Cold Feet

[JimP]

Cold feet? put on a "head sock", or a really good hat. keep your hands warm and prevent loss of heat from your neck. preventing those sources of heat loss will help keep your feet warm. Sounds weird but works. When boots come off put on some polarguard booties and sleep with the boots to 1) dry them out, 2) keep them warm. We used to stomp a shallow trench in the snow, put out the bivy sack, slip in the ground pad and you're good to hook.

God, I HATE cold weather now.

[The Reaper]

Spent the coldest time of my life one February near the DMZ in Korea.

Temps with wind chill down to 57 below zero.

Kept rubber overshoes on leg boots while marching, VB boots when we stopped and set up camp.

Not too bad in a pup tent with the old Arctic sleeping bags on air mattesses, as long as the mattress would hold air. Once it let down, the frozen ground would get chilly pretty quickly. Light a candle or can of Sterno (never heat tabs) in the tent 20 minutes or so before you got up, with all of the snow on top of the tent, it got pretty cozy till you went outside.

The waterproof bag over the foot of the sleeping bag is good till the moisture condenses inside of it, then the chicken feathers freeze together and the bag has to be dried out.

Slept in a watch cap, pile cap, or sleeping bag cap. Agree that if you keep your head warm, the other extremities stay warmer as well. The sleeping shirt was also helpful in the pre- poly-pro days, as were wool outergarments and field jacket/pant liners.

TR

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

Also used to take and wrap my feet in a poncho liner and put them in a waterproof bag inside the sleeping bag.
Doesn't sweat inthe bag. Blitzzz

[Rumblyguts]

VB = vapor barrier?

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

You could get them in black but mostly in white. They were also called "Mickey Mouse" boots because of the bulbus appearence, although they wern't too bad walking in. Good to 60 below. When I was there the firsst time the PipeLine workers would pay soldiers over $300 for a pair, Some Commander got wise to it and started charging over $300 with an Artical 15. to keep troops from "loseing" them. Blitzzz

[Longstreet]

The activity you are doing may have something to do with your cold feet. Speaking for myself, whenever I am 'inactive' my feet tend to get cold, but when I become 'active' they warm up extremely well.

As for what I personally wear, when winter camping or hiking, I have always worn a light synthetic sock (a pair of Nike cycling socks) with a pair of Canadian issue wool socks over top. My feet have always been toasty warm and oddly enough, at the end of the day when I take them off and check my feet, they (my feet) are as dry as a bone. I can't say the same for my boot liners though as they are usually soaked. I wear Sorell boots and whenever I go on overnights, I always pack an extra set of liners.

[Paslode]

Originally Posted by Longstreet

The activity you are doing may have something to do with your cold feet. Speaking for myself, whenever I am 'inactive' my feet tend to get cold, but when I become 'active' they warm up extremely well.

As for what I personally wear, when winter camping or hiking, I have always worn a light synthetic sock (a pair of Nike cycling socks) with a pair of Canadian issue wool socks over top. My feet have always been toasty warm and oddly enough, at the end of the day when I take them off and check my feet, they (my feet) are as dry as a bone. I can't say the same for my boot liners though as they are usually soaked. I wear Sorell boots and whenever I go on overnights, I always pack an extra set of liners.

My activity is Hunting and work for the most part. When moving no problem with cold feet, but sitting idle even in a warm car in the morning my feet have a damp chill. Today it was cold and sleeting, same thing warm when I was walking and cold when sitting idle, but I decided to try some hunting/hiking in the afternoon 2 hours, in gusty winds 15-20 mph, high in the 20's no problem but a chilly face and all the way home warm cozy feet....only difference a different set of boots, a looser fitting pair and my feet didn't feel damp.

What I noticed today was that with my tighter Merrill hiking boots the chill from the wind seems to transmit almost immediately to the sock, the other boots I wore hunting are looser which allows for an air space between the exterior and the sock. This is makes sense because the Merriills are warmer with thinner socks.

[perdurabo]

When mountaineering, trail running, or even hiking in the winter:


WigWam brand sock liners (unknown part #, white, very thin yet durable, synthetic fabric that wicks well. If you're concerned about blisters, check out the "double layer socks from WigWam or WrightSocks.

Wool socks over the liners, I like SmartWool

Goretex shoes/boots with vibram soles. BTW, stay away from The North Face gore-tex shoes, they're crap

I buy all my junk from REI.com

This combo has saved my ass, well my feet rather, a couple time in SHTF scenarios.

Keep your feet dry, use a non-cotton, wicking layer against your feet.

An additional note. This keeps your feet toasty in the cold, but is perfectly doable as "office wear" here in the PNW. My feet don't cook, HTH

[NPG162]

Read this article about vapor barriers.

http://www.ssrsi.org/Onsite/vapor_barriers.htm

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by Rumblyguts

VB = vapor barrier?

Yup.

[Diablo Blanco]

Originally Posted by JimP

Cold feet? put on a "head sock", or a really good hat. keep your hands warm and prevent loss of heat from your neck. preventing those sources of heat loss will help keep your feet warm. Sounds weird but works. When boots come off put on some polarguard booties and sleep with the boots to 1) dry them out, 2) keep them warm. We used to stomp a shallow trench in the snow, put out the bivy sack, slip in the ground pad and you're good to hook.

