Cold feet

[KathrynC]

Ok, you may remember me from other posts about boots, now it's time to talk feet! How are you keeping your toes warm this season? Mine are like ice cubes before they go into boots. Since I'm looking for new boots tomorrow anyway, any preferred socks, liners, heaters that you love?

Lots of discussion of boot heaters here, so I won't go into that further.

One thing that stood out to me here is that your feet are cold BEFORE they even go into your boots. I suspect this is part of the problem. The insulation in your liners will help you to retain heat that you already have, but it won't make you warmer. Starting out warm is much better. If my feet are cold, I often go for a little jog or something so that my feet are warm before I put my boots on.

If that's not an option, then you need to generate heat somehow. Heating your boots is one way to do that, but physical effort also works. I do a lot of touring, and never use boot heaters in that context because my feet are always warm before I secure my boots for the downhill. Skiing terrain that forces me to be active with my feet (bumps) usually warms my feet up nicely too.

Another thing to consider is to keep your core warm. If your core is cold, your body diverts blood away from your extremities - protecting your brain and abdominal organs is more important than protecting your fingers and toes. If your core is warm, your extremities will get more blood flow, and are likely to feel warmer too.

Finally, just to reiterate, if you're boots are too tight, you won't get good blood flow to your feet. This can also make them feel cold.

 

[snoWYmonkey]

@HMSCster As pointed out above, starting off with cold feet means they'll never warm back up by being in unheated ski boots.

Do you wear boots to the hill that breathe or are they rubber? I ask because our feet do perspire and moisture and cold are a deadly combo. I wear wool socks, and leather or suede or felt boots with an insulation liner so my feet are warm. I drive with heat directed at my feet the whole way to the ski area.

Keeping the core warm is important but my colleague who teaches cold weather survival in a 2 day class to field scientists in Antartica before they are allowed in the filed has two big takeaways

One, keep the tunes, aka arms and legs warm. The blood cools off quickly as it travels to and back from the extremities. This actually cools down the core too and makes us work harder to stay warm. She is a firm believer in thick insulated pants and insulated puffy long johns. Her second tip is to stay hydrated as it makes that blow floor faster and easier. Even if it means taking lots of time consuming pee breaks. Last and not least, this goes back to the sweating part, shed layers of you're starting to sweat so you stay dry. Any moisture in boots, from sweat or snow, is bound to make it almost impossible to keep the toes warm.

 

[KathrynC]

@HMSCster As pointed out above, starting off with cold feet means they'll never warm back up by being in unheated ski boots.

Do you wear boots to the hill that breathe or are they rubber? I ask because our feet do perspire and moisture and cold are a deadly combo. I wear wool socks, and leather or suede or felt boots with an insulation liner so my feet are warm. I drive with heat directed at my feet the whole way to the ski area.

Keeping the core warm is important but my colleague who teaches cold weather survival in a 2 day class to field scientists in Antartica before they are allowed in the filed has two big takeaways

One, keep the tunes, aka arms and legs warm. The blood cools off quickly as it travels to and back from the extremities. This actually cools down the core too and makes us work harder to stay warm.

Regarding the first part of that, it is often recommended not to wear your ski socks to the hill. The reasoning is exactly this - if your socks are slightly sweaty because your feet have been warm in the car, they are more likely to get cold in your ski boots. Wear different socks en route, and change into your ski socks when you put your boots on.

Regarding the second part, this is true. However, once I've dressed for the day, there isn't usually much I can do about my legs in particular. However, I am likely to have a spare neck gaiter, or often even a spare jacket depending on the weather. While dressing in appropriately insulated clothes to start with is important, it's also good to realise that putting putting your spare Buff or jacket on at the top of the lift can help your cold toes.

 

[edelweissmaedl]

I was out at Canaan in very cold temps. I used some tips from some other older Ski Diva threads and added in a ThermaCare back warming patch in addition to warm boots to start and a million uppper and lower layers. I still had to go in for breaks and things got a little numb, but given the -15F wind chill was pretty pleased.

 

[HMSCster]

This community is great! With many of these great suggestions I have made the following changes and has nice toasty feet!
- boot fitter helped get the blood flowing, I needed a metatarsal pad, moved a buckle, and got new socks
-stopped wearing ski socks to the hill because as the earlier poster pointed out wet = cold
- new ski socks are really thin and warm!!!
- letting boots warm up a touch more

So far, so good! Thanks for all the great tips. I'll come back here if I have further issues.

You all rock!