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Nifty Tricks For Your Feet And Schnoz.

Just three ingredients for warm feet and dry boots. Credit: Harriet Wallis

I like to get to the lodge early, meet new skiers, and visit with old friends.

Recipe for your toes

One day I met John Bridgwater and Joan Kent who travel continually to ski. They invented a way to dry their boots night after night in hotel rooms and keep them toasty warm on the drive to the mountain. They find this works better than the expensive, highly marketed systems. Here’s the boot drying recipe.

List of ingredients:

  • One inexpensive boot bag that will hold your boots side by side.
  • One heating pad that will stay on continually rather than turning itself off within a short time. They found CVS carried such a heating pad.
  • One pair of ski boots that have been worn all day.

How to do it

Put the heating pad in the bottom of the boot bag and leave it there.

At the end of the day, buckle your boots and put them side by side inside the boot bag.

When you get to the hotel – or home – unzip the boot bag and leave it open. Plug in the heating pad. You only need one outlet for this.

Then go out to dinner and enjoy the evening. Your boots are drying themselves.

“It’s a chimney effect,” said John. “The boots heat from the bottom and the moisture is driven out the top.”

And tomorrow

Unplug the heating pad and put the cord into the boot bag. Zip up the bag and the boots will stay warm on the way to the mountain.

Recipe For Your Nose

My friend Marypat Schreibman wears a nifty little nose protector. It  secures to her glasses, protects her nose from the sun, and it keeps her nose warm even on the coldest days. It’s called a “nose cone.”

So I Googled nose cone, and the internet gave me nose cones for planes and rockets. Wrong ones!

Ingredients

Marypat’s came from NozKon.  It’s made of light weight, flexible material and comes in a variety of colors and models. Some attach to goggles. As the springtime sun grows stronger, many skiers are now wearing the protector.

Or protect your beak with beko gear. Protecting noses from sun damage is an entire industry for bicycling, yard work, and water sports. How’s your nose?

Nose cone fashion statement? Credit: Harriet Wallis

5 Comments

  1. Heating pads, like space heaters, shouldn’t be left on and unattended; my humble opinion.

    Also, we recently visited Powder Mountain following Harriet’s advice and she was 100% correct in that recommendation. That was totally excellent!

  2. THANK YOU for a solution that doesn’t involve pulling your liners out of the boots…something I simply can’t do. There are wands you can also put in the boots. Luckily, my hands and feet don’t get cold (once photographed northern lights in 40 below with only rayon gloves …like bathingsuit material…on my hands…yes, sometimes I think I have Inuit in my bloodline). But I often worry about accumulated moisture and warm boots are also pliable boots…much easier to get on.

  3. “Dry N Warm “ electric rods work well and cheap. So does SPF 30 sun lotion

  4. Richard Kavey says:

    Ever ready nose solution of days when frostbite is a solution: a paper napkin folded and held in place by the nose contact of your Goggle. And, it’s soooooo stylish

    A boot dryer that blows room temperature air into your boots is the best way to go. Won’t damage the boot or insoles including expensive orthotics. I’ve had the same one for over a decade and it’s still going strong. For travel the sticks are convenient, work well and so far I haven’t experienced any damage.

    If left damp your boot liners will quickly rot. If you’re liners have rotted you can replace the liner with a custom fit liner – I have Intuition liners. They are fantastic and 1/3 the price of the Comformable liner. My alpine boot shells are a 10 year old pair of Lange Plugs – very thick shells with an Intuition replacement liner. The Intuition liners are much warmer than the original liners transforming the notoriously cold Lange plug into the warmest boot I have ever owned.

  5. Robert Sawyer says:

    If you are looking for face and nose protection from the elements, check out FaceSaverMask,com The mask I have created really works well.

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