Nothing ruins a perfect day of skiing like cold, achy, feet. Every skier has been through this before. It is a beautiful powder day, and you want nothing more than to stay on the mountain all day, but you can’t feel your toes anymore and you are starting to worry if they are actually still there. So, what do you have to do? Head back to the lodge to let your feet defrost while your friends are out on the slopes having all the fun. It is the WORST! Luckily, over the years we have discovered a few tips and tricks to keeping those toes nice and warm. Here are five things you can do to make sure your feet stay warm on the slopes:
1. Wear thin wool socks – This sounds a little counter-intuitive. Don’t you want to wear thicker socks to stay warm? This is not the case for skiing. A thinner sock will perform better and leave more room for your foot to breathe. Thus, keeping your foot warmer on the slopes. The fibers of the sock are also very important factor in keeping your feet warm skiing. NEVER use cotton socks. Cotton traps in the moisture, causing cold feet. Wool is the best type of sock to use. Wool socks will wick the moisture away from your skin, thus keeping your feet dryer and warmer.
2. Bring your boots inside to warm up overnight – If you keep your boots in the garage, make sure to bring them inside the night before you go skiing to allow them time to warm up overnight. If you can, put them next to some kind of heater for a little extra warmth. If you went skiing the day before, you will also need to dry the liners of your ski boots. Remove your liners from the boot and let them sit somewhere warm overnight. You can also lightly stuff newspaper in the liners to help absorb the moisture.
3. Duct Tape the tip of your boot – Duct Tape…really? Yes, really. Maybe it looks a little ghetto, but it works wonders! And let’s be honest, Duct Tape is the solution to most problems in life. Sometimes snow can melt from your buckles and slowly seep cold water into your boot. To prevent this, take a small strip of Duct tape and place it over the toe of your boot. This will help prevent moisture from entering the boot.
4. Heat your boots on ride up – Yes, you have already let your boots warm up overnight, but every little bit helps. So warm them up on your way up to the resort as well! Place them next to the heater with the top of the boot facing towards the heater so the warm air will go directly into the boot. This is especially important if you have a long drive to the ski resort. Disposable hand and toe warmers shoved in the total of the boot for the drive up the canyon makes a big difference or, even better, boot heaters installed with rechargeable batteries. Both of which you can buy at Ski ‘N See.
5. Unbuckle your boots on the lift – Ski boots can be a little restricting, and that’s how we like them. We like them to fit tighter so we can get better performance on the slopes. Until our toes start to freeze. Then we start to regret those high-performance boots we like to wear so much. The tighter the boot, the less blood circulation you will get to your toes. And less circulation = colder feet. This doesn’t mean you need to buy a bigger boot and forget about the tighter, better performing boot. There are other ways to address the problem. One thing you can do is unbuckle your boots on the lift. This will allow you to move your toes around a little bit and get some blood circulating until you get to the top. It may seem tedious to buckle and unbuckle your boots for every lift ride, but it makes a big difference!
