UKC

Hello!

Anyone used / rate / hate them?

It has been suggested by a guide that If I use them with my Phantom Lites, I will be able to use the boots at lower temperatures, which will be in and around Talkeetna, not necessarily at higher altitude, just colder temps.

Don't know enough about them and their website ain't informative enough. I realise there may be a problem with condensation but thats about it!

Thanks is advance,
Fauvé x

In reply to Fauvé:

I suppose the idea with vapour barrier liner socks is to keep the insulating sock (and boot inner) dry, thus maintaining insulation.

The question is where you should wear the VB liner; over a thin sock, or over a thicker sock?

If you wear it over a thin sock, it's likely that the thin sock will become saturated with water, but, assuming you wear a thicker, insulating sock over the top, this will maintain the insulation, so your feet will stay warm but damp. Carrying spare inner socks, or washing & drying one pair overnight will be easier if they're thinner.

If you wear the VB over a thicker sock, the sock can absorb more sweat, and so may feel nicer, but won't insulate as well.

If I think about the VB sock as simply a plastic bag, I might suspect that it would slip about quite a lot, so I'd look for a VBL that was faced with a fairly rough fabric, otherwise your feet will slip about inside the boot, potentially giving rise to blisters (and loss of a 'sense of control'), unless you over-tighten the boot, which would compress the insulation, rather spoiling the effect you're trying to achieve...

So I'd say it's a toss-up between insulation value and perceived comfort. A wetter foot is also probably more prone to blistering and related damage (trench foot, anyone?).

Having committed my thoughts to 'paper', I've now googled, and find Andy K has words to say (as usual):

http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=418

I have to say that I've never used VBL socks, or ever done anything where I thought I might need to. But, given that I suffer from Raynaud's and regularly get cold feet and chilblains, maybe I ought to think about trying them...

In reply to Fauvé:

Which web site are you looking at?

http://www.rbhdesigns.com/

These people will make you some for about £20 a pair.

They are very warm but yes, a bit wet.

As recommended by Andy K though.

In reply to captain paranoia and winhill:

Thanks for the info guys, it was the right website (winhill's reply) that I was looking at.

The Andy K article was spot on for what I was looking for. Suffer from the cold, so a guide in Canada said I should try them when I go climbing round Denali. He did say because it's colder there and slower generally on the hill that they would be good, and nice to see that was echoed in Andy K's piece.

The idea was thin sock, liner, big sock and then see how it goes. I was just a bit worried about taking my Lites down to colder temperatures than I have had them and will not buy more boots!

Thanks again
Fauvé x

In reply to Fauvé:

That's a lot of socks! One thing to bear in mind is that if it is too tight you lose blood flow to toes which is counter-productive and makes them more prone to frostbite!

The rbh are like lightweight fleece, bonded to vapour barrier then have a very thin lining stuck to the inside of the barrier.

I used them just with thin thermal liner.

Bear in mind you want dry liner and ideally dry vapour barrier to put on in the morning, so you reverse the vapour barrier socks and sleep withem to dry them out.

Mine have been good to minus 10 centigrade, in vasque ice 9000 boots with good altitude liners and at that temperature I would have been happy with normal socks anyway.