Cold Climate peeps.. educate me.

[Jims5543]

We just got back from a week in the North Georgia Mountains where the temp was 20's at night and 40's in the day.

After about 2 days my sinuses start rebelling. Stuffed nose always running, post nasal drip, hard to sleep, waking up at night feling like I am suffocating.

It happened when we were in Yellowstone last winter too, I also can remember  this happening on other "freezing" trips like my snowmobile trip years ago.

In January we will be in Breckenridge with some friends who invited us to join them at their condo. We were talking in our way home about how much of a mess our sinuses are and how they will probably be worse in Colorado.

We try to keep the heat turned down, to like 63. We are thinking of buying some travel humidifiers. 

We are wondering if our sinuses are just used to our more humid warmer climate and this lack of humidity + cold is freaking our sinuses out.

So my question, are you just used to it and we are Florida wimps or do you add humidity artificially in your homes?

I think it is going to be the former, I grew up on Long Island, I never remember there being issues in the winter, BUT, we had a wood burning stove and I remember my mom always keeping a put of water on it, so maybe it is indeed the later?

[94touring]

Short answer, your nose is a pussy. 

When I went from a southern humid climate (slimey) to Arizona (bone dry) I got nose bleeds for the first year. 

[94touring]

Cold and dry also makes my skin ashy and itchy.  I require many fine lotions. 

[MiniDave]

Flonase is your answer, it's over the counter and it will clear you up, but you have to use it for a couple of days to get the full benefits. It's not like the usual inhalers where the more you use it the less it works, you can use it daily. I use it before bed and sleep well all night but you can take it any time, once a day is all it takes.

You can also buy inhalers/spritzers that are just moisturizers too, that may help up in the mountains.

[Jims5543]

Short answer, your nose is a pussy. 

When I went from a southern humid climate (slimey) to Arizona (bone dry) I got nose bleeds for the first year. 

My entirety is a pussy, I do not handle cold well at all. I hate it. I love hot and will never complain about it.  I'll take extreme heat over extreme cold any day.

Cold and dry also makes my skin ashy and itchy.  I require many fine lotions. 

LMFAO!!

Flonase is your answer, it's over the counter and it will clear you up, but you have to use it for a couple of days to get the full benefits. It's not like the usual inhalers where the more you use it the less it works, you can use it daily. I use it before bed and sleep well all night but you can take it any time, once a day is all it takes.

You can also buy inhalers/spritzers that are just moisturizers too, that may help up in the mountains.

I'll look into that, thanks.

[skmini]

Cold and dry also makes my skin ashy and itchy.  I require many fine lotions. 

When it gets cold enough and dry enough (it was -30C this weekend), the skin on my hands starts to crack open and bleed, especially on the knuckles and finger tips.  I've never tried it, but some people swear by Krazy Glue to glue the cracks back together.  Lotion can't seem to keep up.

Sinuses are fine.

Many houses up here have humidifiers on the forced air furnace, but that can also result in a lot of frost buildup on doors and windows.

[Jims5543]

When it gets cold enough and dry enough (it was -30C this weekend), the skin on my hands starts to crack open and bleed, especially on the knuckles and finger tips.  I've never tried it, but some people swear by Krazy Glue to glue the cracks back together.  Lotion can't seem to keep up.

Sinuses are fine.

Many houses up here have humidifiers on the forced air furnace, but that can also result in a lot of frost buildup on doors and windows.

My hands are like bricks from handling my equipment every day, even in the summer they are dried out and cracking all the time.

I started using this stuff with pretty good success.

https://www.hardcorehandcare.com/collections/all

[94touring]

Krazy glue works on cracks. I used to glue my fingers back together when I bowled competitively back in the day.  You heard that right.

[Jims5543]

[Jims5543]

We survived the cold of the Rockies. At one point we saw 6 degrees over night and the teens the next day. When we went snowmobiling it was right around 20 degrees. I had about 4 layers on on my torso, and a good pair of long johns on under my snow pants. Never got cold.

In 2018 I went on a snowmobile trip to West Yellowstone, more particularly Island Park Utah, I started having panic attacks at night while trying to sleep. Something I never experienced before in my life. I had no idea what triggered it, suspecting it was the alcohol consumption since the crew I was with were a bunch of 24 hour a day drunks.

When my wife and I returned to West Yellowstone last winter, I had a touch of the same but was able to manage it OK.

This past trip, it came back in full force the first night and then it hit me, it was elevation related. I was at 9,600 feet in Breckenridge. In West Yellowstone is around 6,700.

