Guest Blog: Some Thoughts On Footwear For Winter Camping
Today’s guest blog post is from Martin Pine who has years of camping expertise and wanted to share what he learned about what type of footwear you should use for winter camping…
I recently posted my thoughts on good clothing choices for winter camping and the post was fairly well received and generated a lot of good discussion. That post said little about footwear and because cold feet is such a common problem and concern I thought I would offer my own advice on winter camping footwear and what, in my experience, works best for keeping feet warm in deep cold conditions.
Avoid high-tech winter boots:
Modern, high-tech winter boots are fully waterproof on the outside and have multiple absorbing layers on the inside to wick water away from your foot. These work superbly until the absorbing layers approach saturation or until you stop moving around. At that point, they become moisture traps, turn freezing cold, and you lose heat by conduction through water in your boots - a very rapid way of losing heat. You will absolutely get cold feet very soon after you stop moving once moisture has built up inside your boots and moisture WILL have built up just from the normal activity of snowshoe travel and making camp. Such boots are great for day trips where you can remove them and let them dry out at night in a dry, heated house, but when you're camping, they will slowly bleed heat from your feet during periods of inactivity and they will freeze solid overnight. They are miserable to put on in the morning, and if you forget to open up the lacings before you go to sleep, it can be a struggle to just get into them in the morning. They thaw out only by virtue of your feet bleeding heat into them. In effect, they cease being insulators and become heat-loss enhancers. It's worth pointing out that even very expensive boots lined with so-called 'breathable' fabrics such as Gore-Tex are not effective in cold temperatures, as the water vapour condenses and freezes up in the pores of the fabric, making them no dryer (and hence no warmer) than any conventional waterproof materials.
Drying winter boots over a fire is much harder than people imagine:
It takes a very long time, uses a lot of wood, and they never dry thoroughly so you never have truly dry boots for the rest of the trip. They'll warm up alright, and feel great when you put them on after they've been over a fire, but in short order, they will cool and you'll have the same problem you started with. And that's assuming the weather is conducive to building a large warming fire. In bad weather (rain, high winds, blizzards, etc) you may be unable to start or sustain a warming fire long enough to significantly reduce the wetness of your boots and you will need some other footwear while you are fire-drying them. Save these types of boots for day hikes, snowshoeing, or one-nighters. They are ill-suited for multi-night winter camping in sub-freezing temperatures.
Socks:
Wool socks are best. They insulate well, retain some of their insulating properties when very damp, vent moisture away from your foot (but not out of your boot) and, because they breathe, can be night-dried in your sleeping bag while you sleep, either worn or just resting on you inside your bag. I like to wear two pairs of wool socks in deep cold. When it's less cold, I wear a thin synthetic sock that wicks moisture away and a heavy wool sock over that. Avoid cotton socks or cotton blend socks as cotton does not wick moisture away from your skin and they won't dry out overnight.
Sizing of winter footwear:
Winter camping boots need to be significantly bigger than what you'd normally wear. They have to be able to accommodate your foot, plus two heavy wool socks and have room left for wiggling your toes. I'm a size 10.5 and I wear an 11.5 or 12. A constricted foot or immobile toes will lead to poor circulation and cold feet. If you can find pack boots that have a very high toe box, get them. With this sort of boot, there is room enough inside to add another layer of insulation below your foot by buying or cutting out a felt insole that you put underneath the felt liner. This extra insole significantly reduces heat loss through conduction when you're standing or sitting. If you are wearing two pairs of socks in your boots, make sure the outer sock is roomy enough that it won't unduly compress the inner sock around your foot and lead to constriction of blood flow. Too loose is better than too snug.
Pack Boots:
Pack boots, also knows as 'snowmobile boots', 'skidoo boots', Baffins, Kamiks, Sorels, etc., are rubber on the lower part with nylon or leather uppers that can breathe a bit. Leather uppers (such as Sorel's) are reputed to breath better, but I've never owned a pair and can't confirm that. What makes pack boots so suitable for winter camping is that they have removable felt liners which can be dried out easily while wearing a second dry pair. Spare liners are sold separately and can often be ordered online if not available where you bought your boots. Get liners made of felted wool if you can, but synthetic liners work too. Without dry liners to change into, pack boots are no better than any other boot. Your damp liners, like your socks, will night-dry in your sleeping bag while you sleep and be warm and dry by morning so that you never have to put a foot into an icy boot. You can also realistically dry your liners over a fire because they are just felted material and aren't encased in rubber or some other waterproof material. I should add that I've been a cold-camper (in snow shelters) most of my life and I have never needed to dry my liners over a fire; night-drying has always worked for me. Pack boots vary greatly in price, but there are many types to choose from. They are bulky and ugly, don't appeal to the urban outdoor fashion market, and so typically sell for less than modern high-tech winter hiking boots. Some boot companies won't sell spare liners, but they are quite interchangeable between brands. Pack boots are commonly available in secondhand and discount stores such as Good Will, Salvation Army stores, and Value Village. You can often find a good pair there for less than the price of a spare liner. I have on occasion bought a cheap pair of pack boots just so I could have spare liners when I'd worn out a set.
