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[at-l] Frozen boots
Sir Goober Peas said:
>Boots are a pain as well. If you've been walking through
>snow during the day, chances are they are soaking wet when you take them off.
>When they freeze overnight, unless you stuff them down in your sleeping bag,
>you will be stepping into a contorted iceboot come morning - not a great
>way to start the day. Besides, the laces are frozen as well, and you
>can't tie them tightly.
It took me a while to discover this: instead of suffering all night long with
your boots in the bag with you, put them in the bag when you first get up in
the morning. Place them in a plastic bag first (don't want all that snow and
ice melting into your bag) then sit on them while you are eating your hot
oatmeal and drinking your hot coffee which, if you are cooking in your tent
like I usually do, will give you about 30-60 minutes of human-powered
defrosting action before you have to put them on. When temperatures are
consistently cold during the day (20 degrees and colder), frozen boots are
almost never a problem (unless you break through a frozen creek or something)
as the snow you are walking through is too cold to melt onto your boots (wear
gaiters ALWAYS or this will not be true). Most problems with frozen boots
occur when the temp is near freezing (or above) during the day (like in the
High Sierras on the PCT or in March on the southern AT) and you are in old corn
snow all day or a fresh snowstorm, and the temperature plunges with a cold,
clear night. Though I have warmed my boots over many a fire, this is an
invitation to delaminating your boots or ruining GoreTex boots. A better
solution is to have a water bottle that fits into your boots (not the toes,
just the heel), fill it with near-boiling water, SEAL TIGHTLY and slip into a
boot to heat for 15 minutes or so and then into the other boot for the same
treatment. All of these sure beat losing sleep just throwing the boots in the
sleeping bag.
Alan
P.S. Of course, if you had used an umbrella to begin with (one for each boot),
you wouldn't have this problem, now would you??
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