Your car is your Baselodge

[François Pugh]

What I remember from my days of booting up and unbooting at the car:
Getting cold feet because I got snow in my ski boots putting them on.
Wondering if I had a hernia after getting my boots off (which required sitting in the passenger seat with the heater blowing full blast on them for 1/2 an hour.
Frozen water bottles.
That's about it.

 

[Rudi Riet]

On a coaching day (read: most of the days I'm skiing) I have a backpack with me. I carry two HydroFlasks in said backpack, sometimes more if I bring soup or stew with me for lunch. The cylindrical thermal bottles (no trademark infringement here!) are cushioned within the backpack (think extra layers and such). The backpack also contains scrapers, brushes, diamond stones, spare goggles, microfiber towels, etc. - it's a coaching pack, after all.

And this backpack tends to be stashed someplace along a training or race course so I don't worry too much about falling with it when I ski. If I were freeskiing, I'd still carry the thermal containers, cushioned.

 

[Rudi Riet]

Regarding booting up in the car: I've done it in the Rockies in blinding snow and spring mud, I've done it in New England during deep freezes and ice storms, I've done it at Timberline Lodge in the middle of the summer. It is what it is.

I will bring a doormat or two to stand on. I'll keep a cooler in the trunk (note that I have only ever owned sedans/saloons) to keep things cold or warm, depending on the need. I'll just make do - no big whoop. It's all Rule 5 stuff (with a touch of Rule 9), in the end.

 

[Phelmut]

Great idea on the doormat Rudi. Is that a thing people do or is that something you thought up?

 

[Green08]

Great idea on the doormat Rudi. Is that a thing people do or is that something you thought up?

We have used old car mats or rugs. Anything that isn’t super absorbent and you don’t mind getting dirty. A rubber mostly waterproof bottom helps on top of snow and mud.

It gives you a place to stand etc. A good sized “water hog” may can be had for $25-50 online to give you plenty of space.

At the end of the day we have used an old blanket to cover out bumper and the rug out front. You turn in the car, deflect the exhaust, cover the dirty bumper, create a usable “floor” with the mat, and you have an hospitable setup to stand or sit and pack up with comfort.

When it comes to food, many “thermos” type devices keep items “hot” for hours, but often not at food safe temps. The best route is either 1) bring your dehydrated meal or soup into a lodge and fill up with free hot water at the coffee machine, or heat and hydrate your meal back at the car with hot water in such a “thermos”. Almost any dehydrated backpacking meal just needs hot water, and many grocery store instant soups and noodles are the same.

McDougals Split Pea soup is my personal go to for a ski day. Lots of fiber and protein and all you need is hot water to make it.

 

[Green08]

Not sure if anybody has mentioned this:

Your travel boot dryers can also serve as a nice boot warmer if you use them in a 12v plug on the way to the hill. I have never stepped into cold boots at my car to start the day with this method.

 

[Rudi Riet]

As @Green08 says, @Phelmut: it's something folks do. I tend to use a rubber base mat and then something more cushy on the feet atop that. The rubber base layer is crucial during New England mud season.

 

[Rudi Riet]

What I remember from my days of booting up and unbooting at the car:
Getting cold feet because I got snow in my ski boots putting them on.
Wondering if I had a hernia after getting my boots off (which required sitting in the passenger seat with the heater blowing full blast on them for 1/2 an hour.
Frozen water bottles.
That's about it.

The snow-in-boots thing isn't pleasant but isn't too common once you learn the tricks of standing just so to deflect the frozen stuff.

Vise grips help with boot doffing in the cold. Typically I'd be warming up the car for a few minutes before trying to take them off, anyway.

And newer insulate thermal containers make frozen bottles a thing of the past. Also, I've found that Polar and Camelbak insulated bike bottles take a while to freeze in a car.

 

[Green08]

Of you are trying to keep things from freezing in your car, also consider putting the item inside another form of insulation. Cooler are good at keeping heat in during the winter, as they are heat out during the summer.

And any kind of heat source can do a lot to simply keep things from freezing in a smaller insulated space. I haven’t used one of the bulky electric hand warmers, but the reusable chemical warmers (the things with the metal disc you click to activate) can put off a lot of heat in a small insulated space to keep it above freezing.

