# Need help with living in the mountains during winter



## Sleepwriter (Mar 15, 2016)

I haven't done it, don't want to do it, but need to know about it.  Anyone know of any good books that really put you there?

I've seen it in many movies, but not the same.

I know it's cold, really cold, but I need to read that descriptiveness to feel it. 

Not sure if this is okay here or if it should be in Books and Authors, reviews & recommendation section


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## Riis Marshall (Mar 15, 2016)

Hello Sleepy

You may want to check out a short story by Jack London: _To Build a Fire_ and the poetry of Robert W. Service or anybody from northern New Hampshire where, I've been told, there was a two-week period in February of 1979 when the daytime high temperature never rose above -20 degrees F.

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## Sleepwriter (Mar 15, 2016)

Riis Marshall said:


> Hello Sleepy
> 
> You may want to check out a short story by Jack London: _To Build a Fire_ and the poetry of Robert W. Service or anybody from northern New Hampshire where, I've been told, there was a two-week period in February of 1979 when the daytime high temperature never rose above -20 degrees F.
> 
> ...



Excellent, thank you very much!


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## Makili (May 19, 2016)

A few tips from the personal experience
- walking through the snow - even if you have snowshoes, if you are walking through untouched snow, your legs drop, and you need to get them out before making the next step. So each takes a lot of energy, that even a short walk is so exhausting and after that, each muscle aches
- water freezes. If you don't leave the taps dripping, they will freeze, and you stay without running water. Once I melted a large pot of snow to get water for washing, and it refroze in the middle of the house overnight, when the fire went out. 
- if it is too cold, your skin will stick to metal surfaces, and you will have to peel it off. Painful...
- even if you have a blazing fire, you may not feel its warmth, because the air extremely cold, and the objects can't store enough warmth. 
- even if you are turned to the fire, your back will be cold, so you have to keep rotating your body
- if the weather is sunny, you will get sunburned from the sun reflecting from the snow
- walking on fresh snow emits a special, kind of squeeky sound
- the silence of the snow-covered landscape is deafening 

Hope this helps...


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## Sleepwriter (May 19, 2016)

This project has been set aside for further research work, but thank you for the replies.


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## Maunakea (Jun 1, 2016)

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Nicknamed _Winter_peg, Mani_snow_ba, Cana_damn-it's-cold!_ Winter two years ago, parts of Manitoba hit -53 degrees Celsius. For all you Fahrenheit users, that's -63.4 degrees! It also happens to be colder than the North Pole, and Mars!!! Yes, the uninhabitable planet Mars!! Look it up..  And that's my home! That is with the windchill (yes that's a thing here), so the true temperature without wind was only about -35 to -40 Celsius, but that's not what you felt! And no, those weren't school days where everyone stays home and no one goes to work, that's a normal day. A normal winter. Need to bus? You better be prepared to wait an hour and a half because transit is a joke! I've walked on a ploughed sidewalk with the snow on either side of be at my shoulders, and I'm not short. I used snowshoes to walk to school when I was a kid, walked through snow so thick you can't see ten feet ahead of you. 

Sorry, Canadian rant over now.. When people talk about winter living, sometimes I just get mad cause I wish I had their winters. But yea, so if you need someone to tell you about winter living, and living outdoors in the winter, I'm your girl! I was with cadets and we did week long winter camping trips every year where we learned survival, so I'm pretty knowledgeable. Not an expert, but hey. 




Makili said:


> A few tips from the personal experience
> - walking through the snow - even if you have snowshoes, if you are walking through untouched snow, your legs drop, and you need to get them out before making the next step. So each takes a lot of energy, that even a short walk is so exhausting and after that, each muscle aches
> - water freezes. If you don't leave the taps dripping, they will freeze, and you stay without running water. Once I melted a large pot of snow to get water for washing, and it refroze in the middle of the house overnight, when the fire went out.
> - if it is too cold, your skin will stick to metal surfaces, and you will have to peel it off. Painful...
> ...



All these are very true, and so much more! You know your winters, lol. 

Everything freezes, Your breath catches to the hairs in your nose, hair, eyelashes and forms crystalline tips
The dryness will crack your skin, no matter if you moisturize. fingers, around the mouth and eyes. 
Packed snow is an amazing insulator, and will keep you warmer than a structure of wood or stone. 
Unless you protect them, your eyes can sunburn from the suns glare on the snow.
You actually get used to the cold, to the point where -20 feels like 0 and 0 feels like +30. 
Sometimes, when it mists minuscule flakes of snow in the evening, it coats all the trees and bushes in a fine layer of snow which freezes overnight and turns all the trees white. Imagine it, all these bare trees, an intricate weave of branches, stark white and shimmering, alight with the fire of the morning sun. It's breathtaking. Being alone in the pitch black of a winter night, northern lights above you dancing through the stars and a shining white forest all around you! Many times, I find myself awestruck and know that it's worth the cold. 

Anyways, here I go again. If you need help with your research, just pm me.


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