With the temperature at zero degrees at noon on Dec. 30, 2017, Dead River Company driver Dan DeMarino, of South Ryegate, Vt., fills up his truck's 2,850-gallon tank with heating oil along Route 5 in Bradford, Vt. DeMarino has been working 14-15 hour days since Christmas and won't likely get a day off for a couple of weeks. DeMarino has been delivering about 7,000 gallons of oil each day, but would rather work in the cold than freezing rain. "Cold is way better than ice," he said. (Valley News - Geoff Hansen) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
With the temperature at zero degrees at noon on Dec. 30, 2017, Dead River Company driver Dan DeMarino, of South Ryegate, Vt., fills up his truck's 2,850-gallon tank with heating oil along Route 5 in Bradford, Vt. DeMarino has been working 14-15 hour days since Christmas and won't likely get a day off for a couple of weeks. DeMarino has been delivering about 7,000 gallons of oil each day, but would rather work in the cold than freezing rain. "Cold is way better than ice," he said. (Valley News - Geoff Hansen) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Geoff Hansen

Lebanon — As temperatures dipped well below zero on Friday night, Bob Olcott stepped out of his Maple Manor apartment to shovel snow and found a new low — thermally speaking, that is — in his 67 years on Earth: the steel in his reinforced boots was freezing his toes.

The following morning, with thermometers still hovering around negative 10 degrees, Noah Drummond rolled out of bed in Enfield and headed to the lifts at Whaleback Mountain, where he would spend the next eight hours helping skiers onto chairs and, alternatively, gluing himself to a heater in the operator’s shack.

And as the Saturday afternoon sun broke over Lebanon, Chris Cimino shivered and stamped his feet, gripping four jugs of bright blue antifreeze in two hands as he stocked the coolers at The Fort, the Exit 18 truck stop on Heater Road.

Whereas some Upper Valley residents may have spent this week curled up by a fireplace with a book and a warming beverage in hand, these men were among many who found themselves working outdoors during what is shaping up to be a historic cold snap.

Temperatures on Mount Washington broke an 84-year-old record on Thursday when they reached minus 34 degrees, compared to the previous low of minus 31, set in 1933.

Factoring in wind chill from 90 mph gusts, the summit would have felt like negative 83 degrees, according to officials with the Mount Washington Observatory.

Even President Donald Trump has weighed in on this unusually frigid stretch, using his favorite social media site on Thursday to quip about his withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accord.

“In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record,” he said on Twitter. “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!”

And bundle up they did.

“It’s flippin’ cold out,” Drummond, a Plymouth State University student on winter break, said as he tended the Whaleback lifts on Saturday.

Drummond reviewed his cold-weather gear: long underwear under insulated pants under snow pants. He had another secret for staying warm, too.

“Stay fueled up on positivity,” he said with a grin, before gesturing to his trousers, which he had patched with duct tape after a run-in with the ski shack heater.

“Just don’t burn a hole in your pants,” he added.

Caleb Bailey, a seasoned Whaleback employee, had more tips: use hand warmers, dress in layers — and eat.

“I’m always eating,” he said as he hacked at an ice bank around the water pipe that feeds the snow-making system.

Bailey, an Enfield resident like Drummond, works the night shift, which requires that he watch the snowmakers and groom the slopes after dark. It also means that he has a special relationship with the concept of cold.

So what does it feel like to be alone, in the dead of night, with the cold pressing in all around?

“Amazing,” he said. “Nobody’s around; the sun’s coming up — if you don’t love it, you’re not going to last.”

Mental jiujitsu proved to be a theme common among cold-weather workers, including Cimino, the Canaan resident stocking refrigerators at The Fort.

“Just don’t think about it,” he said brightly. “Pretend it’s a warm day.”

For those in need, the Lebanon Public Libraries are available as warming centers during their business hours this week, which run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Olcott, who lives in Maple Manor, a city-owned senior apartment complex, was only visiting the Kilton Public Library to check his email on Saturday. But as a retired homeless outreach specialist, he knew well the value of a warm place to ride out the cold.

“I’m here checking on some of my former clients,” he said, half-jokingly.

In fact, Olcott, who used to work for Southwestern Community Services, of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, occasionally runs into library patrons whom he connects, in an unofficial capacity, with WISE or the Upper Valley Haven.

Even now, Olcott bundles himself in three thermal vests with an American flag scarf, all under an orange hunting jacket, and goes outside, to chop wood and shovel snow for his neighbors.

How was he handling the cold?

For the first time, the weather had turned his boots against him, and the bitter air had made his teeth ache.

“But other than that?” he said. “Not too bad.”

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.