Subzero temperatures in Helena

The hike to Mt Helena after the first sprinkling of snow

It has been -8 degree F this week, so cold and so dry. It is rarely ever this cold in Helena. It brings back memories of the wind chill experienced in Michigan and North Dakota.
However, we did enjoy sledding down the hill when there were no harsh winds or going to watch the sculptures carved out of ice for a festival in the pretty little German town of Frankenmuth. My preschooler once, spent two hours rolling down an ice sculpture slide in his green snow suit, followed by our customary visit to the Zehnder’s bakery to warm up with hot chocolate and warm cakes.

The very thought of the bone-chilling cold of  Crosby, North Dakota makes me shiver.  The average temperature in the winter used to be -20 F.  My older son then a kindergartner, would be building snow forts in school during recess. He had three to four pairs of gloves, hats and glasses, just in case he needed more layers or forgot or lost something on the way home. I would go to school, every few days to consolidate his outer gear.

We would have to layer up, two to three layers of pants, jackets and socks, gloves and waddle around like penguins, desperately trying to cover our faces with scraggly long woolen scarves that made the skin itchy after a while. My younger son, then a one-year-old,  wore this heavy snow-suit that he could barely move around in, he looked like a little sumo wrestler when in it. Yet our faces and hands and feet froze within 10 minutes of walking in the cold. Shopping was a luxury that had be done on one of our quarterly trips to Minot, so we were not aware of woolen socks. While the boys kept their feet warm in snow boots. I found my cheap snow boots uncomfortable, I only wore them when there was a foot of snow on the ground, otherwise I wore my sneakers or hiking boots.

To break the monotony of sitting indoors all day, the boys and me would go for walks when it wasn’t too windy. We had it all planned out, within 10 minutes we would reach the post office, that was usually open for people to pick up their letter and mail, it was also the most perfect places to warm up and re-charge. Then after another 5 minute walk down the main street, the convenience store worked as an another warm-up point.  The boys enjoyed the warm breadsticks dipped in oodles of marinara sauce with hot chocolate or cold strawberry milk. If we made it beyond that, it was because we felt brave or the winds were milder, either way, we would walk another 3 blocks down the main street that had the pretty drug store, craft store and the florist shop at the corner, before turning around and heading back home. Sometimes we stopped at the bank enroute home, and enjoyed sucking at the little popsicles that they had.

One night, all of us including my husband were walking, when the streets were covered with snow on a sheet of ice. We took along a sled, normally used for sledding down a snow-filled hill, but Crosby being flat as ever, has no scope for sledding. So, my little one sat on the sled as we dragged it along behind us. In our course of a brave 30 minute walk we heard a slight thud followed by the complete lightness of the sled. He had apparently gone to sleep and rolled off on to the snow bank on the street. Jaskrit was still sleeping when we put him back on the sled and walked home.

Helena has many luxuries for us, nice weather, nice trails to hike on, stores and we have two cars now, compared to the one we had before, so we never need to walk down icy or snowy streets, even though we have the best of woolen socks, warm extra layered gloves and snow boots and barely any wind!!! And yet, consumed by Robotics and books... we hardly have time to venture out.