Why are my feet so cold?!

[Bigshift]

Looking at the picture your hang for a Blackbird is wrong, your foot end should be 12-18inches higher than the head end. Not always possible to tel in photos but Im sure your angle is wrong because of where your body is laying in the hammock, your in the middle. A properly hung Blackbird your head should be much higher towards the head end of the hammock, your head should be beyond the insolation of the wookie underquilt, in the photo your completely inside the wookies coverage, this means your feet probably hang past the foot end insolation of the wookie.

The 2 ways of getting the foot end higher are having the foot end strap higher on the foot end tree or by having the foot end strap be shorter than the head end. In photo straps are close to even height but the length looks longer on foot instead of head.

Last thing also make sure the wookie is nice and tight under you, if it slides to easily underneath you when your inside the hammock the rubber band might need an extra twist.

[srestrepo]

Looking at the picture your hang for a Blackbird is wrong, your foot end should be 12-18inches higher than the head end. Not always possible to tel in photos but Im sure your angle is wrong because of where your body is laying in the hammock, your in the middle. A properly hung Blackbird your head should be much higher towards the head end of the hammock, your head should be beyond the insolation of the wookie underquilt, in the photo your completely inside the wookies coverage, this means your feet probably hang past the foot end insolation of the wookie.

The 2 ways of getting the foot end higher are having the foot end strap higher on the foot end tree or by having the foot end strap be shorter than the head end. In photo straps are close to even height but the length looks longer on foot instead of head.

Last thing also make sure the wookie is nice and tight under you, if it slides to easily underneath you when your inside the hammock the rubber band might need an extra twist.

Pretty cold and rainy where I am today I'll give this a shot and report back.

Question though, you did say that my head should be above where the insulation ends (at the head end)?

[Bigshift]

Yes , when you lying in the hammock if you feel behind your head underneath the hammock, the down of the wookie should start around your neck or bottom of your head... the pillow is what actually keeps your head warm.. the wookie insulation should start above your shoulders but below the top of your head...

If you have the bugnet on your BB, your face should be between the pull outs of the bugnet, look at where the window is on the winter cover... your face should line up there.

[Shug]

Attachment 170140

here was my setup a few weeks ago... looks similar to what it was this weekend. but i think i'm missing something... my feet shouldn't be that cold. funny thing is the only part of my feet that were cold were whatever part would have been touching the bottom or outside of my top quilt...

i tried to attach a picture. if it doesn't work i'll try again.

Maybe down in TQ has shifted. Try migrating the down.
Or if you have not washed your TQ in a while give it a wash with a good down wash and put it in a big dryer. Then migrate down. Washing and drying will fluff the down and will improve performance.
Shug

[Peppy]

I sleep warm, but my feet are another issue. I usually pack a pair of bonefire gear Igneous socks which weigh very little but help keep the toes warm and cozy!

[rweb82]

Looking at your picture, it looks like your feet are extending way past the Wooki. It also looks like your head is too close to the middle of the hammock- causing your lay to be too far to the right. Also raise the foot-end a bit higher. This will position your body closer to the head-end of the hammock. I'm going to make an educated guess and say that if position your head more towards left edge of the hammock, and closer to the head-end, your body will be better positioned, and your feet will actually have the Wooki underneath- keeping them warm.

[MAD777]

It could also be that the under quilt has a gap near your feet (although, I don't see that in your picture).

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[BillyBob58]

I also had this probem. I tried loose fitting wool socks, then down booties. My feet were still cold. Finally, I tried no socks or footwear at all. Works great for me! My feet just sweat so much that, no sooner have I put on the socks or down booties, then they're wet in 15 minutes. With no footwear, my feet are able to dry, and they stay dry all night.

I took a play out of the Shug Playbook and removed my too tight outer socks Friday night/Sat. a.m. when my feet got cold.I was afraid that the very light weight liners would not do the job but it was amazing once I took the tight layer off.Won't make that mistake again.Thanks,Shug.

I sleep warm, but my feet are another issue. I usually pack a pair of bonefire gear Igneous socks which weigh very little but help keep the toes warm and cozy!

well, i'm pretty sure it's the footbox but, staring at this picture leads me to believe maybe i'm not setting the foot end of the hammock high enough. additionally, my ridgeline i completely loose in this picture.

seems like i might need to revisit some pointers on how to set the hammock up. i'm not giving up though. were it not for my cold feet, i would have gotten amazing sleep. especially swaying in the 35-40 mph wind gusts this weekend.

