Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Spring is here in Alaska! 30 degree days and -20 at night.
I've been wrestling with a problem the last couple years, and NO I don't want to sleep with my ski boots.

During the day, my feet sweat a quarter cup of liquid. The heat from my foot also melts on the laces of my boot (alpina Alaska nnnbc) and builds up ice/hard snowballs. Both the inside and outside of my boot becomes saturated with moisture. By the end of day two, I could step in a creek and hardly take on more weight. Morning day three I wake up, and am miserable for 15 minutes (high misery, feet become numb and I swear off winter camping, I hobble until I can ski).

Things I've tried
1) Plastic turkey bags as vbl - too much moisture, toes become pickles, easy rubs and bunches create blisters
2) Changing socks mid day - helps, but then I just have two pair of wet socks
3) Airing out boots mid-day sun - seems pointless, reduces minimal amounts of moisture. Then I got to put back on a wet cold boot.
4) Antiperspirant deodorant on the foot - can't say it did anything

What do you guys do???
I prefer when it stays between -10f to 10f, my favorite temp range

I'm wondering if a synthetic cheap boot might be more breathable?
I'd like to get a boot with both laces and a thin zip up cover. Would this help?
I don't have cold feet issue - as long as I'm moving and not putting on the frozen boot.
What about a boot with a inner liner, do these exist? (but not Alfa polar aps, the liner for moisture control)
What about with an outer shell to keep moisture (overflow, melted snow from foot warmth) from saturing the boot.

Is there a boot that is just a liner and a shell???!
Next season (or this!) I'm looking to replace nnnbc with xplore bindings.

Grace and Gale-dog

Hello,
Have a look at the Lundhags ski boots with wool felt liners.

https://www.lundhags.com/en/footwear/me ... 040435-900

You can swap the socks during the day to minimize the moisture and let the liners dry in your sleeping bag during the night. Best option is to have spare liners and rotate them.

As VBL sock and the like doesn't work, you can try reducing clothing to cool your whole body; if the body is cold it will reduce blood supply to feet and hands and this should reduce sweating. Perhaps then combining it with VBL or similar sock arrangements may work.

To avoid the outer saturating with moisture, look for leather treatment, see @lilcliffy :
viewtopic.php?t=4612
and also cloth sprays. Sprays can also some times be used on leather. Se also:
https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1725

Double boots like the Lundhags Guide or similar may also help or solve your troubles. And also don't worry about breathability, as a leather boot will normally transport very little moisture out. Good luck.

PS. This tread should be in the Talk forum; maybe a moderator could move it?

Hello and welcome Grace and Gale-dog!

To start- this is a subject/thread that would have relevance to a lot of people on this forum-

even for those not doing multi-day backcountry tours-

dealing with prespiration-caused moisture is a very serious issue with any true wilderness backcountry Nordic ski touring-
being uncomfortable is one thing- dying of exposure is a very real risk.

I am no expert on this subject-
hopefully, we get some expertise and real experience joining this discussion.

To begin with I have the exact same experience as you with respect to foot prespiration-
I am not convinced that waterproof-breathable boot liners help at all in this respect- in fact they may make it worse, as they don't really work in very cold weather.
Note that "polar"/arctic touring boots do not have waterproof-breathable liners...

My conventional BC Nordic touring boots (e.g. Alpina Alaska; Alfa Guard; Crispi Svartisen) get completely saturated from foot prespiration after several hours of ski touring-
it takes several hours for the boot to dry- and that is stuffed with dry newspaper in a very warm, dry space.

I am intensively touring with the Lundhags Guide BC this winter-
(what an incredible touring boot!!!)-
it has a removable wool liner and insole-
no waterproof breathable liner-
no interior water-absorbing materials (e.g. insulation, foam, etc.)-
just easy-to-maintain leather exterior-interior and a removable insulating liner-
WOW.
I have 2 extra liners-
liner gets wet? Switch out the liner.
The liners are very quick drying and odor and mold resistant wool.

Game changer.

I am planning on buying the Lundhags XP touring boot ("Abisku XP").

Best wishes to you and please contiunue to share your personal skiing story!
Gareth

Quick note on the insulaiton of the Lundhags Guide BC-

When dry- the Guide BC liner is not as warm as the Alaska BC (nor the even warmer Guard BC)-
the Guide BC liner offers similar- perhaps a little better- insulation as my Svartisen BC.

I was out for several hours at -34C- the Guide BC liner was not warm enough with one thick sock (e.g. Darn Tough Mountaineering)- I had to add another one.
You may want to make sure that you can comfortably wear two thick socks if you are touring in very cold weather.
Due to the volume of the top of the Guide boot- I would not be able ot properly lace them if I bought a larger size to add more layers.

I am thinking that the "Expedition" model may be better suited for touring in very cold weather.
(I aslo think I would prefer higher lacing with this boot)-
I am strongly considering the Abisku Expedition XP boot:
https://www.lundhags.com/en/footwear/me ... ate-boots/

To add-
when wetted-out from sweat- the Guide BC is warmer than the Alaska BC.

I don't have Sweaty Feet Syndrome per se, but I do have Lundhags boots for hiking and skiing, and I am a very very big fan of the removable liner. When you get to where you're sleeping you can just pad around in the liners and they function like slippers.

The trick is to have spare wool socks. When I'm hiking in the summer I'll change my socks half way (usually at the top). New dry socks is one of the great pleasures!

It really pays to use the thickest socks you can find in the Lundhags Guides. A thin liner and a massive army sock is the ticket.

I'm a very big fan of these boots.

^^ A more durable and thicker duckbill on a 75mm version would welcome. Without the 3 pin disclaimer on the Expedition boot.

Skijoring Grace Gale wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:03 pm

Spring is here in Alaska! 30 degree days and -20 at night. I've been wrestling with a problem the last couple years, and NO I don't want to sleep with my ski boots. During the day, my feet sweat a quarter cup of liquid.

I don't want to know how you got to measure 'quarter cup.'

Changing socks is standard if you don't use VBLs of some sort. Some wear a thin dress sock for comfort if you don't want plastic next to your skin. Otherwise sweat vapor (water) moves too slowly to stay warm enough not to condense to water and accumulate or freeze the closer it gets to the "outside" sub-freezing temps. VBLs keep the cotton duck outer shells of my mukluks from freezing up on hikes. Without them, it's like your breath hitting a sub-32F car window and just freezes to the surface.

The good stuff is at the end…