Cold start ho e-tec

Day after Christmas a friend and I headed up the river to get the line set up. Finally getting enough cold to freeze the river. Woke up the next morning with -32. My 600 ace fired up no problem but his 800 e-tec would hardly pull over. We blanketed it and put a mr buddy heater in the side of the cowling for 2 hours but still no go. With the forecast for -35 to -45 through Saturday we decided to ride the 80 miles out double on my sled. Luckily the overflow was all froze up from the day before.
Any advice for cold starting an e-tec engine. This next weekend we will haul up a generator and little master heater and really put the heat to it.

Command Start. I had a 4 stroke Bearcat, one of the early ones. The dealer said to make sure you start and let it run for 15 minutes before taking off. I could start it 15 minutes before unloading it from the trailer worked great as well as spending the night out. Set the temperature and time to run and sleep. No 110V needed!

My new ace 600 starts no problem.We have had Minus 35c to minus 45c for a week now and forecast for another week.
I was leery about that aspect of the 4 stroke.Always heard from guys here that use them that the e-tec was good for cold starting.
Maybe the gas line froze up?

I have two friends with 800 etecs, theirs can start kinda hard on -30f and colder days, they use hair dryers pointed at the block for an hour or so, and a blanket over the hood to keep the heat in...it seems to help. Also it seems like they get easier to pull once you get it turned over a few times, one of them had some water damage a few years ago (sunk in the river in summer) and its particularly hard to start.

I dont bother with my 2004 800HO, it'll start, but its a shoulder wrencher, I am looking into electric start kits so my wife can use it and to save the shoulder a bit...days like that I just use the little bravo instead. Its still fairly easy to pull at -50.

No experience with the e tecs but my father built a 1200 twin. Massive pistons and pulling that sucker over was not possible below about -25. My 800 always went but was tough to pull over approaching -30. Always got it though. Any of my 440s never had an issue.