By Michael Lanza
Staying warm while Nordic, downhill, or backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, or hiking in winter is a constant challenge: We sweat, our clothes get damp, then we get cold. But as humans have known for thousands of years, it’s a matter of smartly managing and insulating our body’s furnace (and today we have much better technical clothing than animal skins). As someone who runs hot when moving, cools off quickly, and gets cold fingers very easily, I’ve learned many tricks over three decades of getting outdoors in frigid temperatures. Follow these tips and you will be vastly more comfortable outdoors in winter.
Backcountry skiing in Idaho’s Boise Mountains.
#1 Move
Clothing only helps trap heat; your body is what keeps you warm. Anytime you get cold, the single best strategy for rewarming is to start moving or increase your pace. Watch others in your group for signs that they’re cold, especially children, who have less body fat and mass and cool off more quickly than adults. When you take a break, make it short, to avoid cooling off. If someone has visibly cooled off faster than others during a break, have that person start moving ahead of the group; you will regroup before long.
Buy smart. Read my “5 Tips For Spending Less on Hiking and Backpacking Gear.”
#2 Pace Yourself
Minimizing how much you perspire in cold temperatures is critical to keeping warm, because wet clothing conducts heat away from your body. Try to set a pace that keeps you warm without causing you to overheat and perspire heavily; I try to strike a balance between producing enough heat to keep my toes and fingers warm without sweating copiously in my core, which generally has me breathing heavily but not panting.
If sweating is unavoidable on a long, strenuous ascent, then as you get within maybe five or 10 minutes of the top, slow down just a bit, to a pace at which you stop sweating but still generate enough body heat to dry your base layers. When camping in winter, I do that 20 to 30 minutes before stopping to camp.
What touches your skin matters. See my picks for the best base layers for any season.
Nordic skiing in the Boise Mountains, Idaho.
#3 Adjust Layers
Sometimes, whether climbing uphill on backcountry skis or snowshoes or in high-exertion activities like running or Nordic skiing, it’s impossible to avoid sweating, so adjust your clothing layers. For example, if there’s no wind and you’re exerting hard, you may only need a breathable insulation layer (like fleece) over a fast-drying, wicking base layer. If it’s windy, you may want a waterproof-breathable hard shell over a midweight insulation layer, like a fleece or a vest, to prevent you from cooling down.
For a high-exertion, high-speed activity like Nordic skiing, where your motion creates wind against your body, or a moderate-level activity like snowshoeing, wear a somewhat windproof and more breathable soft shell or a jacket with breathable insulation, to prevent excessive sweating and move moisture off your base layer more quickly.
Find the right outer layer for your purposes and you may only have to adjust layers infrequently. I’ve reviewed several pieces of apparel at this blog that performed that well, including these:
Arc’teryx Atom SL Hoody (read my review)
Outdoor Research Uberlayer Hooded Jacket (read my review)
Outdoor Research Skyward Jacket (read my review)
Patagonia Dual Aspect Hoody (read my review)
Patagonia Nano-Air Light Hybrid Jacket (read my review)
The North Face Desolation ThermoBall Jacket (read my review)
The North Face Novelty Denali Jacket (read my review)
See all of my reviews of outdoor apparel and my “10 Smarter Ways to Think About Your Layering System.”
Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, the creator of The Big Outside, recognized as a top outdoors blog by USA Today and others. I invite you to sign up for my FREE email newsletter by entering your email address in the box in the left sidebar, at the bottom of this story, or on my About page, and follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
#4 Eat More
Your body needs more fuel in freezing temperatures to keep your internal furnace burning. Eat high-fat snacks like chocolate, cheese, and nuts, because fat is a slow-burning fuel that keeps your body going for the long haul, which becomes even more important in the cold. Keep snacks handy so you can refuel frequently; feeling a chill or fatigue is often an indicator that your body needs food.
#5 Drink Up
In cold, dry conditions typical of winter, you become dehydrated more quickly than you realize, even if you’re not sweating much. Drink frequently. Carry a thermos with a hot drink. Add sugar to it (for quick energy) or a little dollop of butter for flavor and fat.
Don’t let red tape foil your plans. See my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”
My son, Nate, skiing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park.
#6 Don’t Freeze Your Water
I use a hydration bladder in temps down into the 20s Fahrenheit without the hose or mouthpiece freezing—if I keep the pack on my body (which helps warm the hose, especially when it’s running through a tunnel in a shoulder strap of my pack, a design feature of many packs made for winter activities). I also make a point of blowing back into the hose after each time I drink, to clear water from the mouthpiece and hose, which are more likely to freeze up quickly.
