My New Year's Resolution is to heat up the action!

Last month we discussed tips for keeping warm while doing outdoor sports and physical activities this winter. What we skimmed over was probably the most important piece of advice..how to keep those tootsies warm.

When you are outside in the colder temperatures, your body diverts blood flow from the extremities to maintain your core temperature. Your toes (and fingers) can quickly become uncomfortably cold.

I have had a tough time keeping my feet warm ever since I severely froze my feet on a Winter Wilderness Survival course when I was 15 yrs old. Not only was I stuck up in Northern Quebec living in my handmade snow shelter, it was the coldest winter we had ever seen and people were being told to avoid going outside at all costs. Needless to say, we were very cold. Brrr..

Even though we were busy surviving (gathering wood for the fires, cooking food, etc), my friend Rona and I froze our feet. From Day 1 to Day 5 we were walking around on frozen stumps. Ironically we didn't fare as badly as the (experienced, adult) leader - he ended up in the hospital with gangrenous toes. I now have "cold feet" when it comes to winter outdoor activities that threaten to take me away from the security of warm toes. Just in case you feel the same way - here are some important things to heat up the action in you tender tootsies:

A heating pad just under your toes provides a warm base level temperature at the toes. If the heating pad is doing its job properly it should maintain comfort and warmth in the feet without making them sweat. There are a number of different companies that make heating pads. Some are single use only (known as grabber warmers - see here for more info http://www.sunandsnow.ca/toewarmer.htm) and the others are battery operated reusable heating pads.

After trying a number of the battery-operated units I have to say that my top pick is the Hotronic's Heating Element (http://www.tandl.com/fs_links.html). The Hotronic FootWarmer offers three base level settings for comfort and warmth maintenance. A fourth setting offers an extra blast of heat when needed. The other bonus is that these units are rechargeable. You can also use them in any or all of your winter boots, cycling shoes or any other boot or shoe that you get cold in. These units are expensive - approximately $250 however there is no need to buy batteries or a recharger as these are included and in one season of outdoor activity you will have more then covered their costs compared to the other units that cost little ($19-$39) but require 8 up to 16 AA batteries for one 3 hour warming stint in your boots.

Where can you get these Hotronics foot warmers? Any downhill retail ski store is your best bet. Tommy & Lefebvre is Ottawa's authorized Hotronic dealer - see here for locations http://www.tandl.com/fs_aboutus_locations.html. If you are not close to Ottawa then go to the Canadian distributor’s link http://www.sunandsnow.ca/power35.htm.