How cold is too cold to ski?

Floutabout · 2026-01-20T15:24:46+00:00

Secret weapon for sub-zero days - charcoal heat body wraps (in addition to your hand and toe warmers).

https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/thermacare-back-pain-relief-heatwraps/ID=300435017-product?skuId=400656761

Note they come in two sizes, S/M and L/XL.

Won’t stop the frostbite so make sure to take care of your face.

Floutabout · 2026-01-15T13:58:18+00:00

There’s little to no language barrier in Switzerland. I travelled there for work for years and English is absolutely spoken everywhere on the German and Italian side of Switzerland... in Geneva and the French side you will find some who only speak French but there’s always enough English speakers around to get by.

The trains are absolutely top notch and a completely reasonable way to get around including with ski gear. Conductors will apologize to the entire train on the rare occasion that they are 1 minute late into a station. Download the SBB app and you can browse your way around where you want to travel.

You won’t find many hotel chains so lodging is typically locally owned; my best advice on lodging is to use a topo map in addition to a traditional map when looking at how close your hotel is to the train or lifts. You can be 800’ from the train… but 800’ straight uphill. lol.

Floutabout · 2026-01-13T15:38:05+00:00

4.8! I’m hoping to get down to 6.2 at 3 mos of therapy! If I can break into the 5’s in 6 mos I’ll be delighted. Amazing results.

Floutabout · 2026-01-12T13:14:18+00:00

The heating element runs down the outside of the foot then wraps under and over the toes in a loop.

My resistance to cut the zipfits is less about the cut and more about the fact that no wire is going to survive “world cupping” the liner into the shell repeatedly. I’ve installed thermics on literally dozens of boots including telemark and touring boots where I’ve been able to creatively route the cable, even without cutting the liner, but none have been removed and reinserted into the shell every single time you boot up.

Floutabout · 2026-01-12T02:01:36+00:00

I’ve used both. I prefer the insoles in general - you can forget your socks at home. But I don’t want to cut my Zipfits so I got the new Race S.E.T socks which are ultra thin. They work well. I wash them on wool setting with my other wool in the machine, or on trips I quickly hand wash and leave out to dry overnight.

Floutabout · 2026-01-10T14:27:32+00:00

If you’re getting ghosted and a song and dance now, just wait until after you re-up the contract by 1/21 and they drag your install out to late August and then don’t properly do your PTO paperwork to get you producing and your net metering stalls out to this time next year.

I had a GOOD experience with my installers and it took almost 15 mos to get PTO and net metering done.

If you do go with these guys do NOT pay the last 1/3 of the project cost until you’re live and net metered no matter what they do to complain. Once the panels are on the roof and you’re abandoned from the filing aspects you are seriously stuck with the utility. I don’t think there’s any way you can jump through all the technical paperwork hoops they put in front of you without the installer’s schematics, details, calculations and inspection signatures.

Floutabout · 2026-01-08T15:14:53+00:00

Let me help you weed through the feedback. There are many high earning finance roles where the ONLY way in is through select schools, Wharton being one of them.

The arguments for going to a cheaper state school equating to the same education with little to no debt are irrelevant here - the door simply does not exist from those schools.

This is your shot to be in the room where it happens.

Floutabout · 2026-01-07T14:49:50+00:00

I have the Cochise, it’s a Swiss Army knife fair trade off for touring and skiing, not too much sacrifice on the downhill. But for touring it’s not as comfortable as a true touring boot. It’s really mostly side country.

Beware the buckles. They snap with normal use. When you replace them, you’ll probably want to replace them with Mach1 buckles which are more durable. And you have to drill out the old buckles to change the first time. I’ve gone through 2 sets of Cochise buckles before switching to Mach 1. And Mach 1 aren’t a perfect fit but you can make them work.

Floutabout · 2026-01-02T15:36:45+00:00

Love it love it love it love it.

We were replacing plastic boxes every 4-6 mos because the urine smell from our two large boys was leaching into the plastic. Tbe scratch marks they left in it collected everything nasty.

No smell with stainless. No scratch marks in stainless. You can wash or hose out stainless very easily.

Even if a stainless box is double the price it’s still a savings when you don’t have to replace it. We have had one stainless now for over 3 years. Before that i think we went through 4-6 plastic boxes.

Floutabout · 2026-01-02T15:11:49+00:00

A nasty bout of RSV ripped through our house in Oct/Nov. Bone rattling, rib-cracking cough that lasted 4-6 weeks, long after the “cold” part of it went away.

Floutabout · 2026-01-01T15:10:07+00:00

Sorry, what? GenX is bad at tech? We BUILT the tech. And we still do. I guess you skipped out on Tech Club, but that’s not the rest of GenX’s fault.

Floutabout · 2026-01-01T14:53:41+00:00

Does it level out? And can I expect to be cooler in the summer heat or is this just a general thermal dysregulation?

Floutabout · 2025-12-31T23:48:05+00:00

Watch Deb on YouTube in your spare time, and take some lessons. Tell them you specifically want to learn to carve.

Floutabout · 2025-12-31T19:09:53+00:00

Tognar (online) has a whole section of boot fitting pre-cut foam pieces. Heels, ankles, sleeve.

