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Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:44 pm
by maverick
Reading that the wind chill values will be below -25F at the higher elevations in the Sierra, would like to hear, what are the lowest temps, including wind chill values, that you have expereinced in the Sierra while out backpacking?

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:20 pm
by oldranger
13 degrees, upper mills creek lake september 1968. Luckily I had a 10 degree bag and a warm body next to me!

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:25 pm
by apeman45
While in college on a whim while drinking on a Friday night 3 of us college buddies decided to do a weekend backpacking trip in late October. We bought a salami and some rolls and headed to Summit lake in the Hoover Wilderness. We slept for a couple of hours at the trailhead and then hiked in as the sun came up. My buddies had a tiny tent so I slept out on a tarp like I always did. My sleeping bag was cotton inside, like the old coleman camping bags, but it had a nylon shell which was high tech to me forty years ago. There was no temperature rating for the bag but it kept me warm enough on sleepovers on friends couches and worked well enough around a blazing campfire on previous summer backpacking trips. It was probably good down to 40 degrees with thermals on. Anyway we thought it might snow and it started after nightfall. I put on all the clothes I had - my jeans, my cotton thermals, a couple shirts and a Sears Jacket and crawled into my sleeping bag in a ball and sealed up the top. Luckily it did snow about 6 inches which actually helped to insulate me. I woke up in total darkness and moved towards the light-the opening of my sleeping bag. I was alive after all and crawled out through the snow into a glorious sunny day. It was very cold and windy but I tried my luck at fishing anyway. The fishing was good but the line constantly freezing up on the eyelets of my rod made it a hassle and my shivering made it hard to fish. We decided to hike out the 6 or so miles to our car and headed to the Bridgeport Ranger Station to use their facilities and chat hiking. They said the low at the ranger station that night had been 0 degrees. Bridgeport is at 6500 feet and Summit Lake is at 10,100 feet so we were well below zero - maybe 10 below. With the wind we may have been pushing 15 below. I remember we tied shirts around our faces because of the stinging of the cold wind on our skin. Being the stupid 19 year olds that we were we didn't think much of it and we were glad we brought some of our good gloves and beanies we used for skiing. I used to ski in jeans like most people in those days too. Even with the good hi tech gear I can now afford, I cringe to think how uncomfortable that night would be for me now. God I miss being 19 and stupid!

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:46 pm
by maverick

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:51 pm
by TurboHike
For me, -15F. This was in the month of May, upper Deadman Canyon at about 11,000 feet, in between Elizabeth Pass and Copper Mine Pass. There was lots of snow and we knew it would be cold, but we made sure to bring the right gear and we survived just fine.

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:40 pm
by alpinemike
Thanksgiving Eve 2015 a few miles before Treasure Lakes in the South Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon drainage it reached 2 degrees that night. There is a slight chance it got colder but since I can't confirm it on my watch when I woke I'll say 2 is the lowest. Thanksgiving night it was 5 degrees. 2 nights later my friend and I parked at the Mammoth Mtn. Main Lodge Parking area and it was zero degrees in my truck when I woke in the morning. So technically that's the lowest I've ever slept in but I was inside a vehicle.

Christmas Day 2014 I was out on San Joaquin Ridge with the same friend only about a mile from the Ranger Station and we experienced high's in the mid teens, but the wind was howling and the wind chill during the day was hovering around the -5 to zero degree mark. But that was nothing compared to the evening and night when howling winds of 30-40 MPH with an air temp of 5 degrees caused -25 degree windchills. Without a doubt the coldest wind chills I've ever experienced but fortunately I was inside my tent. I had to dig a pit basically in the vestibule area where I put my stove and pot into where they were shielded from the wind. Needless to say it was an experience. I will also say that my Cloudburst 2 from Tarptent performed exceptionally in these conditions and we had no issue.

I have slept in the low to mid teens several times now.

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:25 pm
by bobby49
Once in 1979, four of us led a beginner's snow camping trip in Yosemite (Westfall Meadow). We told the beginners to be prepared for at least +10 F. Well, it got down to -10 F, so there were some chilly faces at breakfast.

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:05 pm
by Tom_H
Wasn't in the Sierra. Last week of Dec. 1977 on summit of Roan Mtn. NC. An unusually strong cold front came through. Temp was -20, wind chill -40F. Was hypothermic and got frostbite in nerves of front half of both feet. We slept in a pair of 3-season bags, one inside the other, with several layers of wool. A fair amount of the hiking was on slick ice (not snow) for 5 days.

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 1:28 pm
by Wandering Daisy
I do not carry a thermometer so really do not know. Definitely down to 10 degrees, probably lower. I specifically moved to the Sierra in my old age to get away from cold! I have no desire to do any winter backpacking in the Sierra - now I get to backpack on the coast in winter. :)

My cold weather experience is in Wyoming- winter mountaineering, Tetons, down to -40F, and below 0F during the day. Lots of wind-chill in the -40 to -50 range. Hung out in the snow caves we built at base camp in those conditions.

Re: Lowest Temps

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:39 pm
by longri
I had a cheap zipper thermometer read 0°F mid-May at around 11K. The blue Campinggaz canister was pretty sluggish to get going. Just a cold, windless morning though. With the rising sun it wasn't long before it got quite toasty.

It's probably been that cold or colder on a few Sierra winter trips too but I rarely have any kind of thermometer with me.

Wind chill has never struck me as particularly useful. The effective "feels like" temperature (i.e. equivalent still-air temperature that would result in the same rate of heat loss) depends on clothing, humidity, and solar exposure -- not just temperature and wind speed.