I rode 34 miles on Saturday. It was freezing. It was overcast and misty/fog in Pasadena when I left Saturday morning to ride. It wasn't too cold, just a little brisk and damp. I rode up the Angeles Crest Highway towards Mt. Wilson. There's a parking kiosk about 10 miles before the top of Mt. Wilson, and which is where I wanted to ride. It's about 3300 feet up or so. The way up was okay for the first half. Just fog and mist until about 2000ft. Then it turned into really thick fog and a drizzle. I actually stopped at the "chains required" turnout because the fog was so thick I could only see about 30 feet. Cars were going significantly slower than usual. I was thankful to be wearing my lime green kit. After stopping for a few minutes I decided to ride to the kiosk, which was only another 1.5 miles or so. I got there, watered up, and decided to turn around. At this point I was completely drenched and cold. It was windy and wet with shitty visibility. I kept telling myself the way down would suck for the first half and then be fine once I got below 2000ft. Boy was I wrong! The weather got progressively worse at the lower elevations as I went up. Of course I didn't know this until the way down. I started the descent. I left about 5 seconds after two other riders and and they already disappeared into the fog. It could see the faint blinking of his seat light just ahead of me. Though less concerned about catching them,which did happen, I was more concerned about keeping my hands from freezing. At the start of the descent the weather had because a consistent rain and dense fog. The roads were soaked. I was soaked, and cold.
My short fingered gloves were a fail on my part. I actually have long fingered gloves in my ultimate bag, but didn't even think to wear them. The tips of my fingers were frozen within the half mile down. My Garmin said it was 50 degrees. Factor in that I was going 25-30mph and the rain had turned to sleet near the top, it had to be a wind chill in the low 40's! I could feel the rain/sleet hitting my face. All I wanted to do was get to a lower elevation and warm up my fingers. I blew warm air on my thumbs. I couldn't even tuck them behind my break levers to protect them from the wind. It was brutal. I also squirted the cold water from my bottles on my hands, hoping the water was warmer than the chill in my hands. It wasn't. Around 2500ft I gave up on my hands and just wanted to get back home. It stopped raining somewhere in the last mile of the descent. It's about an 8-10 mile climb. I got to the bottom and took the shortest route home. My hands warmed up at the lower elevation. The fog was gone and it was just overcast. I got home and took my jersey off. All of my skin under the jersey and shorts was pink from being so cold. It was crazy.