How to prevent snow filled boots?

[lafcadio]

It's tough to keep my toes warm when the insides of my boots (between liner and shell) keep getting filled with snow.  I'm using Deeluxe Track 225 boots with new Intuition Power Wrap liners for this season. The boots are 3 years old and I also had problems with snow and ice using the stock Deeluxe (not thermowrap) liners.

 

I couldn't figure out why my toes were getting cold, and when I pulled the liner out of the boot, I found that the entire toe region of the liner was totally encased in ice.  After unbuckling in the lodge and loosening things up I also see snow in the rear of the boot behind my heel between liner and shell. 

 

This happens on both feet, but much less so on my front foot.  My rear foot is constantly pick up snow somehow, even after only an hour of carving.  My boots seem to fit well (they feel good when not filled with snow) and the Intuition liners fill the entire boot and give a very snug fit.

 

Has anyone else experienced this?  Any good fixes? 

[lafcadio]

Are your pant legs over the cuff of the boots?

 

Oh yes.  I wear Arc'teryx Theta pants with built-in gaiters.  I keep the internal elastic gaiters down over the top two buckles.  The outer shell of my plant leg is down to the middle instep buckle. 

 

I should also add that I'm certainly not riding in 3 feet of pow.  Typical East Coast conditions.  It seems like we haven't had any natural snow since last season.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Tighten your buckles a little?  So snow is getting under the tongue, right?  Maybe when you flex forward in your boots while riding the forces cause your tongue to lift off the boot a little.  I wear UPZ RC-10s and sometimes on a windy lift ride I swear I can feel cold air blowing in under the front of the tongue.  I've thought about trying to put a bead of silicone sealant in there somehow to provide a better surface to seal against but haven't attempted it yet.  I think cold gets under my tongues, but I've never had actual snow get in there.

[lowrider]

Not a very fancy fix but perhaps a plastic bag between liner and shell will help out. With your pant cuffs over the boots and you doing mach 4 might be actually sucking the snow into your boots. Does the back of your jacket bulge out when you are riding fast ?

[Beckmann AG]

You have a dust infiltration problem. Most likely worse on the rear foot on account of turbulence. Find a roll of Nashua 557 flexible duct tape and close off the overlap. If this does not work, you may have particles entering alongside the cuff. Tape those as well.

If you find success with the tape, then you might look into a gummy mastic within the affected seam(s). Messy, but warmer than not. 

[lafcadio]

Thanks for the suggestions, all.  

 

Jim, no offense taken... it's good to ask the obvious questions.   I do have a slight amount of overhang on my rear foot, but it hasn't affected my ability to carve that I've noticed.  I may experiment with that. No overhang at all on my front foot.

 

After careful examination of the boot, I think the snow is entering at a gap where the tongue flap, lower and upper boot shell all meet up (near the instep buckle at the outside ankle).  The gap is wide enough to fit the tip of my index finger past my fingernail.  Unfortunately, tightening the buckles more does not close off the gap. 

 

I will take Beckmann's advice and see if I can seal off this gap using duct tape.   

 

I may also try using gaiters or something else over the boot to keep the snow out.  Does anyone know of any brand or type of gaiter would fit over an alpine ski/snowboard boot?  Most of the ones I've seen and tried are not large enough to fit over my snowboard boots.  I may also try using "Bootglove" by DryGuy.

[Pat Donnelly]

Boot Glove will solve the problem but you may have to trim the nose area to readily fit into the toe bails, at least I did and I ride with TD3 step-ins.  For the front foot. I rolled and tucked a bit of the material under itself to allow clearance for the toe bail, but I ended up trimming some material on the rear foot as it would not stay tucked under out of the way. Snow leakage occurred with 325's but not with 700's or UPZ RC 10's.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Pat Donnelly

[digger jr]

I put foam under the tongue to fill the gap. I used to get really wet boots after a day of carving, but now they are pretty dry. I put sone closed cell foam on the liner over the instep area to tighten things up and maybe it filled up the gap that used to be there.

[bruincounselor]

I had this problem with my old Reactor Boots. Beckmann is on to my solution - I used duct tape and it helped tremendously. Boot Glove is an elegant solution if you never need to adjust your buckles.

