|
| Home | Guest - Not logged in | |||
|
» Register
» Login
Gear Reviews
Documents
Tools
» Contact
|
Reviews > Clothing > Socks > Integral Designs Hot Socks > Kelli Wise > Field ReportIntegral Designs Hot Socks - Field Report February 4, 2004
Personal biographical information: Backpacking background: I've been car camping and hiking for 20 years and sport climbing for 10 years, but am new to backpacking. My backpacking style is not ultralight but lightweight and I am striving for a suitable compromise between safety and comfort. I have started going for overnight and short trips with the goal of doing an extended trip next year. The majority of my hiking experience is in Western Washington so I get a lot of wet weather experience. Field information: Western Washington, coastal, lowlands and winter snowshoeing below 6000' (1829 m).
Product Information:
Listed weight: 4.2 oz (120 g) Features: The Hot Socks are designed to be used in camp and while sleeping to keep feet from getting cold. The shell material is Pertex Microfibre and the insulation is 4 oz (95.3 grams/square meter) Primaloft Sport. This provides 0.5" (1.3 cm) of loft around the foot in a water repellent shell. There is a back panel made of a double layer of stretch microfleece that makes the Hot Socks easy to slip on and keeps them snug around the ankles. The footpad is reinforced with 330 denier (D) cordura.
Field Report In general, I have found that the inside fabric of the Hot Socks is very soft. Being nylon, it is initially quite cold when I first put them on bare feet, but the fabric warms up within a couple of seconds. The fit is loose enough that they are not binding and I can fit a pair of wool socks on underneath but the elastic in the heel keeps them on my feet. I have tried walking around in them, but as I noted in my Initial Report, the insulation in the soles makes my feet slide around when I walk. I thought that I would adjust to this, but I just can’t get used to the sensation that I’m walking on ball bearings so I don’t really wear them around the house as slippers. This is kind of disappointing as I wanted to be able to get some extended wear on them to see how durable they are. Despite the slipping sensation, I can wear the Hot Socks, and walk around in them, long enough for quick trips to the privy. They won’t be my camp shoes, but they will be great for sleeping in. I’ve also found that they also pack up quite small and, being a bright red color, they are easy to spot in amongst my clothes. The fabric on the soles does not pick up dirt, twigs, and leaf litter like wool socks do, so there is less dirt inside my sleeping bag in the morning and that is much appreciated. I wanted to see how they felt compared to Merino wool socks. The inside temperature of my house is about 62 F (17 C) in the evenings, which is quite cold for me, and my comparison consisted of wearing a wool hiking sock on one foot and the Hot Sock on the other. The next evening, I switched feet. The Hot Socks are every bit as warm as a wool sock and very comfortable to wear. I also feel that wearing wool socks underneath the Hot Socks didn’t make any difference at the temperatures I encountered while sleeping in my current down bag. It might be an advantage in extreme cold, but for the conditions I’ve encountered so far, low temperatures of 20 F (-7 C), the Hot Socks alone keep my feet quite warm. Some of my detailed technical results from testing in the field are detailed below. I tested them one night while spending a cold, rainy night sleeping outside in a bivy sack with a badly pitched tarp. I put down a RidgeRest and Therm-a-Rest on top of that, placed the bivy on top of the pads and put my 15 F (-9 C) down sleeping bag into the bivy. The tarp covered the entrance to the bivy and provided a place to put my shoes and other gear. The bottom end of the bivy was covered by the tarp, but was not well protected from blowing or splashing rain. The humidity was over 90% when I set up in a grassy area with no tree cover. I sleep very cold and figure that any sleeping bag rating is off by about 10 F (6 C) for me, so my down bag should be comfortable down to 25 F (-4 C) with my normal sleeping attire of microfleece pants and long sleeve top. I wear a balaclava made of a thin material called Thermax and Integral Designs Hot Socks on my feet. I did not wear socks inside the Hot Socks as I had done during my initial testing. It rained on and off all night and my thermometer recorded that the low temperature for the night was 34 F (1 C). When I awoke in the morning, my tarp had sagged considerably and was touching the bivy in several places, ice had formed on the inside of the tarp and sloughed off during the night into little piles around my bivy sack and the bottom of the bivy sack was quite wet from blown rain, condensation, and melted ice. Despite this, my feet were toasty warm all night. The Hot Socks did not come loose, slide down my feet, or come off during the night. Another night brought us our first really cold, clear weather and I set up the bivy with both sleeping pads as before, mostly to insulate me from the cold ground and provide enough padding that I wouldn’t be awake all night from discomfort of sleeping on the ground. Since no precipitation was expected, I didn’t pitch a tarp and just slept under the stars. I used the same down bag, slept in the same microfleece top and bottom, wore a Thermax balaclava, Hot Socks, and added some down mitts. The low recorded temperature for the night was 20 F (-7 C) and the winds were light. I awoke to a beautiful rose colored sunrise and found everything around me coated in frost, including the bivy sack and the exposed parts of my sleeping pads! I expected to get cold during the night and brought extra socks and clothes to add, but I was actually quite warm all night, especially my feet. My feet, usually the first thing to get cold, were quite happy and I was somewhat reluctant to get out of my nice warm cocoon.
Summary:
Pros:
Cons: I would like to thank Integral Designs and BGT for the opportunity to test the Hot Socks.
Reviews > Clothing > Socks > Integral Designs Hot Socks > Kelli Wise > Field Report | |||