It’s so blistering cold in Fraser, Colorado, it’s hard to find an icicle. 

The town, which sits at 8,574 feet just northwest of Winter Park, registered a low of minus 44 from Monday night into Tuesday morning, officially the most brutally freezing low temperature in the country, according to the Boulder National Weather Service.

And Boulder NWS Meteorologist Bruno Rodriguez said Fraser’s overnight low was no freak occurrence since weather stations that dot U.S. Hwy 40 between Winter Park and Tabernash were all registering between 40 and 44 below zero due to the clear skies and snow. 

Still, the recent arctic blast caused by a polar vortex coming from the North Pole did not faze locals in a town where block heaters are a must to get a vehicle moving, people choose mittens over gloves and nostrils freeze at first breath.

The town of 1,400 hardy souls takes pride in the fact that because of its inversion at the base of two mountain ranges, it’s often the coldest place in the nation. Fraser’s annual average temperature is 34.8 degrees Fahrenheit and the growing season is only four to seven days per year.

It’s a quaint coincidence that before blight settled into the soil, the most productive crop in 1920s Grand County was iceberg lettuce. 

No hand warmers necessary — usually

In Fraser, there’s no such thing as cold weather as long as one has proper winter wear.

“You just put layers on and then layers on and layers over that,” advised Dani Dresch, a bartender at Fisher’s Bar, where the Irish coffee flows.

However, even Dresch had to raise a white flag this weekend, when she acquiesced to hand warmers for the first time in her 24 years of living there. She needed full use of her hands to compete in a curling competition.

One might wonder why the street where Fisher’s Bar is located is named Zerex, like the anti-freeze product. Valvoline chose Fraser over other cold spots in America for its marketing campaign, and, one winter, Fraser residents even received a free year’s supply of the chemical stuff that keeps radiators from freezing.

Icebox of the Nation

Still hanging in Fisher’s Bar is a sign that used to greet out-of-town visitors. It reads: “Welcome to Fraser: the Icebox of the Nation.”

Legally, the town has been barred from displaying the name as its own — which is why the saloon displays it. 

Fraser and International Falls, Minnesota, which registered “only” 31 below zero Monday night into Tuesday, have been fighting over that Icebox title for decades.

However, Fraser lost when International Falls proved that it used the name longer when it came up with a PeeWee hockey letter jacket, which had the name stitched into it in 1956.

In short, after a legal battle involving terse letters, angry words and a cold shoulder from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Fraser had to give up its hold on being the Icebox of the Nation.

It appeared the old wound remained open.

When International Falls Mayor Drake Dill was informed on Tuesday that Fraser beat his town in the latest sub-zero temperature war, he barked: “It’s laughable that there could be an Icebox of the Nation in Colorado.

“There can be only one.”

Fraser Mayor Brian Cerkvenik fired back: “If you’re gonna take that title by showing some old jacket and not looking at the numbers, you’re not the ‘Icebox of the Nation.'” 

Cerkvenik said despite International Falls’ bluster, Fraser locals haven’t backed off claiming the honor in conversation because “it’s still very much a part of what Fraser is.”

This week, International Falls hosts Icebox Days culminating in the 45th Annual Freeze Your Gizzard Run. Fraser will counter that small-town celebration with its version when everyone stacks their Christmas trees 20 feet high for the annual bonfire. The Fraser Fire and Ice Festival is scheduled for Feb. 8. 

Cernizek knows the town too cold for icicles must back off of the official title “Icebox of the Nation,” but he’s not putting away the gloves just yet.

“We could modernize it and call it “The Freezer,’” he suggested.

The forecast of an 18-degree high Tuesday was a heat wave compared to minus 44 lows overnight — a 62-degree jump in less than 24 hours.