It is a mystery(to me) why folks get cold feet in hammocks apparently way more often than they used to on the ground. But it is pretty common, something I have been seeing since I got here 12 years ago. Is it because we often hang with our heads lower, opposite of what we do on the ground? Causing warm blood to drain away from our feet? Or the opposite, if our head is not low enough, our feet end up against the hammock compressing the loft? Or in a diagonal our feet end up against the side, also compressing loft? But, if we have a full length UQ, that should take care of that scenario. Assuming it is fitting correctly and comes up around the feet.

I have, as usual odd man out, never had this problem that I can remember. I have been plenty cold in a hammock, that is for sure, but my feet have never been any colder than other parts. In fact, when I set my personal best of 6F a few years ago, my feet were over heating and sweating, the opposite of cold.

You have been given a lot of good advice already, things for you to try. First, try SilvrSurfr's rec of removing socks. More than a few have reported success with that. In years past, Backpackinglight reorted the main problem they had with their down bags on long, remote trips was the collapse of the footbox loft. Apparently, our feet put out a whole bunch of sweat or vapor. Which get's into the down in the footbox and wipes it out. I'm sure there is also lots of evaporative cooling associated with that foot sweat and/or vapor. Maybe no socks will lessen that effect? Who knows? Worth a try!

Others place a sit pad inside their foot box. Shug for ex. Seems to work well for him at extreme low temps that would do me in. Also, that trick from Shug of wrapping a Parka around the foot end of the hammock. This creates a bit of a pod effect, like a Pea Pod, and is a great help at reducing drafts fro entering the foot end. I guess if drafts are entering the foot end, the first thing they hit is the feet?

Lastly, if all of this fails, investigate the magic of Vapor Barriers(VB). Either by them selves or with socks or booties over them. I may be the only person here who has ever had the "problem"of over heating, sweating feet in single digits with no tarp(to block wind). True, I had on socks and insulated booties, in the foot box of a light down TQ, but I attribute most of that excess to Stephenson's Warmlight VB socks with Fuzzy Stuff liners.(but bread sacks over the thinnest possible synthetic sock will do just fine for experimenting)

If part of the problem is that our feet sweat excessively and all of that sweat gets into our socks and then footbox of our quits, greatly reducing their effectiveness, well then one sure cure for that is to stop that sweat(or vapor) from leaving the skin and entering the down in the first place. No matter how hot your feet get, that sweat/vapor will not be able to collapse your insulation or inhibit it in the least, and it will not be able to cool your feet down by way of evaporative cooling(how a swamp cooler works). Guaranteed, science says so! Notice that now, with the addition of VBs, the subject has gone from freezing feet to over heating feet? And if you don't be careful to avoid excess insulation, that is what you will end up with: over heating feet, even to the point of sweat. But no big deal: if you do over do it and sweat, that will not hurt either your insulation or your warmth.

Good luck!Let us know what you figure out and how it works!

[BillyBob58]

Oh, hey, I forgot something important: now that you sleep in a TQ, what have you done to replace the oh so important hood and neck collar of mummy bags, assuming you used such when ground sleeping? It takes quite a hat to match a mummy bag hood. Or more realistically, it takes a separate hood like JRB's, for example, to match a mummy bag hood. Or a hood built into the TQ like the SMR. I have found that the warmer I keep my head, the warmer my feet are. If you start loosing heat from your brain, your body will decrease the supply of warm blood circulating to extremities like feet in order to shunt warm blood to the more valuable brain. So, I recommend getting the thickest insulation you can find for your head, as well as making sure there are no drafts with your TQ letting warm air escape anywhere, but particularly around your neck, where your carotid arteries carry the warm blood to your brain. Anything interfering with a warm brain will result in cold extremities, especially feet.

[Smilin]

I agree with those who think your hammock is set up incorrectly. Your feet are well past the under quilt and it looks as though your ridge line has a lot of sag to it. If the BB is set up properly the ridge line will be tight not guitar string tight, but, there will be no sag in the line. It also looks like you have slid to the middle of the hammock, witch is a definitely an indication that the foot end is to low, causing you so slide off you under quilt.