UKC

My partner and I went out bouldering in the Peak District yesterday (Burbage South Valley if anyone cares 🤷‍♂️😆). It was pretty chilly and my missus’s feet got painfully cold after a couple of hours.  I tolerated it BUT after 3hrs I couldn’t really feel my toes.

So, the question is, what do people wear on their feet to try and maximise the enjoyment, thicker socks than normal when climbing/bouldering, heated socks, something else?

or does everyone just put up with the cold?

Stuff what I know:

Mid height approach shoes with chunky socks. 

Spare socks, always.

Keep your rock shoes inside your jacket - warmer and stickier! 

Eat, lots. Cake. Fats.

Aeropress but with a flask of hot water. Stoves are winter faff and chilly fingers. 

Star jumps! 

Warm core = warm extremities.

Sweat on your baselayer is the enemy.

Think about the wind, can you get sheltered from it?

Keep the psyche!

BB 

Shoes off between problems, place feet into insulated crocs / thick socks and wellies / walking boots etc to keep warm. Rock shoes into big coat pocket to keep warm.

Or, go indoors

For bouldering those fluffy snowboot things decathalon sell are de rigure at the moment.

Edit: obvs not for actual bouldering, for standing around the bottom of boulders!

Normal shoes without socks and not usually a problem. I did get the hot aches in my toes recently, and not keen to repeat. Minus 4 and windy though. 

Wool socks and climbing shoes a size bigger than normal.

The luxury option is down overboots. Get a pair big enough to go over your climbing shoes and swap them with your climbing partner between goes to keep them warm. 

What else were you wearing?

How tight are your climbing shoes? Do you release/remove them when not climbing? Are they thin slippers?

If you are standing on cold ground, in thin, uninsulated shoes that restrict your circulation, your feet are going to get cold. So the suggestions above re. changing into warm footwear are wise. That and keeping the rest of your body warm: "Got cold feet? Wear a hat"

Been there, done that. In my experience, getting cold feet is a by-product of ageing. In my 30s-40s I used to run around with wet feet in powder snow wearing sieve like fell-shoes and my feet were never cold. Now (60s) unless I'm being fairly active, my feet are cold all the time. Basically ageing mean less flexible arteries & veins and hence less blood flow to the extremities - fingers as well as toes. Adding more insulation does help much in practice since there little heat to keep in. So the focus has to be on improving blood-flow. Some recommend standing outside in the cold with feet in a bowl of hot water: The theory being that the body is encouraged to dilate the blood vessels in the feet since that's the best way of warming the rest of the body. I haven't really tried it - I suspect you need to do it pretty regularly for the body to get the dilation-is-good hint. The best solution of course is to get younger. I haven't tried that either, but it often on my to-do list. Viagra is supposed to help too. Haven't tried that either.

Jeez,

Hard bouldering. 

I wonder if beetroot juice is also useful then through the same mechanism?

I've gone for cheapo Decathlon apres-ski wellies (about £20), custom foot bed made from old Karrimat, and some wooly socks. Wellies over-sized so that socks aren't compressed.

I do like the idea of oversize hut-slippers. Maybe some from Snugpak or Weezle ie synthetic not down ? Sit/stand on what's left of the old Karrimat and enjoy the warmth. Though if climbing boots are compressing the feet, I'd imagine that'd compromise comfort.

Winter climbing shoes? 

https://www.lasportiva.com/en/tc-extreme-black-40l999100

I jest, I didn't know they existed until happening upon them by chance yesterday. Probably do the job though!

Personally I just wear socks and keep my climbing shoes in the inside pocket of my belay jacket in between burns. Making sure you take your climbing shoes off and warm your feet up in cosy approach shoes regularly will help.

I do stuff my climbing shoe clad toes into my approach shoes in between goes sometimes, not terribly effective, but better than nothing. 

My toes would need to be dropping off before I'd pay nearly £270 for some winter climbing shoes.  The missus is pretty tough as well so she'd just put up with the discomfort I suspect.

Oversized hut slippers are definitely sounding like the best option so far.  My current climbing shoes have laces but they need replacing shortly and I think by changing to velcro fasteners it'll allow nice and speedy changes of footwear (certainly faster than laced options).

Couple of extra pairs of thick heavyweight hiking socks will help as well I'm sure.

This sounds like the winning option Jon!!! thanks

That's it for the most part but there are lots of things that will help you put up with it. Personally I use lots of base layers (legs too). If it's proper cold I do some jogging or something to warm up every so often. If none of that works there's always a pub not too far away!