Winter moccasins:
Smoke-tanned or brain-tanned winter moccasins (such as those sold by Steger or handmade) with felted wool liners in conjunction with rubber boots and overshoes is another option. Smoke-tanned or brain-tanned moccasins are not expensive to make, but expensive to buy; however, they are lighter, more comfortable, they breath and vent foot moisture directly to the outside, so moisture is not trapped inside. They are also flexible soled and this means your feet and toes are free to move, bend, and twist which increases circulation to the feet. As with pack boots, they are used with felt liners, but they don't get nearly as wet by the end of the day. Moccasins are not waterproof, so you also need to bring along a pair of cheap, regular rubber boots (with felt liners) for those mild days when the snow is wet, it's rainy, or when you need to cross slush-covered frozen lakes or you, alternatively, you can slip on a waterproof overshoe on those days. Moccasins are my winter footwear of choice and for people who suffer a lot from cold feet (as I do) or have Raynaud's Syndrome, they are a game-changers. I pair them with a natural rubber overshoe for those wet snow/slushy conditions and that is all the footwear I need.
Regular rubber boots with felt liners:
This is the poor man's pack boot. It works. It's what I used as a kid when I began winter camping before I discovered packboots and moccasins. They are not the most comfortable thing to walk in, and you will wet your liners much sooner because there's no nylon or leather upper to permit some moisture venting, but bring 1 or 2 spare pairs of liners and you will manage just fine. The secret here is to change your liners and socks more often and not wait until there are soaking wet and you have freezing feet.
The vapour barrier method:
This style of footwear works on entirely different principles, by deliberately bathing your feet in their own warm sweat. A layer of non-breathable material, such as a plastic bag (bread bags work well) is sandwiched between two pairs of socks and worn inside a regular winter hiking boot. I have tried the vapour barrier, method, and it works, but I am not a fan. It does keep your boots dry, so they are not frozen solid in the morning, and it's what I recommend to people who have only conventional winter hiking boots with an integrated liner that can't be removed and swapped out for a dry one, but I find that the feeling of sweaty prune feet is unpleasant and the smell can be awful (and my feet and footwear ordinarily don't smell), and during long periods of inactivity my feet sometimes get cold as the sweat eventually does bleed out it's heat, but this is definitely an inexpensive way to go if all you have are conventional winter boots with fixed, integrated liners. I do know that others do not report this problem though, so it's worth it for people to give it a try if they don't have footwear with removable liners and find that it a comfortable alternative.
Despite my reservations about this method when winter camping in deep cold, I do something like this now in the shoulder season. In the past 2 years, during spring and summer, I have taken to wearing waterproof socks (Sealskinz brand) which are somewhat breathable (due to a Gore-tex outer layer) and have a nice absorbent merino wool inner lining to wick that foot moisture way from the feet. I wear thse inside my fall and spring hikers for canoe trips because one's feet often end up in very cold water when canoeing in the shoulder seasons. So far, it's working for me, and those socks might work well for winter, but I have yet to try them winter camping.
Synthetic or down-filled camp booties:
These are your camp slippers to be worn outside around camp or inside your shelter. They breath and are flexible. These are not cheap and vary in quality. Worn with dry wool socks, they will keep your feet quite warm in and around your shelter or when you need to get out of your boots to dry your damp liners and damp socks. You can even sleep in them. They are lightweight and they pack well. They also make good little pillows at night.
COLD FEET DURING THE DAY?
If your feet get cold you have to do something about it right away. It never just goes away. If you don't act, it will worsen. Cold feet will not only make a winter camping trip miserable, it is dangerous, as this can rapidly compromise both your ability and even your willingness to walk. Below are suggestions based on my own experiences on how to keep feet warm when you feel cold creeping into them:
Increase blood flow to your feet:
Get moving. Get into your snowshoes and trudge up a steep hill for 5 minutes or until your heart rate is elevated. Jog around in your snowshoes for 5 minutes. Go collect and process firewood briskly. Grab your snow shovel and start building snow furniture such as a sitting bench, wind wall, waist-high cooking surface, etc. Keep going until your feet warm up and then very gradually slow down. Paradoxically, you will want to shed layers of clothing before you even feel yourself warming up. You want to increase blood flow to your feet, not work up a sweat.
When doing a chore that requires sitting or sitting down to eat, your feet can often get cold from contact with the cold ground or snow (conduction), inactivity (lessened blood flow to the feet), and wind blowing against your feet (convection), but there are ways to mitigate this.
-To counter heat loss by conduction, put some insulation between your boots and the cold ground or frozen/packed snow. A small square of closed-cell foam padding is ideal to reduce heat loss through the bottom of your feet by conduction. Think of it as a sit pad for your feet. It works for your bum and it will similarly work for your feet.
- To counter heat loss by convection and radiation when seated, stick your feet in deep snow. It sounds crazy, but it works. Snow is an insulator and will greatly reduce convection and radiation. To appreciate how effective an insulator snow is, consider that the method for keeping your water bottles from turning into ice overnight is to drop them into snow and cover them with snow.
-If your socks or liners have become damp, change into your dry socks and liners sooner rather than later. Always have a pair of socks and liners that is dry or drying.
- If you have chemical heating packs, you can slip one into each boot for temporary relief, but you mustn't rely on these.
The keys to warm feet are lots of food for your metabolic furnace, good quality sleep, activity for blood circulation, good insulation against heat loss, and minimizing moisture in your footwear.
I know this was a bit of a long and tedious read and will be old hat to many here, but for those who are less experienced or beginner winter campers, it can make the difference between a miserable trip and one that leaves you wanting to go out again.
Hope this helps.
-Martin