Narrow the problem as far as possible, and a simple solution can often be found cheaply. Or buy a $100k adventure rig...those Winnebago Revels can make a nice private parking lot lodge

 

[raytseng]

I haven’t used one of the bulky electric hand warmers, but the reusable chemical warmers (the things with the metal disc you click to activate) can put off a lot of heat in a small insulated space to keep it above freezing.

Technically a rechargeable lithium ion battery is also a reusable chemical reaction based device too! just kidding. Maybe the battery ones seem more "complicated" with electronic circuits and ports that can fail; but I'd point out it'll be a heck of a lot easier to recharge a battery than the chemical packs.

Anyway, give the battery based handwarmers a try over chemical. With the battery advances for cellphones/laptops/electric vehicles that has produced batteries with high capacities, and reliable highly reusable, so portable products are pretty good now; with an high energy storage density much better than these supersaturated sodium acetate products (of course you need to shop around to get the product with the bigger battery capacity in the pack)

I would note though, definitely don't bother with the zippo/lighter fluid or fuel burning based hand warmers; that is stone age now, and they work poorly at higher elevation, and potentially hazardous to your health.

 

[pchewn]

I booted up at the car from 1967 until 2018 . Then my daughter bought me a nice backpack boot bag.

I'll tell you, booting up in the lodge is so much better, especially for us "old farts". But I'll revert back to boot at car for this COVID season.

 

[crgildart]

Cross post from booting up thread but same sentiment here..

I see a whole lot of bitching and whining about much ado about nothing. I see solutions looking for problems. We're not curing cancer people. We're just putting on ski boots without hot cocoa in the lodge. Seriously.. what do you do when you go hike for turns and there's no lodge anywhere? Maybe booting up and down at the car should be part of the L3 exam as difficult as some here are making it sound..

For me it all boils down to the parking situation. Backpack straps are definitely required, but if I'm more than an 8th of a mile out or in shuttlebus land, booting up at the car>carrying all the gear to the lodge and back

 

[Philpug]

For me, booting up has never been the issue, is un booting at the end of the ski day that I don't enjoy.

 

[pchewn]

For me, booting up has never been the issue, is un booting at the end of the ski day that I don't enjoy.

I don't know ..... when I finally get my boots off of my feet after a day of skiing ..... It's like the SECOND best feeling in the world.

 

[Philpug]

I don't know ..... when I finally get my boots off of my feet after a day of skiing ..... It's like the SECOND best feeling in the world.

Third for me...right after taking cycling shorts for me.

 

[Rudi Riet]

Third for me...right after taking cycling shorts for me.

(Slight thread hijack here...)

Bib shorts are the answer, my friend. Even since I ditched the classic, binding bike shorts for bibs it's been a lot better. Never had all-day comfort in regular shorts (they shifted, they bound, etc.). Bibs changed that.

(End thread hijack...)

 

[crgildart]

You folks need to find a better fitter for you bike shorts..

 

[Ogg]

[

You folks need to find a better fitter for you bike shorts..

Isn’t that what WW is for?

 

[Green08]

Technically a rechargeable lithium ion battery is also a reusable chemical reaction based device too! just kidding. Maybe the battery ones seem more "complicated" with electronic circuits and ports that can fail; but I'd point out it'll be a heck of a lot easier to recharge a battery than the chemical packs.

Anyway, give the battery based handwarmers a try over chemical. With the battery advances for cellphones/laptops/electric vehicles that has produced batteries with high capacities, and reliable highly reusable, so portable products are pretty good now; with an high energy storage density much better than these supersaturated sodium acetate products (of course you need to shop around to get the product with the bigger battery capacity in the pack)

I would note though, definitely don't bother with the zippo/lighter fluid or fuel burning based hand warmers; that is stone age now, and they work poorly at higher elevation, and potentially hazardous to your health.

I agree the electric options would be far better.

They are just a little too big for my mittens, and too expensive of a splurge when I have other options.

But if I was building an car setup from scratch, then an electric handwarmer would be the way to go.

Leaving a zippo lit in your car seems like an Accident waiting to happen

 

[RobSN]

Vise grips help with boot doffing in the cold.

This might possibly be a joke that I haven't understood. If it is serious though, care to explain further?