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Tired of cold hands and feet while skiing? Let’s face it – skiing when it’s super cold is always a pain, but it’s even worse when your hands and feet are freezing. After dealing with cold hands and feet for YEARS, we’ve finally found a fantastic solution to staying comfortably warm, even on crazy cold days.
Through the years, I’ve tried just about everything you can think of to keep my hands and feet warm. I have horrible circulation, so it’s a problem I struggle with all winter long. From fancy socks and layering methods to glove liners and battery-operated hand warmers, I’ve tried a bit of everything. Throw our little kids into the mix and we’ve got A LOT of work to do to keep everyone warm so our ski days can last longer.
Recently I came across a product that’s a game changer and works so much better than other things I’ve tried to keep feet and hands warm while skiing.
Jump ahead to learn about THE BEST hand and foot warmer around
Why Do Hands Get Cold While Skiing
Hands are often one of the first things to get cold while skiing, both for kids and adults. Often, hands get cold while skiing because people are not careful about when and how they wear their mittens or gloves. One of the biggest culprits I see is people removing their mittens to use their phones on the ski hill.
How to Keep Hands Warm While Skiing
The first thing that you need to do if your hands get cold while skiing is to make sure that you’re wearing a high-quality pair of mittens. We’ve reviewed all of the best mittens for kids, so if you’ve got little ones, that’s a great place to start.
I have an incredible pair of mittens that I’ve loved to death for the last 15 years. They’re mittens from Swany and they’re a mitten with glove liners and a side zipper so you can easily unzip the zipper, have the dexterity of a glove, and zip them back up for warmth. Until recently, they were the best thing that I had found to keep my hands warm (with a very thick glove liner).
Why Do Feet Get Cold While Skiing
Feet that get cold while skiing are usually a result of improperly fitting ski boots. Either the ski boots are too big and there’s a lot of cold air trapped inside, or the ski boots are too small and restrict blood flow. Either way, you’re dealing with a problem.
How to Keep Feet Warm While Skiing
The first step that you need to take is to take your boots to a local ski shop and see if they can help you determine what the problem is. In some cases, they can make minor boot adjustments that will make a major difference in the warmth of your feet.
If you’re not already doing it, make sure that you’re wearing ONLY ONE pair of wool ski socks. If your feet are always cold, make sure that your socks are heavyweight (the weights indicate the thickness and also warmth).
How to Warm Up Ski Boots Before Skiing
One thing that helps to keep feet warm while skiing is to make sure that your ski boots are warm when you put them on. NEVER store your boots in the car overnight, or you’ll be dealing with cold feet from the second you put them on. The most ideal situation is to drive to the ski hill with your ski boots next to the floor vent in the car. They’ll be toasty warm, slide on your foot easily, and be more comfortable from the start.
Hands and Feet Still Cold While Skiing? Get Reusable Warmers!
If your hands and feet are still cold while skiing, it’s time to try some of the best hand warmers for skiing or best foot warmers for skiing. We’ve tried SO MANY and have an obvious favorite.
Problems with Chemical Hand Warmers
When most people think of foot and hand warmers for skiing, this is what automatically comes to mind. These chemical warmers activate instantly and start generating their own heat as soon as the package is activated.
Here are some benefits of one-time-use warmers:
- Affordable
- Easy to store in a pocket
- Generate heat quickly
Here are some drawbacks to chemical hand warmers:
- Only heat for a couple of hours and then are dead
- Generate unnecessary waste
- Temperature cannot be regulated and often lead to burns when used inside of ski boots for foot warmers.
After trying to use these as a foot warmer inside of my ski boot several years ago, and receiving a burn when I couldn’t get my boot off fast enough as the temperature got too hot, I DO NOT recommend using them inside of mittens or boots EVER, especially for kids. We do keep a couple in our ski pack and let the kids have them when we’re taking a break in the lodge and they’re struggling to get their hands and feet warmed up.
Sustainable and Reusable Heat Warmers
When we discovered Aurora Heat foot warmers and natural hand warmers, our family suddenly got a whole lot warmer. Their warmers are made of sheared beaver pelts and are some of the softest things that I’ve ever touched. The fur traps your body heat so that you stay comfortably warm all day long. They’re more comfortable, safer (never worry about burns OR hand warmers getting cold), and are an amazing sustainable solution for keeping hands warm while skiing. Best of all, they’ll last for years and years and are completely biodegradable!
How To Use Aurora Heat Reusable Warmers
We have yet to find a WRONG WAY to use these reusable foot warmers and hand warmers. As long as the fur is touching your skin, they work incredibly well. We love them so much that they made our list of the Best Family Ski Gear of 2022-23!
Here are some of the ways we use them:
- On the bottoms of our feet, inside our ski socks
- Wrapped around our toes inside our socks (the thumb warmer is perfect for just the toes)
- Inside our mittens so our hands can cozy up all day (ditch the glove liners)
- In our pockets to warm hands on winter walks or to and from the lodge
Can you use Foot Warmers Inside Ski Boots?
Yes, these work surprisingly well inside ski boots. In our testing, they work best UNDER the foot (under the toes and ball of the foot was our favorite), and didn’t seem to have any impact on how our boots fit or feel bulky at all (I wear a pretty snug-fitting ski boot). Once they’re in your socks, you’ll hardly notice they’re there – other than having much warmer feet. If your ski socks have a proper, snug fit, these reusable foot warmers for skiing shouldn’t slide around at all and will keep your feet comfortably cozy all day long.
Keeping Kid’s Feet Warm While Skiing
These are the only warmers that we’d ever recommend putting inside ski boots since they will never burn you. The Aurora Heat warmers use your own body heat to keep you warm, so your boots will always feel like the perfect temperature. These foot warmers are the best foot warmers for kids since they’re completely safe!
Note: After wearing your foot warmers for skiing all day, it’s likely that your feet have gotten sweaty at some point during the day (it happens even if you don’t have warmers). To prevent them from starting to smell like feet, simply air them out between uses and make sure they don’t stay damp.
How To Use Aurora Heat Warmers In Mittens
We absolutely LOVE to use Aurora Heat warmers inside of mittens. If the fur is touching your skin, and you’re staying warm, you’re doing it RIGHT and should warm right up! We typically put them in the palm of our hands as we slide on the mittens and then adjust the placement with our fingers once they’re on. The leather backing holds them in place in the mitten so they stay put all day!
Keeping Kid’s Hands Warm While Skiing
All of our kids LOVE having the warmers in the palm of their hand or near their fingertips so that they can rub the fur all day long. They are so cozy and soft that EVERYONE loves them and they make every pair of mittens feel completely luxurious. We think these are the best kid’s hand warmers for skiing. They’re perfect for keeping kid’s hands warm while skiing.
Are Hand and Foot Warmers Bulky?
While the Aurora Heat Warmers look thick and plush, they actually pack down remarkably small. In fact, after a few minutes of having them in my socks, I can’t even tell that they’re on anymore. When they’re in your hand they feel plush and thick, so it really is the best of both worlds.
Is Using Fur Warmers Ethical?
Indigenous people have been using fur to stay warm for thousands of years, and that’s exactly the thinking behind the product. Brenda Dragon is an indigenous woman who grew up in the Yukon Territory of Northern Canada and used fur her entire life to live an active and healthy life outside. She created Aurora Heat to share the benefits of fur with others.
They use all parts of the beaver pelt out of respect and to work in harmony with nature. The fur warmers are made by hand by indigenous women (who are paid a good, living wage), to honor the traditional way of keeping people warm that their people have been depending on for centuries.