most northern lake in the lower 48, oddly enough it also a funny foray into Canada, almost like the cartographer who was an American, just couldn’t follow the rest of the line and in essence ‘drew this lake into American holdings’! No offense to my ‘Nook friends.
On Friday night I arrived on the lake and started the slow drive out onto the ice. Our rendezvous point was 25 miles from the shore, just south of an unnamed island on the lake.
Local weather pegged the wind chill at -61 degrees while dash in my Ford had the ambient at -32. Bone chilling was an understatement. Exposure outside of the Ice Castle was limited to less than five minutes for most of the time.
It was cold, temperatures were hovering around -15 on the lake. The 20 odd miles took an hour to cover.
Dawn on the Lake of the Woods. The air was crisp and hard edges, looking into the wind felt like needles being driven into your eyes. They watered and crystallized at the corners, squinting resulted in feeling micro cuts in these places. Hair froze and ice formed. There comes a point when the cold goes from cold, unanimated annoyance, to something else entirely. Past -30 it begins to feel like an animated thing hell bent on destroying a man. It creeps and crawls over you looking for an entrance, a way to the inside. Like it’s seeking anything warm because it has a compulsion to eradicate it.
The ice was over four and a half feet thick, we had to use extensions on the augers to get through the ice.
Just snippets of the whole post, I just copied interesting bits, do please go read the whole post, and look at the pics, it really is interesting.
And yes, I have to admit it…. It does look fun, and I would do it… 😉 Maybe… 😉
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 
Sounds like… fun….
Sounds like your volunteering to go with me if I do this! *Gary ducks and runs for cover*
😉 :p