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  1. #11
    DGrav's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mcimes View Post
    Hm, Interesting comments on the socks. I carry a sleep-only pair of Darn Tough Mid weight crew length. They are indeed "not loose" on my feet. It sounds like this may be part of my problem.
    One issue with sizing up is I have US size 12 feet, which is already near the upper end of most major brand's wool size large.
    What brand/model of sock are big-footed people using for a loose fitting sleep sock?
    I swear by a loose fitting socks. I find socks with the thickest nap possible and never wear them inside shoes or any time other than sleeping. I wear a size 13 and the two best I’ve found are an LL Bean sock that they stopped making this year and the Smart Wool Hunt Classic Maximum Cushion XL.
    Jacks R Better, makers of the of the Original Under Quilt and Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock.
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  2. #12
    Senior Member OneClick's Avatar
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    I know I have good sleeping socks when they sort of "rotate" themselves throughout the night. Kind of annoying, but that's the "right" fit for me = warmth.

  3. #13
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mcimes View Post
    Hey Gang,
    I always have cold feet. Always. Im tired of it. Yes, I could get down booties, but thats a crutch more than a cure. I just want my quilt to keep me fully warm. If I bought a full 0* thats far too warm for my upper body. An overstuffed 20* is already plenty warm for my torso.

    Basically what I want is a custom quilt with a 20* (2.5" loft) body and a 0* (3.5" loft) footbox (the lower 24" or so of quilt). Does anyone make a quilt like this? Trailheads said he would make this for me, but am just wondering if anyone else has polled the cottage makers to see if they will do this. It seems quilts with 100% horizontal baffles like Trailheadz or Gryffon gear would work with this design, or also Horizontal/Vertical split quilts like HG or UGQ.

    Anyone ever try this? Who else should I RFQ? Decent idea?

    2nd, How do people like 100% horizontal baffle quilts like Trailheads, Katabatic, or Gryffon gear? I only have experience with HG top quilts that are H/V split. Note I would get extra overstuff in the 30-40% range so down doesnt migrate to the sides.
    Any destinct advantages to vertical baffles like HG, Warb, or EE?
    So many people suffer with cold feet! Oddly, when hammock camping, I have never had cold feet that I can remember. However, I might have had cold feet one or two times but for a couple of tricks that I've used. Hard to say. What I have had, instead, is overheating, sweating feet, even when I set my personal best for low temperatures. Although, that was a mere +6ºF, so not impressive by the standards of this bunch of winter hangers! On the other hand, plenty impressive in the world of cold feet which occurs in the hammock world even at much warmer temperatures!

    I have no idea if someone will be able to make you a custom quilt (someone probably will) that has way more loft in the foot box than in the rest of the quilt. It is an interesting idea!

    I remember reading at backpackinglight.com (SP?) about their experiences on deep wilderness trips with their down sleeping bag's foot box loft collapsing. This would often go flat before they had significant problems with the rest of the bag, and even though they seemed to keep all rain and other moisture OFF of the bags shells.

    That also made me remember on a certain trip to the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming in early Sept so many years ago. My friend and I were in a little North Face hoop shaped 4 season 2 man tent that tapered down at the foot end where there was a vent. A light all night rain came in, and the next morning the foot box of his down sleeping bag had lost most of its loft. We were baffled, as there was no real sign of rain having gotten inside the foot vent, and no real reason why it would have that we could see. On trips many years later, this same friend has had problems with decreasing loft in his down quilts(overall, not just the feet), when we know for certain no exterior moisture has got on those quilts. Not a drop. And he is sort of a big sweating kind of guy anyway. Also, on one trip with him, I woke up one morning with the foot end of the open cell foam pad of my Hennessy Super Shelter and my polar guard sleeping bag(foot box only) soaked from condensation. (User error, was still warm and dried quickly )

    So now when I think back on that long ago WY trip, I wonder if it was not either condensation or sweat from his feet that caused that problem, rather than rain getting in the tent? I'm wondering if people in general don't pump out more sweat (or vapor which can condense in the cold outer layers of the down or against the cold shell) from their feet than they do from the rest of their body? At least some people? Which would also explain the problems that backpacking light reported with their foot boxes. I don't know, maybe. If so, then long before a foot box is actually "collapsed", it would seem that all that additional moisture being pumped out from the feet could make quilts less warm in that area than in the rest of the quilt. Again, maybe.

