Winter Posts

Sledding Duluth’s Avenues in 1921

One hundred years ago there were far fewer cars on Duluth’s streets, but it was still considered dangerous to sled down the city’s steep avenues. So Duluth Police Chief Warren E. Pugh surveyed the city and selected a few recommended avenues that posed “the least danger to life and limb,” according to the Duluth Herald of Nov. 22, 1921.

Polar Vortex

Early morning winter cold floods in through the gaps between the sheet and mattress. The cold is so powerful, so penetrating, I imagine it to be as fluid as a rushing river with the ability to seep into minute cracks and crevices. In the chaos of adjusting the comforter and pulling the pillow into my impromptu cocoon, my sleep-hat has gone AWOL. An instinctual desire to escape the cold and fortify the barrier makes me abandon any pursuit of the lost headpiece.

A new form of low temperature has erupted in Minnesota, a reverse volcano maybe. Not a temperature so high it melts rock, but one so powerfully low it could probably fracture silk. This kind of cold, the kind that cracks house rafters, and spiderwebs the smallest chip in a windshield, has blown in from the north. Weather enthusiasts call it a Polar Vortex — something about the North Pole, and cold, and pressure. But at five o’clock in the morning in northern Minnesota, those technical, and normally interesting, scientific truths can crawl into a snowbank as far as I am concerned. Whether it’s a vortex, or cyclone, or Voldemort’s Dementors unleashed, the only truth that encapsulates this moment is something I learned years ago: “cold is the absence of heat.”

Winter Sports in Duluth, 1929

This brochure from 1929 highlights “Winter Sports in Duluth,” including the old toboggan chute at Chester Park, as seen on the cover.

Adventures of the Little Pats: 20 Below

Selective Focus: Hoar Frost / Rime Ice

The ice crystals have us surrounded. Surrender to the frost.

Collected here are select Instagram photos celebrating the wonder of water vapor condensation freezing to cold surfaces (hoar frost) and/or cooled water in the fog turning to ice (rime ice). Probably more the latter than the former.

Duluth You & Me: Winter Fun

Use the link below for a printable PDF for your coloring and drawing pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Winter Fun

Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.

Selective Focus: November Snow Scenes

Select images of pre-winter via Instagram.

Images from Duluth’s Citywide Snowball Fight

Montage of photos by J.P. Rennquist from Duluth’s Citywide Snowball Fight at Leif Erikson Park.

Selective Focus: Another Snow Bomb

Select Instagram photos from the latest powder drop.

So warmly clad in Patrick coat and sweater

Kip Praslowicz: “Photo Walk to Work”

Photographer Kip Praslowicz documents his adventures walking to work on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend blizzard. When someone from out of town asks you “What was it like?” this just about covers it.

His photos are also on display at the UWS Kruk gallery until Dec. 18.

Snow Removal Teamwork

Videographer Paul Scinocca speeds up a half hour of community shoveling into two minutes, showing a team of Duluthians clearing a side road.

Antics from Duluth’s Thanksgiving Weekend Snowout of 2019

Some video fun while you wait for the plows to clear the streets. Here’s a montage of snowy silliness.

Selective Focus: Drinksgiving Storm of 2019

The city of Duluth is advising no unnecessary travel until further notice. “Plows are out in full force, but warm ground temperatures and rain have forced drivers to use chains to travel safely,” states a news release from the city’s communications office. “Please respect plow drivers and maintain a safe distance behind them.”

Meanwhile, here are a few of the sexier pics on Instagram.

A People’s Free Skate gem by Johnny of the Northwoods

Recorded at this past winter’s #peoplesfreeskate, in response to DNT reporters prompting him. Just getting this off my phone now. Cast your mind back to blessed February.

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