West Seattle neighbors coin 'Sledgy' to describe area's cold conditions

SEATTLE – The cold snap isn’t getting neighbors down in West Seattle.

Instead, they’re adapting.

“It’s been cold,” said Evan Hales, in between skateboarding at the park in West Seattle. “Bitter.”

When asked to describe the current conditions, he coined “sledgy,” a mixture of ice and snow, which melts in the afternoon to freeze at night.

“It’s usually on the car windshield and the windows of the car,” he said.

Another skateboarder said he had hit a patch of ice leaving his girlfriend’s house.

“I was just in the parking lot going 5-8 miles per hour,” he said.

If you drive around West Seattle, it’s not hard to find a car or yard covered in a blanket of snow, but it also doesn’t take long to find others braving the conditions.

“Lots of extra layers, hats and gloves for sure,” said mom, Ellie Ziegler, at the park with her kids.

Ziegler said she can’t wait for it to warm up outside, she needs to get her kids running around despite the cold conditions.

“When you stay in the house and get cooped up and you start to go a little crazy as you can hear,” she said as the kids' yelling for “mom” got louder.

Ziegler, just like the skateboarders, said they believe in multiple layers. “It’s go time,” said Hales, pointing to his layers of leggings, ski socks and insulated pants. “It’s no joke.”

“Over-wear clothes, you can always take layers off,” he said. Sledgy, he said, won’t be getting him down.

“Get outside and move around, ‘ya know it’s the northwest, so you just got to embrace it.'”