Best weight/warmth ratio wool sleep socks?

The kit as described should have been sufficient at 28°F. Too tight and restricted bloodflow? Or no sleeping bag/quilt at all?

I have been pleased with the PossumDown socks for sleeping in low 30s (combined with a quilt).

Zpacks sells them stateside: PossumDown Bushman’s Friend Socks

Make sure you size them up.

These are not for wearing due to very low durability, most (smarter) people only use them in camp.

My feet would have been roasting and then sweating in that set up at that temp with say a 35* F quilt–i wonder if perhaps it was too warm at first and your feet started to sweat inducing a lot of evaportive cooling?

Or perhaps you have circulation issues?   Western Mountaineering Down booties are pretty warm.

With wool socks, basically the thicker they are, the warmer they will be, but the thicker they are, the heavier they will be. It would be interesting if Patagonia or KUIU turned their somewhat unique structured wool into sleeping socks, you’d get a bit more warmth at a bit less weight over the standard ones.

But Apex, Down, etc is going to be much warmer per weight than any wool socks, even specialized, high loft wool.

So my feet and hands get pretty cold pretty easy – I don’t think I have diabeetus or any other circulatory problem, and I have a good metabolism.  I eat big before bed too.

I think I just get cold easy is all.

Last night this was my setup:

• Tarptent Notch (mesh wall edition)
• Tyvek groundsheet (pretty much just to protect my thermarest)
• Thermarest neo-air xlite (3.2R)
• EE Revelation 30
• EE 20-40 Hoodlum
• EE 25-45 Apex booties
• Point 6 1/4 crew merino socks (feel mid-weight, 2.04oz)
• EMS camp cargo pants (thin nylon)
• Marmot Windridge shirt (thin poly tightweave)
• Marmot Bridgeport 1/2zip 100wt fleece
• EMS packable jacket (nanopuff clone w/ primaloft gold under pertex quantum)
• O.R. Gauge micro beanie (merino)
• O.R. PL100 liner gloves

And what’s worse about all this is that I think it was actually around 35f not 28f – I just can’t read a thermometer when I’m groggy… https://goo.gl/photos/CRs8eswkshHoxcWR6

Nevermind – it does in fact look like the thermometer was reading about 28-29f – I could only tell by comparing to where 0c sits on the other side of it.

So yea I’m a winter weenie…

I’ve been reading about the bread bag vapor barrier method this morning and I’ll try that next.

I’d add a CCF pad first. You may well be losing heat to the ground.

Very true for my 3.2R xlite.  I have a much heavier Big Agnes insulated air core and an oWare 1/2″ zote pad I can use but had been avoiding due to weight.  Suffer at camp or suffer on the trail I guess.

I have a pair of Flamethrower down socks from Arrowhead or whoever that I used to wear in my hammock before I got my UQ. I found them to be much warmer without any socks inside of them. I don’t know if the wool sleep socks were constricting circulation or what but I’d try the EE Apex booties by themselves as an experiment.

Good call Matthew!  The 1/4 crew merinos I was wearing might have been ever so slightly tight (I normally wear stuff tight) – I’ll try both that and with a clean pair of my looser polypro liners.  If either of those work that’d be such a win weight wise too!

Before I got the Zpacks possum socks, I was using SmartWool mountaineering socks, which, are incredibly comfortable as sleeping socks.

I also use the mountaineering socks, triple weave, but they’re on the heavy side.  Are the possum socks just as warm?

Don’t try a Big Agnes Insulated Air Core if you want to be warmer- they are known to be very cold.

You might need some more insulation on your head at those temps.

when during the night exactly were you cold? … in the early morning?

did you eat fatty foods and protein before sleeping, or just carbs?

did you have any additional leg insulation?

is your quilt a snug fit or are there air gaps? Did you strap it properly and use all of em the clips including the one at the neck or was it simply tucked in?

you should looks like this …

basically yr pushing the limit of both yr pad and yr quilt temps … and if yr a bit of a cold sleeper to boot you need to use em “perfectly”

near their temp limits is when folks sometimes have issues with quilts as you cant just drape or tuck en in lightely … you actually need to be a mummy

;)

I think you need a bit more head covering and a lot more mat underneath.

Cheers

Thanks Eric and Roger –

I think I agree with you Roger about needing more head covering and R value underneath me.  I took the forecast at face value (expected a low of 42, got 28 instead) – I’m learning a lot about that in another thread I posted about weather forecasts…

Eric – went to bed feeling good around 11 (after stargazing in the open for a couple hours – I’d eaten at around 9) – and looking back at what I ate it was actually only about 850kcal with low fat content, moderate protein content, and majority carb content – not my regular pouch food – d’oh!

No additional leg insulation.  (I have terramar thermasilk leggings I could have put on – d’oh!)

Quilt used properly – it’s a newer EE quilt so it has the upper strap that moves with you as you toss and turn.

I think I learned a few lessons from all of this.  I’m excited to try out better socks and bread bags next attempt.

a few suggestions

• save a few slices of cheese or salami for bedtime
• do a few situps in the quilt to get it and you warm, if you go to sleep cold youll stay cold
• use a midweight (200 fleece) beanie under yr hood … theyre cheap like 5-10 dollahz from department stores
• use a 1/8 pad under or over yr sleeping pad, they dont weight much and are cheap … or use an automotive sunshade, theyre surprisingly warm under an air pad
• try putting the rain jacket over yr legs under the quilt it acts as a partial VBL, put yr feet in the hood
• or one can bring a trash bag, snip off the end so theres holes at both sides, and put that over yr feet and legs … if more warmth is needed take a twist tie and tie off the foot end

and dont forge there always da HAWT NALGENE !!!!

these kinds of little old school tricks may help you on nights the temps drop unexpectedly

;)

I’m a cold sleeper too and on my last trip in late Dec the temps were 30-35 F. I was also using a 30 deg EE Revelation. The night it was 30 deg I was comfortably warm but I could tell I was reaching the comfortable limit. I wore everything I had. I only had my Injinji socks on my feet which are not very warm but closed the top of my zpacks rain kilt and tucked my feet in for a vapor barrier. After about 20 mins of cold feet, they stayed warm for the rest of the night. You can also zip up your rain jacket and tuck your feet in for the same effect.

Around a year ago I was gifted some cashmere dress socks. Maybe I can actually get some use from them as sleep socks (just kidding I think I lost them)

How much help is a 1/8 inch foam pad combined with an Xlite?

I found wool socks too constricting and now use fleece socks.  Very light, very warm.  I found a nice pair at the Dollar store and Kohl’s sells fleece sleep socks ( infused with aloe) that are loose, lightweight and keep me toasty warm now.

Kodiak, were you sleeping on snow? Or was the ground frozen? If yes, then I would most definitely say you didn’t have enough pad.