God, I HATE cold weather now.

This is the best all around advice. I've spent two winters in Korea (DMZ too), one in Bosnia and one at CW in Utah. Korea would get -40 with the wind. Bosnia wasn't too bad (lot's of walking) but my experience in Utah really taught a lesson about gear.

In Korea we would fight over patches of sunlight on the ground to stand in. Once we went on a patrol and frago'd into an LP/OP for way too long. No one had any sleeping bags except for ponchos and one poncho liner. We took turns snuggling each other under the poncho+liner while the temp dropped to -40 (with the wind chill). After that everyone went out and bought better neck gaiters, gloves, (and those little space bags JIK)

Bosnia wasn't bad with the trees blocking the wind. If you kept moving your blood would circulate more. But we did a lot of PT. Nearly every morning consisted of a 5 mile perimeter run around the camp. That really helped with the CW conditioning more than anything. We were the old cotton PTs. In fact our section was the only unit that didn't wear goretex or bear suits on a casual basis because we were comfortable in just BDU's poly pro.

Utah...we were sent there with the wrong gear basically. The weather got real cold real fast. Had just regular boots. Ended up putting on wet weather boots to keep the cold moisture out (and in apparently). I spent a lot of time wriggling my toes and flexing my feet when stationary. When I took the boots off at the end of the day the leather was soaked. They spent all night in front of the heater and were crusty every morning.

Lessons learned:
* protect the key areas: head, neck, hands, feet
* have the proper boots
* change socks regularly
* include more cardiovascular in your PT (if you're there awhile) Improves circulation
* have the proper gear. On a light patrol in cold areas split one sleep system between four as a minimum. Additionally it helps to if each person has a poncho+liner of their own. If you have to hunker down awhile you have enough gear for a sleep rotation.

[alright4u]

Originally Posted by Blitzzz

Yes to wool hat at night. Also, and this may sound odd, but we used to carry a collapsable stool on our rucks (it slides between the rear of the ruck and the straps nicely. Why a stool? because it's much better than sitting in the snow. I used the stool when sleeping as a tunnel frame over my head. This formed a dead space and oddly,it kept cold air off of my head.

Also used to take and wrap my feet in a poncho liner and put them in a waterproof bag inside the sleeping bag...and very warm.
With regards to the sleeping with the boots under your head, one loses 50% of body heat through the head. Enjoy the cold, it falls under Paragraph 3 of a field order..
Out, Bllitzzz

I am not up on today's equipment/clothing etc. I agree about the Korea comment. I have had Simms goretex guide waders for fly fishing since about 95. They are great.

[LibraryLady]

I have poor circulation in my feet and hands. I'm always inclined to put more on my feet to keep them warm, but that frequently backfires. Putting on enough to keep them warm when I'm inactive is ok, but the minute I become active they slip from warm to too warm and they sweat. Once there's moisture around my feet, they rapidly cool off and then they get cold whether I'm active or not. Doesn't matter what kind of fibers they are contained within, wet socks + inactivity = cold feet.

LL

[perdurabo]

Originally Posted by LibraryLady

I have poor circulation in my feet and hands. I'm always inclined to put more on my feet to keep them warm, but that frequently backfires. Putting on enough to keep them warm when I'm inactive is ok, but the minute I become active they slip from warm to too warm and they sweat. Once there's moisture around my feet, they rapidly cool off and then they get cold whether I'm active or not. Doesn't matter what kind of fibers they are contained within, wet socks + inactivity = cold feet.

LL

I recommend that folks always wear a "wicking" layer on each part of the body whenever possible. Wickings fabrics pull the moisture away from your skin and keep you much drier.

Wicking WigWam brand socks are approx $8 at REI. When on outdoor excursions, I wear a wicking layer sock and a wool sock over it. I sweat like a pig and usually dont have wet feet.

Wicking shirts and glove liners are also fantastic. Layers is key, and the base layer should always be a thin wicking one. And with modern fabrics, you can layer well without looking like an Eskimo.

HTH

[LibraryLady]

Originally Posted by perdurabo

I recommend that folks always wear a "wicking" layer on each part of the body whenever possible. Wickings fabrics pull the moisture away from your skin and keep you much drier.

Wicking WigWam brand socks are approx $8 at REI. When on outdoor excursions, I wear a wicking layer sock and a wool sock over it. I sweat like a pig and usually dont have wet feet.

Wicking shirts and glove liners are also fantastic. Layers is key, and the base layer should always be a thin wicking one. And with modern fabrics, you can layer well without looking like an Eskimo.

HTH

Depending upon what you wear over the wicking layer, you will still have moisture in your clothing layers. Activity will dry out the moisture in the outer layers unless you are in a heavy humidity environment. I'm speaking of that point when you have the moisture contained within the clothing, your humidity is close to saturation and you are inactive.

From your profile, you know the type of weather I'm referring to here in the PNW, but I'm speaking of those times when you are not moving outside - inactivity - how you dress for it is different then dressing for activity.

LL