But in colder temps, the hose will likely freeze, so use wide-mouth water bottles instead. Store the bottles in an insulated sleeve inside your pack, upside-down, so that when you hold them upright to drink from them, any ice that has formed will be at the bottom of the bottle. When camping in freezing temps, don’t leave a water bottle out or it might freeze solid (and take a long time to thaw). Either empty your bottles, or preferably, fill them with hot water and put them inside your sleeping bag as heaters.
Get the right gloves. Click photo to see my “Review: The Best Gloves For Winter.”
#7 Carry Spare Gloves
Do your fingers get cold easily, then become difficult to rewarm? (Mine do.) Carry two pairs of gloves, keeping the second pair in a zippered or secure jacket pocket, so that your body heat keeps them toasty. (They would be like blocks of ice in your pack.) If your fingers get cold, remove the gloves you’re wearing and warm your bare hands against your belly or in pants pockets against your thighs. Once the blood has returned to your fingers, put on the gloves you’ve kept warm inside your jacket, and put the cold ones in that pocket.
This is also a good method for drying wet gloves, but put wet gloves in a pocket of a waterproof-breathable jacket, where the dampness won’t make contact with your body. Plus, carrying a spare pair of gloves is a smart safety precaution in winter—you never know when a gust of wind, a fall, damage like a tear, or even an avalanche could cause you or a companion to lose a glove or two, quickly leaving you without the functional use of your hands and putting you at risk of severe frostbite.
Lastly, mittens are warmer than gloves because fingers benefit from their collective warmth, and get cold more easily when isolated. Whenever dexterity isn’t critical, or in extreme cold, wear mittens instead of gloves or over light gloves.
Gloves I recommend:
Marmot XT Glove
Ibex Kilometer Glove
Outdoor Research Luminary Sensor Gloves
The North Face Triclimate Etip Glove
Outdoor Research Afterburner Gloves
For reviews of these gloves and others, see my “Review: The Best Gloves For Winter.”
Backcountry skiing in the Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho.
#8 Bring Two Hats
For any outing on which my exertion level or the temperature will vary, I always bring two hats: a really warm one for when I’m resting, skiing or snowshoeing downhill, or exerting in really cold temperatures; and a lighter one for when I’m exerting hard in moderately cold temps and don’t want a hat that’s so warm it makes me overheat. When I’m wearing the warm hat, I keep the lighter one, which may have gotten damp from sweat, in a pocket close to my torso to dry it quickly.
Red Mountain, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon.
#9 Pre-warm Your Gloves and Boots
Fingers and toes get cold most easily because they are the parts of your body farthest from your heart; and because, once they are cold, your brain directs the capillaries in your extremities to cut off circulation to those parts (known as vaso-constriction), to protect the body’s core from cold blood returning to the heart.
My solution: Pre-warm your gloves and boots by a heater before going outside, so your fingers and toes feel toasty the instant you put them on. (Example: While driving to go backcountry skiing, I keep my ski boots either near the car’s heater or in the back seat, rather than in the back of the car, which is colder; and I keep my ski gloves inside my jacket, warming against my torso.)
When fingers and toes get cold and won’t rewarm on their own outdoors, stick chemical hand and foot warmers inside your gloves and boots. I like the Grabber and Hot Hands products from warmers.com.
#10 Dress Like A Goose
If you stop for more than a few minutes, put on a fat down or synthetic-insulation jacket immediately, to prevent your body from rapidly cooling off. Take it off right before you start moving again, so you don’t overheat.
Puffy jackets I recommend:
Outdoor Research Floodlight Down Jacket
Mountain Hardwear StretchDown Jacket (read my review)
Rab Microlight Alpine Down Jacket
Marmot Guides Hooded Down Jacket (read my review)
See my story “Ask Me: How Can You Tell How Warm a Down Jacket Is?” and all of my reviews of insulated jackets.
#11 Sit On Your Pack
The ground, rocks, logs, and all other natural objects are frozen in winter and will suck the cold from your body via thermal conduction if you sit on them. Instead, lay your pack on the ground and sit on it.
Backcountry skiing in the Teton Range, Wyoming.
#12 Worship the Sun
Just as you would seek shade when taking a break on a hot day, in cold temperatures, take rest stops in warm sunshine, and face into the sun. Ideally, find a spot that’s sheltered from the wind, or put your back to the wind. Keep in mind when planning trips in advance, especially when taking out people new to winter outdoor activities, that you can improve the chances of them enjoying it by taking them out in March or early spring, when the sun is much higher and warmer and days are longer than in December or January.
See my stories, “What Should I Wear? How to Dress for Outdoors Adventures,” and “10 Pro Tips: Staying Warm in a Sleeping Bag,” and all of my Skills stories and my reviews of outdoor apparel at The Big Outside.
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Find more detailed advice in my book Winter Hiking and Camping, from The Mountaineers Books.
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