    I sometimes use vapor barrier socks over a thin pair of liner socks. Either all by themselves inside the foot box of the quilt, or with loose wool socks over them, and/or with booties over those socks. Though I have ended up with extremely warm and sweating feet even at 6°F, using just an optimistically rated 20°F top quilt's foot box, all of that moisture and humidity was not able to get into my actual insulation. It was kept close to my skin. No decreasing loft in the foot box for me, and no evaporative cooling either. Admittedly, I should have removed a layer or two to avoid the sensation of sweat, but I was too lazy to bother. And did not want to pull anything out of my warm quilt in order to arrange that layering, and was also just curious to see what would happen. All worked out fine. Top quilt, including foot box, booties and wool socks were all bone dry and puffy the next morning.

    I don't usually use vapor barrier socks or clothing, but when I do I have always been some kind of warm and dry(except maybe a little damp right next to my skin and no where else)!
    Last edited by BillyBob58; 01-16-2022 at 10:32.

  4. #14
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shug View Post
    For the last few winters I've used a nice big down parka over the footbox of my TQ. I pull the sleeves inside the jacket and zip up the pockets. Works real good. Feet have been happy to be out in winter.
    On a just before 2021 Christmas trip to the North Carolina mountains, sleeping at about 3300 feet elevation, I was using gear that was new to me. A Superior Gear 30°F rated insulated Hammock, and a Sierra Madre 30°F rated top quilt(weighs about 16 oz, size long, including hood). The forecast low was 18°F. Though it only reached 25°F(with a bit of a breeze, no tarp, just the wide open deck's roof) on the porch that I was sleeping under. I did not have all of my gear, not even wool socks. Just the thin nylon socks that I had been wearing all day. Since I had never tested these two quilts anywhere near their rating, I was a bit paranoid about being cold. I was able to layer up my top half with clothing and fake vapor barrier's, but not much I could do for my feet.

    So I tried a couple of Shug's tricks(Thank 'Ya, Shug!): I put a thin closed cell foam and very flexible foot pad from AHE inside the foot box of the top quilt, and wrapped my down jacket around both the under quilt and the foot box of the top quilt. After a couple of hours, in the mid-20s, I realized I was way overheating. I pulled the pad out, but my feet remained quite warm, maybe too warm. So both of those tricks work quite well to boost foot warmth. Although, caution may be necessary if I'm not using my vapor barrier socks. I was so warm that it is quite likely I was even sweating a bit, even after removing the foot pad. If this sweat, and/or vapor, is being wicked out into my down foot box, I might not even be aware of it. That might lead to trouble after a night or two. A potential problem of being really, toasty warm. Which I was, with or without the pad.
    Last edited by BillyBob58; 01-16-2022 at 10:33.

  5. #15
    Senior Member P-Dub's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mcimes View Post
    Hm, Interesting comments on the socks. I carry a sleep-only pair of Darn Tough Mid weight crew length. They are indeed "not loose" on my feet. It sounds like this may be part of my problem.....
    Yes, definitely get loose socks! I have a pair of wool socks my sister knit for me that have no elastic, and as long as I don't put them in the dryer, they stay loose.

  6. #16
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    When using a 3/4 length UQ and it is cold out, I just throw my jacket down at the foot end of my hammock and rest my feet on the jacket for keeping them warm. I am on blood thinners so I never know day to day how the blood thinners will impark the way I react to the cold but so far resting my feet on the jacket has always worked. If my feet are damp then I keep them outside of the foot box of the TQ until they have had a chance to dry off.
    I am still 18 but with 52 years of experience !