[lafcadio]

Reporting back on this since following @Beckmann AG's great advice:

On 1/23/2016 at 8:15 PM, Beckmann AG said:

You have a dust infiltration problem. Most likely worse on the rear foot on account of turbulence. Find a roll of Nashua 557 flexible duct tape and close off the overlap. If this does not work, you may have particles entering alongside the cuff. Tape those as well.

The Nashua 557 tape did the trick!  It's flexible enough that I was still able to get in and out of the boots with the tape around the opening underneath the tongue. The first couple of times it was tight getting in and out of the boots, but after that, the tape stretched and I had no problems. 

This past weekend as temps went below zero in NH, I really appreciated having warm dry feet!   Thanks, Beckmann! 

[Beckmann AG]

^ You are welcome. Thanks for posting an update.

[BobD]

Plus one on the boot gloves. I once was distracted while booting up, and only put a boot glove on one boot. I think It was about 0* F. It took about twenty minutes to notice that one foot was getting cold. The difference between my feet became more obvious over the next couple of hours. There's not room for toe warmers in my boots, so if it's really cold I tuck charcoal hand warmers under the boot gloves.

[Corey]

These are the only way I ride all day: http://www.hotronic.com/products/fw/fw_s4_universal_custom.html

My boot gloves tend to trap snow against my shells, but I figure it's like an igloo - helping to trap some heat in the boot.  

[ursle]

22 minutes ago, BobD said:

Plus one on the boot gloves. I once was distracted while booting up, and only put a boot glove on one boot. I think It was about 0* F. It took about twenty minutes to notice that one foot was getting cold. The difference between my feet became more obvious over the next couple of hours. There's not room for toe warmers in my boots, so if it's really cold I tuck charcoal hand warmers under the boot gloves.

Boot gloves here also, conformable liners are cold, so are zips, I put the toe warmers under the shell over the liner, works great, then boot gloves, makes the boots flex better in extreme cold.

[GeoffV]

On 1/1/2018 at 7:13 PM, lafcadio said:

Reporting back on this since following @Beckmann AG's great advice:

The Nashua 557 tape did the trick!  It's flexible enough that I was still able to get in and out of the boots with the tape around the opening underneath the tongue. The first couple of times it was tight getting in and out of the boots, but after that, the tape stretched and I had no problems. 

This past weekend as temps went below zero in NH, I really appreciated having warm dry feet!   Thanks, Beckmann! 

Can you post a pic of your set up please? I have a high instep and always get snow in my front boot. 

[lafcadio]

28 minutes ago, GeoffV said:

Can you post a pic of your set up please? I have a high instep and always get snow in my front boot. 

I'll post some pics this weekend when I'm back in NH where my gear is.

[Beckmann AG]

1 hour ago, GeoffV said:

I have a high instep and always get snow in my front boot. 

Can you post 2 photso of your instep, one from above, one from the arch side? Might have an 'easy' fix, depending on contour.

[GeoffV]

@Beckmann AG I'll email pictures

Edited January 3, 2018 by GeoffV

[lafcadio]

See below for photos of my boots after taping up the opening underneath the tongue.  Even though I only had issues with my front boot, I taped up both.  The tape is just about a year old at this point and has 26 days on them and holding up well.

This photo shows the "hole" on my front boot where the cuff, boot, and tongue meet. This is where I suspect most of the snow was getting in:

I taped over the opening.  I had to stretch the tape after applying multiple layers.  At first, it was not easy to get the liners back in or my foot.  The tape eventually stretched and now I can remove and insert the liners with ease. 

[JBS]

Same problem here with snow packing mostly in my front boot.  Over the season water had slowly been seeping into my Fintec heel and last weekend it froze internally on a zero degree morning.  I’ve noticed the snow really gets pushed in on really frigid days. It appears that most of the snow enters where Lafcadio’s photo is marked. Then it is sucked behind the heel.  I did put some duct tape between the upper cuff and lower shell to cover a majority of the hole this morning, but still found snow. I guess I need to add more.