The crazy part? If I am active, I am fine.  We walked 5 blocks to a grocery store in Breckenridge, the walk back to the condo was all uphill, I was carrying 2 sacks of groceries probably 45 lbs between the two, not a problem at all carrying them back, didn't even get winded. My wife and the other couple were gassed out by the time we got to the condo and out of breath, I was fine.

When I was on the snowmobile trip in 2018, we drove them to the top of Mount Two Top which had an elevation of 8,700. No problem. If I was busy and active I was not bothered by the elevation. My problems started when I was at rest. My body started freaking out and causing me to feel like I was suffocating.

Once of my customers and I were talking about it, he is a pro-skier and has a house in Breckenridge. He told me has had that happen too and he keeps one of those oxygen bottles you can buy at Walgreens, he said when you feel that coming on, take a hit off the bottle and it will settle you down.

In Island Park in 2018 every night got progressively worse where I was only sleeping 2-3 hours a night.

In West Yellowstone last year it was only the first night, I have my THC Medical card here in Florida. I brought some Indica Tincture with me last year and just dosed up at bedtime, that would get me 4-5 hours of coma like sleep. 

That is what saved my ass in Breckenridge too, the first night it was happening I dosed up and got a good 4 hours of solid sleep, the next night I upped the dosage and got 6 hours of good sleep.  If it wasn't for that I am sure I was have been on the verge of a mental breakdown like I was in 2018.

When we left for the airport we had all our warm clothing vacuum packed in the suitcases figuring we will not be outside very long. When we left for the airport it was 10° in Denver it was 20°, I had on a tshirt, hoodie and light jacket for wind. I was fine for short moments.

The next morning in Florida heading to work, it was 43° and I had on a tshirt /hoodie and was freezing my ass off, when it gets cold down here it really cuts through you. I am sure it is due to the humidity.

Anyway, I survived, we ran 2 humidifiers in our bedroom at night. One we bought in Denver the other was already in the room.  LOL! Sinuses in tact without taking any medicine.

[Jims5543]

When it gets cold enough and dry enough (it was -30C this weekend), the skin on my hands starts to crack open and bleed, especially on the knuckles and finger tips.  I've never tried it, but some people swear by Krazy Glue to glue the cracks back together.  Lotion can't seem to keep up.

Sinuses are fine.

Many houses up here have humidifiers on the forced air furnace, but that can also result in a lot of frost buildup on doors and windows.

I didn't think it was possible but my hands got worse while up there. My wife had some Shea Butter with her, I was using that and it helped a little. I ended up with a few cracks in my hands a couple that stung really good. 

Another factor was the sheer amount of peeing I was doing, I wasn't drinking alcohol on this trip, I was going to, after the first night, I decided it would be wise the not drink alcohol which will only make things worse for me.  I was freaking peeing every 30 minutes.  My wife looked up the effects of altitude on sea level wimps like us and peeing is one of the side effects, its your body working hard to adjust to the change in oxygen levels.

[94touring]

At least you weren't pooping every 30 minutes lol

[Jims5543]

At least you weren't pooping every 30 minutes lol

That kinda happens when you are having a panic attack, your bowels turn sideways / inside out. I just thought that might be TMI.

[MiniDave]

-4 this morning, the boys got their poop on quickly!

[cstudep]

Heat wave here today, I went out to start the grill in my shorts and hoodie I was wearing around the house all day. Figured it would be a quick in and out but when I got out there I was like, huh it's not too bad out here tonight so took my time and did a few other things while I was outside. Got back in the house and checked the temp, 27 degrees. You know it's been cold when 27 seems pretty nice.

[94touring]

Last week it was upper 20s and not windy and it felt pretty nice lol

[MiniDave]

I know, right?

This morning I filled the empty bird feeder, filled the bird bath and picked up half a ton of my dog's poop.....there's still a lot more out there - everything that was done in the snow is still frozen down, but everything that was done on the clear "paths" that Rose cut into the snow was pretty easy to pick up cause it wasn't frozen to the earth, and it was nice and rock hard.

We took Dave's race car over to Styer's shop to use his lift....we're going to pull the motor and seal some of the oil leaks if possible, put a new clutch in it and repair the damage he did when he hit the wall in the last race at Ozarks last October. He has new front fenders, a new aluminum radiator and new front nosepiece to put on too. There is no heat in the shop, we brought one of those double head things that fits on top of a propane bottle and it puts out a ton of heat, but more than 5 feet away from it you really don't feel it. Still, being able to work indoors on a good floor and under a lift made all the difference in the world!

We weren't sure we could get the trailer up the hill to the shop as there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground but we managed, once the car was unloaded we put the trailer behind the shop so the neighbors wouldn't complain.