Unless you plan to stay out in the weather for many hours at a time, the weather shouldn't have much effect on your equipment as long as you use common sense.  Batteries will not last nearly as long when they are cold.  Also, in cold weather you get better results and longer life out of your regular batteries than in the rechargeable Nicads.  Keeping spares in an inside pocket is a good idea, because again they will lose life "real quick" when cold.  Most good tripods are made out of aluminum.  It doesn't rust!  My ancient (20 year old) Gitzo tripods have been in rivers, streams, snow banks, mud puddles and much more. It still works fine.  The original Arca Swiss head, that I have had as long as the tripods, doesn't have anything in it that cold will effect. No lubricants etc. and it was working just like normal in - 7 degrees the day before yesterday.

If you are going on a several hour hike in zero degree weather, just keep or put the strap on your camera, and keep it on the inside of your outside layer, or parka. You should be wearing layered clothing in this type of weather and you sure don't want the camera up against your body, getting too warm, or it will fog, when you pull it out into the cold again. A large outside pocket in your parka would be a great place for it.  If you are using your car and just going out into the cold for a short time, just keep it on the tripod and keep your car cool, instead of hot inside. In this type situation I just shorten the legs on the tripod and lay it with the camera attached in the back seat. If you are dressed right, you only need a very small amount of heat in car to break the chill.

What I am trying to say is that if you have good equipment, it is going to hold up better than you are in cold weather.  One thing, again common sense, don't take your camera out of a hot area and straight into real cold weather and start shooting.  Allow a decent amount of transition time to cool off so the "film" won't fog up on you. Same thing in the summer when taking film out of a refrigerator. If the lenses fog up, you can always see this in your viewfinder....again common sense.

On the subject of you holding up, a real good thing to do is get a good pair of "mittens" that come on and off real easy. Maybe even with a cord attached to your sleeve. Anyway, it took me 2 hours to get feeling back in my thumbs and some fingers when I went out recently.  My ski gloves are too tight and awkward to remove easily, so I just didn't use them while shooting and with below zero temps, my hands got very cold.

** Lee lives in Colorodo, so he would know about cold weather!(especially at this time of the year) You can check out some of his photos at his page.