Late-season mountain boots with a slight twist

[ognennyy]

I haven't been out West hunting big game in the rockies for years now. I live and hunt in NY's Adirondacks. I still hunt like a western big game hunter with an active hunting style, cover a lot of ground, and a lot of elevation change. There is one very impactful difference; most often my periods of inactivity here hunting white tails in the Adirondacks are much longer than they were hunting elk in CO's mountains. And those periods I must remain much more motionless so I'm generating far less body heat.

Currently for mid and late season I use Lowa Tibet GTX 400g insulation boots and very thin light-weight polypropylene liner under a thick 90% merino wool over-the-calf sock. It's a nice combo. But when the temps drop to the point where the daytime highs are lower than 25F I still have issues with feet getting cold when I'm inactive. Constantly have to wiggle toes and start fires to warm them up. To an extent this is just going to happen no matter what, I get it.

But I wonder, what solutions have others come up with? It wasn't my style personally but surely there are some big game hunters here who sit and glass for five to six hours at a time and have similar issues.

 

[Wheels]

Boot blankets with chemical hand warmers thrown inside them.

 

[Northpark]

I’ll second boot blankets

 

[Vrybusy]

+1 on the above suggestions! Works great and give you a lot of flexibility.

 

[Wapiti1]

Hoffman pacs are what I use when its cold and I have to sit.

Jeremy

 

[Jimbee]

Look at Neos overshoes. Even the non insulated ones do a good job keeping feet warm. They're all really lightweight and pretty durable.

 

[ognennyy]

I never knew they made such a thing as boot blankets. After looking them up I'm definitely going to get my hands on some. They look like a great solution for when I need to hike in 1+ miles over rough terrain with the intent to then sit on stand for hours.

Do any of you still hunt? I frequently find fresh sign in an area I wasn't expecting and change plans, stop and still hunt through an area. I do move of course, but maybe ten yards at a time, very slowly, then stop and just stand, unmoving, for 10-20 minutes. I might keep that up for only 40 minutes, or I might do it for 2-3 hours. In those cases my toes get very cold as well to the point of distraction.

For those situations it would be ideal to not stop and pull boot blankets out of my pack since I don't know how long I'll be still hunting, and all the blankets I saw said do not walk in them. I'd love to find just a warmer boot situation.

Anyone ever tried mountaineering boots that have 1000g insulation? Irish Setter Elk Tracker 1000g and the Kenetrek Mountain Extreme 1000g come to mind. The later are extremely expensive so thought I'd beat around the bush first.