UKC

This morning on my cycle commute I took thinner gloves than I should have. When I stopped I had crippling hot aches - sore, sick and dizzy. I was having a google to see if anyone had discovered a miracle cure in time for winter and look what I found - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27747791



I always get terrible hot aches but I had a better time of it last winter, mostly by wearing more clothes. I find if my core is way too hot then my hands are less likely to freeze.

Anyone got any tips for preventing hot aches?

In reply to Appleby:


... From the 4% of people that don't get them.

In reply to Appleby:

I must work with the 4%, when commenting that I had got hot aches, they looked at me like I had three heads. To be fair, they always look at me like that.

In reply to Appleby:

wrist gaiters

In reply to Appleby:

You guessed it, wear warmer gloves.

In reply to Appleby:

Keep moving and a decent glove/mitt combo is the simple answer (a warm core is essential but bugger all use if the gloves are poor). In practice however, no-one is constantly moving and you can't do most things wearing down mitts so as usual it's striking the balance between warmth and dexterity. This isn't easy and sometimes the hot aches will still strike, usually when gearing up. One way of combating this could be to do a few shorter stops on the way to the route (changing layers, putting on harness, crampons etc) rather than just the one at it's base, but then if you take too long on any one stop you may be risking multiple hot aches!

Did that study come up with anything useful (the conclusion suggests not)?

In reply to Appleby:
Wear thin polyproylene liner gloves. Alternatively buy a pair of Castelli Estremo gloves - the warmest gloves I own (and they do have a really good wrist wrap. Not too good for climbing sadly - too much silicon grippy stuff that would be shredded by a rope, but probably the dog's do-dahs for dry tooling is that's your thing. They are the only time I break my rule of always wear an inner. I don't get hot aches, but I can get very cold hands if i'm not sensible, including rather scary-looking white finger.

http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Castelli/Estremo-Glove/1N2T

If it's cold and rainining then my BD Punishers or OR Warrants come out to play, both with a liner (especially the latter which aren't warm). Wednesday morning, for example, which was a vile time to be out on a bike. Rules 5 & 9.

In reply to Appleby:

I'm making heated leather gloves with a target of 6 hour battery life... I suffer too...

In reply to Appleby:

Only time I've experienced "Hot Aches" to any great extent was when snowball fighting at school, them days when there was snow on the ground the school used to lock us outside during play time so as not to trudge snow in and out of the corridors, (how times change) we had no gloves and I'm a shit shot, coming back into class was 10 minutes of hell!
Now I can usually anticipate them coming on and nip it in the bud by warming hands, on a bike you can always stop to warm up, when climbing here's what I try to now do.
1) Belay where possible your second in guide mode, gives you more freedom to warm hands.
2) When belaying leader stick on a pair of overmitts, as its rare you need the dexterity in this situation.
3) try to do everything with gloves on, once there on they should stay on. If you have to take them off then shove them inside your jacket next to your chest to keep them warm. Putting on a pair on gloves that's been lying in the snow is a recipe for worse than hot aches.
4) as others have said, if your cores get cold, your hands are the first to suffer, so keep it warm and FUELED!

In reply to Appleby:


Had you gone inside, into the warm, when this happened? I find my cycling aches are much worse than climbing ones, when going from cold to hot with no time for my hands to warm up gradually. Putting fingers in cold water - or snow - seems to help a bit

In reply to An Exiled Northerner:

I find the same. I'm a tower climber, and I'm amazed that I'm the only one at work that ever gets hot aches. Come to think of it, I never had them before I started rock climbing. Maybe chalk ruins circulation?!

In reply to pass and peak:


and hydrated...

In reply to Appleby:
Good advice above. Some more suggestions:

Take lots of pairs of climbing gloves to have dry ones available.

Climb leashless and shake out as much as possible until your fingers warm up. I dread "hot ache ledges" - a ledge a short way up the pitch after some tricky climbing. The tricky climbing drains blood from your fingers as you keep a tight grip on the axes and don't get an opportunity to shake out. Then once you lower your hands and shake out on the ledge, the hot aches hit... It's good afterwards though. Best to loosen the grip and shake out throughout if you can.

Gear up in the sun if there is any.

Hand warmers or electric gloves? Think I'll try the latter this season for walk ins and belaying.

Climbing in thinner, more dexterous gloves on harder pitches can help, surprisingly enough - I think it's because you get more movement in the hands and climb quicker. Not really an option if you're already frozen after a long belay but worth considering.

In reply to Appleby: One of the best tips I found is from the wonderful Bear Grylls himself. Really swing the arms from high to low..almost try and give your fingers whiplash. Do it hard and several times and this does really help to get blood into the fingers and has often stopped me getting the aches or at least delayed them. Its important to do this before your fingers get too cold. Try it..it really works and then thank "the bear"

In reply to Appleby:

I've realised that for me, hot aches are usually down to laziness, with the main preventions being things I've always known I should do:
-wear your belay jacked on belays
-switch to mittens and keep your lead gloves in your jacket for belays and vice versa (I often second in mittens too to avoid leading gloves getting cold when swinging leads)
-shake out as you. Climb and take advantage of all the little rest spots whilst climbing
-pace/plan your leads so that you place protection at semi rests wherever possible and push through the steeper bits to avoid overgripping whilst trying to place screws because you're scared

In reply to goatee:


Oh, lordy - I've been doing this for years to keep the blood in my fingers. Now I'm going to worry everyone will thing I learnt it off BG

In reply to nufkin:


Me too. Oh the shame

In reply to nniff:

Sorry about that. Twas from the bear I learnt it. My bad

In reply to goatee:

Did you never watch those old WW2 movies? It was compulsory for sentries to swing their arms and slap their own backs. Quickest way to warm up fingers that I know.

Bear's just plagiarising old movies (and the rest of us who've been doing it for years - ever since we watched old movies as a kid....)

In reply to Appleby:

neoprene dive gloves. they are a hot water bottle on your hands. they do well for me in winter conditions

In reply to Appleby:

Here's the solution: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=608912 It requires a few hours and some skill with a needle, but it works incredibly well. Never had hot aches since - and I got them a lot before I arrived at this incredibly convenient system. Very efficient too as no changes of glove required between leading and belaying.

In reply to Appleby:

Climb every pitch with a new dry pair of gloves. Yesterday I forgot this simple and effective rule, ignored is more accurate, for convenience and had the worse hot aches i've had in a good few years. Had to stop half way up the pitch and change gloves. within 2 minutes all sorted!

In reply to French Erick:

Boots used to do a tablet medication that we found good in the 70's but I can't remember the name of it.

In reply to Al Evans:

hot aches tablets...awesome. I want some of this.
Is it a pill like the Weasley twins would sell to get out of boring herbology lessons? Nougat nosebleeds...

Seriously, if it worked I'd take it!