Yeah, I get all that... I am alright all the way down into -20 or so in my normal rig (Carhartt top and bottom) with differences being in the under layers... So long as I keep moving.
I have a set of woolies too, which work about the same so long as the wind ain't up... And I probably prefer them, though really use those only for hunting and woods, because they can't take work as well. I have an oversized light canvas shell for those, top and bottom, which I have turned tin for water and wind. But tins get heavy in the wearing, and don't breath well.
If it is much past -20 unless I am moving, I will probably be in my woolies, and the the parka, which is fur lined inside with a fur wind collar and face fur on the hood (the real deal)... And switched out to fur gaiters below the knees. I can sit in that rig, no matter how cold, all day long.
Cold as I been as I recall is proper -30s, but maybe colder up above the treeline (I wouldn't know), and some of that blizzard winds. I really don't mind down to -20, but somewhere around mid -20s I will start pining for a cabin and a warm fire. Normally that cold will see me busting out the feeding and hightailing for the house to hide by the fire with the womenfolks.
Unless I really get caught out, I ain't got to prove that no more, and cows/horses are generally more sensible than oil riggers. :D ... Except for cows calving, but thankfully they wait for freezing rain and slush on the ground, so they can get way up the mountain and into the thick brush, where they can find a creek to lay down in before they start having trouble. :|
I have seen -54 in Riverton WY, and -60 (with a 40 MPH wind) in Alamo, ND (that's 146 below zero wind chill). I wasn't out in that for long, maybe 15 minutes at a time, but had to be out regularly enough to heat up the propane tank so the furnace would keep going. Saturated salt mud was blowing back at me off the end of the shale shaker and the droplets froze in mid air.
I had a pair of Army Air Force Flight Pants and a surplus Air Force Extreme Cold Weather Parka. I lost the flight pants, to my great chagrin, in a move years ago, and have since replaced that gear with a set of -40 rated Nomex III gear for the rig, and also have an older Extreme Cold Weather Parka with the fur ruff around the hood for wear at home. Plus the usual insulated Carhardts, pac boots, and such, gear I'm sure you are familiar with. If I'm working hard, I wear a lot less to keep from sweating, but when I slow down, I have to layer up to keep from getting chilled. It hasn't been far enough below zero to break out the cold weather gear yet, for the most part, I have been running around in a t-shirt and a hoodie and jeans.
But I have spent more than a few days in places where you could urinate and it would freeze on the way to the ground.
I'm not as fond of the real cold as I once was, and like you, have decided that if I don't need to be miserable, I won't.
