Wet thermoform and gaiters

I am new to the AT boot (Garmont Mega somethings...) and ran into a problem on a tour a week ago. Since it was relatively warm, I skied only in my long johns and shorts as is typical for me in the spring and summer. I was only slightly annoyed by the debris, both from trees and some snow that was occasionally kicked into the boots on the skin up, but on the way down I picked up a ton of snow since I did a lot of post-holing.<br><br>Forgot the need for gaiters, since my teleboots have been fit with supergaiters for years it never occurred to me. In any case I also do not have gaiters that are large enough to accomodate the upper part of the boot when it is loosened for touring.<br><br>Finally, after almost two weeks, I am shocked to find that the liners are still not completely dry. I did store them in several different orientations so that most of the water easily drained, but it is that last little bit that won't let go. I will hit them with a dryer (cool temp!) but that is annoying, a closed cell foam (hell even a kitchen sink sponge!) will dry faster than that. These liners have been inside my house under typical warm conditions, so I cannot blame leaving them out in the cold humid garage as the reason.<br><br>What do you AT'ers do?

You have the liners out of the shells with the tongues pulled all the way out?<br><br>Put the liners near a heat outlet, or hang them in a warm room with good air circulation. Can't imagine they won't dry out in a day or so.

I can pull my long underwear legs over the tops of my boots. If this doesn't work for you, you can buy Black Diamond's 'Termigator', which works with big plastic boots. www.bdel.com

Thermo liners should dry in a day or two, if you pull them out of the boots, open the tongues, and pull your footbeds out. The closed cell foam cannot absorb water. Did you somehow buy boots with a non-thermo liner?

Thanks,<br><br>The liners were pulled out and the footbeds removed. I will certainly need to get some air circulating in them, no doubt. They are thermo liners.<br><br>I'll figure out something to cover the boots.<br><br>Alan

The Gfits do seem to dry slower then std liners but 2 weeks? Yikes! I have the MegaRides too. Typically the first thing I do when I get home is pull the liners out of the shells, pull the footbeds out and leave them in the middle of my living room so the liner foot smell aroma will spread and impress any dates I bring home (joking, of course). They're typically dry by morning. Sometimes I'll even pull the liners/footbeds out of the shells as I'm departing the TH, depending on if I wish to torture my partners or not. When my liners have really been socked I'll put them in front of a fan and leave them in the garage. This dries them super quickly (a few hours in my experience) but it does leave a rather unpleasant smell in whatever room you do this in.<br><br>I have been meaning to get a dedicated boot dryer, one that just circulates air not one that uses heat as I don't want to remold my liners.<br><br>As to gaiters, I never wear gaiters. The boots are pretty high, I usually have my pant cuffs covering the top and I try to skin as much as possible, further mitigating the chance of snow getting in the boot. My liners still get soaked though from perspiration -- the Gfits are warm!

This godsend made all those frustrations (and accompanying smells) go away for me, forever. Seems like it cost me about 30 frogpelts at GI Joe's a few years back. Last time I was in there they still carried them.

All good advice. I remove liners/footbeds, then place liners on a window sill (given dry weather) with the tops pointing out. It helps that I have wide sills and where I live is consistently breezy.

When I ski in shorts, I sometimes pull my socks over the tops of my boots. It sort of keeps snow out of your boots and kind of looks stupid.<br><br>Aaron

I bought a Mammut ski pant that is super light wgt. That has a velcro enclosure at the bottom cuff it fits over the boot. They have been worn on windy 25 degree days and on 65 degree days with all the comfort on either day no snow crammed in the boot. I recommend that set up. That way you don't have to wear long underware they have zip pockets and they feel great! AWESOME for spring tours! So for the combination costs of gaiters, long undies, and shorts you could almost buy those pants on sale. And furthermore avoid harrasment from the TAY BC Fashion Police.

Thanks for all the advice! I think that the boot drier is a great thing to have for more than just these ski boots.<br><br>I'll also check out the skiwear suggested, but I thought that the long underwear helped to hold my legs in a shapely way!<br><br>Alan

My approach is as follows.<br><br>Step 1:<br>- Wear Schoeller pants with cuffs that can fit over boot liners.<br><br>Step 2:<br>- Once back at trailhead, remove liners from shells and remove footbeds from lines.<br><br>Step 3:<br>- Once back home, place liners in plastic bags and then put in freezer for a couple hours (or outside if cold).  According to Eric Ongerth at Mammoth Mountaineering, this kills the odor-causing bacteria.  (I place them inside a plastic bag though so that the liner doesn't pick up any food smells.)  This approach also seemed to work well on a recent three-day/two-night trip: keeping the liners in the cold vestibule somehow seemed better than putting on a wet & warm boot in the morning.  (The initial coldness was overcome quickly, and a cold frozen boot somehow didn't seem as bad as a warm wet boot.)<br><br>Step 4:<br>- Set the timer and hook the liners up to this (can handle two pairs of liners simultaneously):<br>www.dryguy.net/PRD_DG1.htm
- Or, initially put on higher setting for about 10 minutes and then an hour or so on lower setting on this:
www.dryguy.net/PRD_DG5.htm
Alternatively, put on higher setting initially in your brother's South Lake Tahoe garage because your previous Thermoflex liners smelled so bad (from a couple incomplete drying episodes) that you don't dare bring them inside.  Then go to bed with sweet dreams of skiing perfect corn the next day.  Wake up in the middle of the night and realize that your boot dryers are still on the highest setting.  Stumble into garage in a panic and discover that they are just fine.  (The highest setting apparently isn't high enough to remold them.)

Steps Not to Follow:
1 = Do not place your liners to dry on your Tioga Pass Resort cabin's floor near where your wife might use the pee pot.  (She still thinks that this was hilariously funny.)
2 = Do not place your liners near your Tioga Pass Resort cabin's space heater, especially if you have put considerable effort into compacting the toe box as to create more room.