Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information & opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 50 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
ski touring and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the
Fourteeners! Books and free ski touring news and information here.
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I also suffer from mild Raynaud’s Disease. And I use boot gloves whenever the temps are below 25F. Even with my intuition liners.
Another trick, to keep the toes and fingers warm, is to use low dose of an alpha blocker Rx drug like prazosin. 0.5 mg PO before skiing will keep those toes and fingers warm. But it might make your blood pressure a little low. So try it out at home first.
I’m also looking at buying some aerogel insulation and making boot gloves out of it. They say it has about 10X the insulating value of down. Something to tinker with in the workshop.
http://www.buyaerogel.com/product/spaceloft/
Hi Lisa,
I know someone who wears the same white TLT6 boots as you and might like a pair of those as a Christmas present. What size boots do you wear, and what size boot gloves did you order?
Jonathan,
Thanks for the tip about prazosin. Over-the-counter Niacin helps too.
Rather, my boots are size 25, BSL 277. The Boot Gloves are size medium, which fit Lou’s boots too (size 27.5).
The Boot Gloves have a velcro strap on the back which allows me to snug them up nicely on my TLT6’s.
DIY tip: get some XXL down tent boots/ slippers, cut the bottoms off and mount some rubber cords where needed. Worked perfectly with my Aliens. I didn’t found Boot gloves available in Europe.
Topi, we always like to hear about DIY tips. Thanks!
Lisa,
Thanks for the tip about Niacin. As a physician I should have thought about it. Thank you for the education.
I also use the ubiquitous toe warmers. With enough room in your boot, they certainly help.
Anyone have any experience with these?
http://www.plus-t-store.com
The technology looks promising although Europe continues to keep the good stuff for themselves.
JCoats, I’ve been told that Thermacell has thinned their insoles, very similar to your link. I’ve got some Thermacell set up in a pair of boots I use on super cold days. They took some work to fit correctly but I like the performance. A bit thinner would have been much easier. Too bad these use the cutesy name, I’m not sure what to call them. I guess Plus One? Or Plus One Plus Winter? Or Plus Winter? Or start a sentence with the + characters, as follows.
These things are interesting. + One might make it hard to write a coherent sentence that doesn’t stop reading flow, but they do look cool.
Lou
In spie of a pretty high geek factor I also use the Boot gloves along with the chemical heater packs for alpine skiing when its cold, my hands & feet don’t seem to get as cold when moving/touring
you wana start with warm boots and the Boot gloves seems to help a bit with keeping that warmth in
when they get tattered you can easily fix with Aqua seal
Took the recommendation and tried them out since I have been having cold toes the last couple winters. I do not ski with a wide stance and at 65 doubt I will change that so in 5 days they were pretty slashed up and I am sending them back. Seems like they need some edge resistant coverage on the between the boot side.
Sorry to hear that, glad you can return. I remove mine for the downhill but agree they could have several design improvements including full shielding from ski cuts. I’ve tried to convince several gear makers to build and market a better version but no interest. Annoys me as a better version would truly be an excellent accessory for lots of people. But this version does work if used within their limitations. Lou