  7. #17
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    Hello. Queen of Cold Feet here. It has taken me a while to dial in a mechanism that works for me, but work it does. I use down booties, along with socks. I bought these from feathered friends: https://featheredfriends.com/collect...s-down-booties

    They come with a weather-resistant shell that you can put over top of them, which works out nicely for leaving the hammock and not having to take them off. If it's really cold out, I'll put my (heavy wool) sleeping socks on and then these booties over top and wear them around camp / while we are lounging so that my feet start to warm up so I'm not getting into the hammock with semi-cold feet.

    I then put my sit pad in or underneath my footbox, along with my down coat wrapped around (if I'm not wearing it). Plus, I always have a stash of foot warmers with me just in case.

    I'm such a cold person though, that my feet are often cold when I'm hiking if it dips below 35 degrees or so, and as the body cools down when you get to camp, it just gets worse for me. I can't imagine that even if my footbox on my quilt had more loft in it, that that would do the trick for me. Since I rarely enter the hammock with warm feet if it's below 50 degrees.

  8. #18
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by souperjen24 View Post
    Hello. Queen of Cold Feet here. It has taken me a while to dial in a mechanism that works for me, but work it does. I use down booties, along with socks. I bought these from feathered friends: https://featheredfriends.com/collect...s-down-booties

    They come with a weather-resistant shell that you can put over top of them, which works out nicely for leaving the hammock and not having to take them off. If it's really cold out, I'll put my (heavy wool) sleeping socks on and then these booties over top and wear them around camp / while we are lounging so that my feet start to warm up so I'm not getting into the hammock with semi-cold feet.

    I then put my sit pad in or underneath my footbox, along with my down coat wrapped around (if I'm not wearing it). Plus, I always have a stash of foot warmers with me just in case.

    I'm such a cold person though, that my feet are often cold when I'm hiking if it dips below 35 degrees or so, and as the body cools down when you get to camp, it just gets worse for me. I can't imagine that even if my footbox on my quilt had more loft in it, that that would do the trick for me. Since I rarely enter the hammock with warm feet if it's below 50 degrees.
    HA! You sound like my wife. There must be 20 or 30ºF difference in our cold tolerance, or more. Though I blame some of that with thyroid issues, she has always been way more cold natured than me- not just feet but all over- but I think the difference has widened in recent years. Just the other night, a not uncommon occurrence happened again: I'm sitting in my recliner perfectly comfy in my PJ bottoms and cotton T-shirt. When I hear a somewhat irritated voice asking: "are you not cold sitting there with nothing more than that? I'm still cold!". I look over and she is bundled up under some sort of fleece looking blanket, plus she is wearing more PJ layers than me. The difference is astounding, at least to me.

    On the recent pre Christmas trip to the NC mountains I posted about, where I layered up too much when sleeping out at 25F and overheated, on the nights when I slept in the cabin, she layered my 30F Superior gear insulated hammock over her bed covers. Now, I admit our room was quite cool. But, still, there were plenty of thick covers on the bed, too much really for me. I think the nights I slept out she was not warm enough, so she gladly slept under that 2 or 3" of additional loft. I would have been sweating profusely!
    Last edited by BillyBob58; 01-26-2022 at 15:42.

  9. #19
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    I only suffer cold feet just before I click the "buy" button. Every time.

    To get back to the original question, Warbonnet outdoors offers a differential cut on it's top quilts as an option. I just bought a 10 degree from them, with that option as I toss around and sleep in the number four position a lot, and the differential cut stops the limbs pushing out the down. The other thing is that they allow overfill up to three ounces and one can specify if it is to be distributed 50/50, on the top or on the feet.

    They have a 15% sale right now, lasting until the 30th. It is like the stars aligned really well in this case.

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