Yes, toes are really the only part that stops me from staying out longer periods. I think I’ve built up a tolerance, but they still get quite sore. I guess I’m more use to it taking a long time for them to feel normal. Like hours. Over the course of a mission day my toes stay in a constant cold state. But as long as they don’t go purple they’re ok. The feeling 40 minutes later is kind of a little reminder of the fun I had earlier.dimma wrote:Only my toes took quite a beating. I lost all feeling in them and it took quite some time of persistent massaging to get them back in shape. Does cold affect your toes in a similar way? Or not anymore?
Anyways the trip was more or less a success. I was pretty disappointed thinking I would have to cancel, but when the weather turned around it worked out. Not as much snow as I'd like but we did get about 4 to 5 inches overall. As I posted my original setup day it rained and melted all the snow, but overnight a nice layer accumulated and I decided to stay. Midway through setup that day it warmed up again and melted away a lot of the snow, but the forecast was calling for it to drop below freezing and for snow, which it did. All the water however flooded the creek which made for a nice wet area for a bunch of cards. In some places the water was almost knee deep. Both mission days 1 and 2 the temperature hovered right at the -1 degree mark day and night. It kept the snow nice and soft and was easy on the feet.
Here’s a few pics I took on setup day, which should have been mission day 1. The first is looking down the powerline. You can see all the water flowing down the hill. The second is a shot down the hill behind. I made them sort of small but in the background you can kinda see the valley and it was all underwater.
The first two missions I learned that 12 seconds was JUST enough time to get outside if you're paying attention. But when you don't know exactly when it's coming and your mind is on something else... Well I didn't make it. And the skylights not only let the cold in, they let the rain in too. I'd say about 1/3 of the missions I didn't make it out on time, and the ones I did, I literally had to drop what I was doing and run outside.
I did go through with the ice swim. It was a different experience than jumping in for a few seconds then having a towel and coat ready when you get out. That mission happened on day one. I was sitting on the couch under my little blanket flipping through the satellite guide when the mission came up. It was my 5'th mission. When I heard the sound my head just reactively jerked towards the screen and I immediately noticed the word goggles, and that it was spelt wrong too. Rolling my eyes I jumped up and ran outside grabbing the 'gogles' on my way out. 5 missions in I was getting use to the shock of stepping outside. The dampness however just gets in your bones. It was lightly rain/snowing.
I made my way through the slushy snow down to the lake. Without being handcuffed this time around my reaction is to cross my arms for warmth, but when walking through the trees you can’t because you’re pushing all the little branches out of the way. Luckily there was almost no wind. As I got closer I became more nervous, the chill was all over me, my feet were sore and cold. At the edge of the lake I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. The hole I cut to get in was way smaller than what I planned to do, and the hole I drilled for the card seemed really far out. I grabbed for the rake and cleared the hole of slush. The top of the lake had no snow left, it was just dark ice under a couple inches of water. It was creepy because all the water on top was draining through the hole.
I just stood there, I was scared to go in. My mind raced and I started thinking of how I could get around doing this. Could I try to fish it out from the drilled hole? I looked around for a stick, how would I cut it? It'd have to be 10' long with some sort of way to hook it at one end. It was a ridiculous idea, not to mention I would have had to do all that while naked. My feet were starting to sting and I still had to swim AND walk all the way back up the hill. I started to think I'd have to break a window instead. I couldn't. It felt like minutes were going by standing barefoot in the freezing wet snow being rained on. Every second that passed was another second BEFORE the half way mark. I just had to do it because I was standing there completely naked in the snow at the edge of the lake with nowhere to go, and locked out of the cottage. I put the goggles over my eyes and rushed in. The problem was the hole didn't go far enough. Water was only waist high at the end of the hole. Normally it's cut big enough you can just jump in. I had to kneel down to get under the ice.
