hiking up cardigan in "once in a generation cold"

the day: feb 3rd. below zero °F, mostly clear and very sunny, plenty of snow with a crusty top. down low, in the woods, there wasn't too much wind. above treeline, 'the hawk was flying'. when i measured it, winds were a steady 25-30mph, with gusts over 40. 

the adventure: up and down mt. cardigan on the west ridge trail from the winter parking lot. we did take one slight detour over to the top of the ski trail so i could snap my traditional picture of the "snowmobilers turn around point..." sign for debbie.

the memories: with the endless hype over the "once in a generation cold" (they are still talking about the "...record-breaking cold snap in the northeast" on tonight's evening news) i thought i would run up our local mountain and see what all the fuss was about. of course i called linda & skip to offer them an equal opportunity to freeze to death--jk. linda opted out, but skip was game.

the lone truck in the winter parking area was don's. we met him coming down as we were going up. he looked a little frosty and warned us we'd want to be fully covered on top as it was "cold and windy!"

i got a couple of pictures--plus the one above--but skip's fingers didn't cooperate when he tried to take one with his phone as i came back to the tower after measuring wind speed. below, you can see the low clouds hugging the higher elevations in the white mtns.

notes:

• up top we had our warm jackets & hats on
• we were comfortably drinking tea when we heard the highest winds
• down lower, we 'stripped' off a layer or two
• trees make great windbreaks
• hot tea, no cookies--still good

go outside and play!