UKC

In preparation for the ensuing hot aches this season, I've discovered that you get exactly the same sensation by stubbing your toe on a door.  I've been doing this everyday for the past week and am now conditioned to withstand the pain.  Try it - it's uncanny how similar the pain is!

If you like, I can come round to your house and kick you in the nuts too.

Yes please!

You guys expecting really deep snow this winter? 

Careful with that. I know someone who broke her toe stubbing it on the leg of a couch. 

It's going to be mint Roger. Tell me about Erebus on Suilven, I was looking up at it a few days ago.

Probably over graded on the front number. Done with an excellent partner who was prepared to follow anything despite only having done a III before. This did make it seem more committing than perhaps it was. At one point there is a tricky traverse,  I went for the chipped moss handhold, (modern tools will help) he went for a deliberate pendulum in the dark and climbed the rope. Total star. Really cold day, below minus 10. Walked in and out over frozen bog. Great day, great partner. We were even down in time for the pub. When we got there Mike surveyed the trawlermen at the bar and observed that we were the softest guys in the place. He was right. I would not want to go to sea in those temperatures or the wind of the days before. 

Good belays throughout. 

Land and Freedom is more scenic but more exposed to the sun.

Both are 1* climbing in a 5* place.

The fewer daylight hours the better. 

Cheers.

I too have used the chipped moss approach!

Chipped moss, the hold of dreams. 

Does bring to mind a very amusing conversation I had with some Sardinian climber friends.  They really do not appreciate the cold!  The whole concept of Scottish winter climbing and 'hot aches' was greeted with lots of heading shaking and laughter.  They think we're completely insane!

You are! I just don't get the appeal. Sunny winter days walking in the hills, yes, freezing cold, spindrift down your neck in the dark, no thanks. 

I love it but I totally get why you wouldn't.

Try crystallised dry ginger to get rid of the hot aches. Always works for me. Save your toes - they’re precious !

Eaten, snorted, injected, rubbed on or suppositories?

Eaten........

At what point?

I thought Hermann Buhl had already found the best training for withstanding hot aches - IIRC, Tom Patey describes Hermann's habit of holding a ball of ice with his bare hands in each of his coat pockets when he was walking around town in winter. Didn't seem to do him much harm!

Not sure if this applies to winter climbing but I've found that I can beat the frozen hands of the winter rock pretty well by prepping with regular ice bathing in the upcoming weeks. After a few sessions the increased blood flow response to the cold is much quicker and more reliable so it seems to be a trainable response. 

That's interesting. I listened to a podcast the other day with a lass who gets Raynauds syndrome and she was talking about how outdoor swimming has helped with her raynauds due to the increased blood flow to the extremities. I'm going to start having cold baths and see if this helps me too.

Sure thing - I just do the hands for 30 mins at a time - a bowl with cold water and 10-20 ice cubes works well. Wrap yourself up in a down jacket and sit next to the radiator for best effect! Gets the lewis reaction going really reliably when your core is warm. 

Thank you for that extra info regarding just doing hands, I was gearing myself for a full ice bath!

Isn't wrapping up in a down jacket (insulation from the immediate environment) counter productive? Stops the heat of the radiator getting to you?

Try sitting next to a radiator, then try sitting next to a radiator wearing a down jacket.

Aged 20 and terminally frustrated after a crap rowing training session (I hadn't been selected) , I took a running kick in the boathouse at what I thought was a cough sweet lying on the floor. It turned out to be the top cm of a wooden dowel which had for some reason been let into the concrete. Absolute agony and a broken big toe. 

Absolute rubbish advice.  Doesn't work.  I did exactly as you said before going out.

 Kicked concrete wall on way to do some drystone walling.  You're right! - by god it was painful.

Went out walling in the cold Yorkshire hills.  But my hands still throbbed in the cold.  And walking home was an absolute nighmare what with my painful foot which is still throbbing!!  My hands are still freezing.

That’s interesting re Raynauds and swimming.  I’ve often wondered if too much disparity in heat between core and extremities triggers it so staying cooler overall helps minimise the risk of the dreaded aches. 
I used to “train my hands” with cold water but it never made much difference once out on a route. Hydration and wrist warmers were the best way I’ve found to manage Rsynauds. I think my worst day of it when I had 3 separate episodes on one pitch. I think I broke the swear box that day...