The surface from underneath was so bright it made everything else seem extra dark. The water was numbingly cold. My skin just felt so bare, so naked and unprotected from the water. It was so cold it felt thick, touching every inch of me with it's bitter sting. My arms and legs feel like dull clubs as I paddled through. You don't have the same feeling of swimming in freezing water because you lose sensation so quickly. The cold make it felt like a truck was parked on my chest. I couldn't see the card, I couldn't make out the drilled hole on the surface. I looked back to see if I could make out the hole I entered through and as I squinted the goggles filled with water. I wasn't anywhere near a panicked state of mind, but I had to get out. I pulled the goggles off and turned around. It wasn't hard to find the opening. Kneeling in the freezing water I had to quickly catch my breath and try again. I could feel my body getting colder by the second, the inside of my ears hurt the most. I couldn't waste any more time. I tossed the goggles, looked over the surface and lined myself up with the drilled hole. With a big breath I ducked back under the ice and swam along the bottom in a straight line. I swam and swam through the freezing water. After what seemed like forever I could see the yellow floatie. I grabbed the card and swam as hard as I could back to shore. I crawled out of the water. I had a little unfortunate accident there when I tried to run back. My feet didn't have normal feeling, they were numb and I fell face down in the slush. It winded me and I scraped my knee up on the way down. I was hurting Looking up the cottage seemed so far away. I had no choice I had to get there. There was no backup plan where I was.
Soaking wet I had to slowly walk back up the hill. The wetness made the air feel extra cold. I was shivering. My hair felt like ice on my back, my teeth were chattering. I was miserable. I focused on my feet, something about watching them in the snow helps me get in the mood. I don't know if it did then, but it seemed to make the walk seem shorter. Back in I had to take a cool shower to warm up. My body acclimated to the water quick so I could warm it up, but my toes didn't. They just stung. I ended up having a bath with my feet out the side until I could warm them up. No mission came up for about an hour and a half after that one so I was ready to go again for the next one. But now that it's over with, and I look back to it, I'll probably do it again.
Day 2 I woke up to a nice new layer of snow on everything. missions went well, the temprature was still around 0. Missions along the rock face, and in the trees were challenging but fun. I snapped a shot of rock edge because it’s hard to describe. Like I said, not big, but difficult to climb in the snow, and naked. What you can’t see is it stretches for a ways behind me.
I knew that night was the midnight mission. I went to bed around 1am. It was -2 when I went to sleep. I was a little anxious about it. The wind had really picked up which kept me awake for a bit. That cottage is constantly creaking. I finally fell asleep to be woken up by that awful siren. It scared the crap out of me. I was super disoriented but was able to get up to do what I had to do. Jumping out of a nice warm bed to the freezing cold while half asleep was absolutely brutal.
It just felt so extra cold I could barely do it. If that door wasn't locked I would have gone back in and tried to hack my way out of it. But I was locked out. I tried to run down the laneway but it's steep and slippery. I don't remember the whole walk so well, just that half way out my feet were killing me and I was frozen. When I made it back my feet stung and I had no feeling in my toes. I just curled up in bed and eventually passed back out. I woke up again just after 9, knowing any time a mission would come up. I glanced at the thermometer outside to read exactly -20. I couldn't believe it. I went to bed and it was -2, now it was -20. I knew that day was going to be brutal.
It warmed up to a balmy -14 that day. Each walk was brutal on the feet. The cold I can handle, but on the feet that extreme temperature is really hard to deal with. They really hurt. I was scrambling to try to come up with some sort of protection. I tried tin foil but it didn't work, I had nothing else. Luckily I brought a crappy foot bath someone gave to me a long time ago. It worked only in the fact that it heated the water, but so poorly it was only ever luke warm. But that was hot enough for frozen toes. Mission after mission the pain slowly got worse. My feet are dry and cracked on the bottom. I got a nice cut on one of them too because when you're walking through snow that cold you sort of end up running even though you can't because of the terrain. They took some abuse that third day. The next day my toes felt like I was walking on little needles each step. So a bit of damage was done, but after the drive home they felt pretty normal again.
A bit of moisturizer will bring the softness back Overall it was great, now that I'm home I want to go up again. Maybe I can plan a couple days in February. We'll see.