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Seeking respite from chilly hands and feet!
- Thread starter mackennea
- Start date
rhymeandreason
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this low tech solution, but you can place toe warmers on top of your base layer on the back of your knee, over your popliteal artery. The idea is that you heat the arterial blood going down to your feet. You can do the same with a warmer on your wrist over the radial and ulnar arteries. Radial is thumb side and ulnar is pinky side.
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
Except they're cotton....
xxs_skier
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm going to try this tomorrow! I always have cold feet and hands...my kids sometimes use them like an ice pack. Ha.
That's a new one on me! Thanks!
xxs_skier
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I did try this and I guess my base layer is a bit baggy on the knees so I think it worked for awhile and then either fell down or there was too much of a gap. I wonder if placing it on the calf might work?
bsskier
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think this would work best if you wore compression bottoms.
TNtoTaos
Angel Diva
Never saw this before, but when I skied with @liquidfeet in TSV a couple of wks ago I noticed that she uses duct tape to attach toe warmers to the OUTSIDE of the toes of her boots! I couldn't believe it would work, but when we took our boots off she showed me how warm the toes of her boots were. Can't argue -- it seemed to work, and she's been skiing for a lot longer than I have, and in New England, at that.
kiki
Angel Diva
I use thé Therm-ic bootheaters . Battery lasts two ski days without recharging and it’s controllable with an app on my phone. I use heat setting 5 out of 10 most days but am usually skiing in mild weather in the west.
for my hands this season they have been getting cold which is a new thing, will have to try the suggestion with the sticky heat pads on My wrists, thank you @rhymeandreason
for my hands this season they have been getting cold which is a new thing, will have to try the suggestion with the sticky heat pads on My wrists, thank you @rhymeandreason
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Right! This was the first time I've had success doing this. I fashioned "pockets" out of neoprene cut form old worn-out bootgloves and duct-taped those pockets to the top of my boot toes. Then I slipped a pair of toe warmers under these, sticking them to the top of my boot shells. I grabbed one edge of the toe warmers with my bottom buckles. This kept them from falling out.
In addition, I had another pair of toe warmers stuck to the top of my socks over my toes. That kept the inside of the boots nice and toasty. The outside toe warmers delayed the loss of heat and improved the effectiveness of the top-of-socks toe warmers.
My hands stay very very warm. I use two or three pairs of hand warmers loosely placed inside my mittens. My fingers are in contact with each other and with the warmers. No problems there, ever.
I buy these warmer things by the box every season. I used to use Hotronics but had constant problems with the wires and batteries. Now I don't have to worry about keeping the electricity working all day long.
Abbi
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I tried that, too and didn’t get warm feet.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Right. Toe warmers on the outside of the shells won't warm the toes. They just slow down the loss of heat that's inside the boot. Some leakage always happens, but the toe warmers stuck to the surface can slow that leakage down. But only if there's neoprene on top of them, shielding them from the cold air and wind. Otherwise they just use up their energy in about an hour and are dead for the rest of the ski day. YMMV.
Abbi
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I did toe heaters on the shells and boot gloves over. It was good for a few minutes, but that was about it. And that’s with boot heaters.
rhymeandreason
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The popliteal artery dives under the gastrocnemius muscle below your knee, so the best place to warm it is the back of the knee. On the days I need it, I wear two base layers and it sits between them. I guess you could also tape it in place? I meant to do it today, but I ran out of time! My toes survived with regular toe warmers.
scandium
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Unfortunately the wrist trick doesn't work for me - I have had numb fingers every time! I do wonder if I have something circulatory that isn't quite Reynaud though, as I get cold hands easily. Which would make sense that the heatpack has to be on my actual hand.
TNtoTaos
Angel Diva
Some people have their alpha adrenergic neurons get easily stimulated, which makes the peripheral blood vessels constrict. This can actually be treated with meds.-- you might mention it to your Doc.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Does this mean one has Reynaud's Syndrome?
TNtoTaos
Angel Diva
Not necessarily; Raynaud's disease (or sometimes, syndrome) is an autoimmune disorder that involves a lot more than just cold hands and feet, while Raynaud's phenomenon is a temporary interruption of blood flow to the extremities. Various autoimmune tests can be done to determine if a person has the actual autoimmune disorder, which can be associated with lupus, Sjogren's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. Either way, the cold limbs symptoms can be treated with alpha adrenergic blockers.