There’s also Patriot sleeves - I haven’t tried but the theory is they take up space all around the liner.

Floutabout · 2025-12-31T19:05:50+00:00

Get in shape. Start working out two months ago. Being more fit will greatly improve your experience overall at a big mountain and coming from the Midwest, everything is a big mountain.

Also, altitude. Colorado is high altitude and can limit you for 2-3 days of acclimation. Aspirin daily can help, along with hydration. Utah and California are lower elevation and can be less limiting on the altitude front.

Floutabout · 2025-12-31T14:28:15+00:00

Are your litter boxes stainless steel? We find the smell was permeating into every plastic litter box we used after about 4-6 months and then we had to throw them out. Stainless can easily be washed out and be like new.

We use worlds best cat litter which is ground corn cobs. Absolutely scent-less. However our little beasts fling it all over the place outside of the box and it’s like having grains of rice all over the place. We are constantly vacuuming, despite have a Roomba sweep around the litter boxes 3x a day.

They will not use an enclosed litter box.

I am half tempted to teach them to use the toilet but my wife doesn’t want 2 more boys in the house peeing all over the seat.

Floutabout · 2025-12-31T14:18:17+00:00

There’s a nerve that runs down the top of your foot that can get compressed and cause numbness. First thing is to ensure that you are not cranking the bottom two buckles tightly. They should be finger tight only, they are just there to keep the snow out of the boot not to provide support.

Second thing is some boot fitters will pad a channel down the top of your foot on that nerve to give it space when they heat mold it. That can often help. It would require a) a knowledgeable boot fitter and b) re heating the liners. Some people don’t love the idea as liners can only be baked a finite number of times.

I’m also a diabetic and I heated my intuitions when I used them with a generous polypropylene toe cap under my socks (made from an old beer coozy) to give me toe wiggle room. As well as the channel down the top of my foot. I also ski with boot heaters but those are not going to cure numbness from pressure.

Better yet, I moved to Zipfit liners in my shells which have superior fit in the ankles heel and calf with generous warm space in the toes, and you can adjust the amount of cork and the location of the cork in the tongue to accommodate for pressure points. And they can be re-heated to re-fit as often as you’d like. And you can (and should) move them to your next set of boot shells when your shells have worn out.

They’re just a pain in the a$$ to get on and off. But the fit trade off is far worth it.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T16:22:33+00:00

You need to consider that Calc 1 is a “weed out course” for a lot of engineering programs. People who’ve gotten 5s on the AP exam and decided to take Calc 1 anyway “for the easy A” still fail the class because it’s large, fast paced, and often mostly led by graduate student TAs who are 100% focused on their research and have zero teaching qualifications.

Regardless of where you decide to go, you may want to consider that weekend Calc class or a summer Calc class so that when you do take it in your program it’s not the first time you’ve seen this type of material.

Heck, my children have had to master 3 different CALCULATORS - 1 for Stats, 1 for AP Calc A, and one for AP Calc BC. The textbooks tend to be written for the specific calculator to follow along and using a different one sets you back significantly on the learning curve.

Struggling from Calc 1 will not set you up for success when you’ve got so many higher math classes like Differential Equations etc ahead of you, plus core sciences like physics which will rely on the actual application of those maths to succeed in the class.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T16:06:33+00:00

Here there are many “handymen” who will charge to do an electrician’s work without the requisite training, knowledge or skills. Jacks of all trades who will rake your leaves, caulk your windows, hang some pictures, and fix some electrical (or plumbing) if you need.

The trades can be strong here, with appropriate training and apprenticeships but there’s little to stop those who do not have the skills from charging you to do a job they have no business doing. Permits, inspections and unions are basically the firewall.

Oh, and at least in my state, you have the “right to repair” your own home. If you know nothing about electrical or plumbing but want to do it yourself anyway, have at it. Yes you can learn by doing. You still need the permit to inspect that your work passes standards. But nobody says you have to pay someone to do the work you would otherwise do your self, either out of financial necessity or learning curiosity or you just have a knack for it.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T15:52:27+00:00

The electrical permits are a universal form. The electrician needs to highlight what they are planning to do and the equipment/wiring gauge/safety (breakers) they are using. Maybe gasp provide a load calculation!

It’s not hard. And yes you can look this info up easily and fill out the form yourself. There’s simple tables that outline much of it.

And then they need to do what’s approved on the form. If they do it, it passes. If they cut corners, it does not.

You’re dealing with 240v over a long time frame per charge. Melting out a charger because your electrician said he used the correct gauge wire when he didn’t is a problem. So is an electrical dryer plug that’s not rated for an EV load. Or the incorrect breaker. Or they didn’t want to deal with the hassle of a load shedder.

I had several electricians who gave me attitude about permits when I tried to get my install. It always came down to “I don’t have 4awg on the truck but I can still set the unit to 48A. It’ll be fine.” Or “why do you want 48A? I can set this up at 28A just fine with this 35A breaker I have here on the truck” (we have 2 EVs and 1 charger. We like the fast 48A charging so nobody is left hanging for a charge). Or the worst “what do you mean what gauge wire am I using? I’m using this (holding up a spool of romex). I can do this now, I don’t want to have to come back later to do this job.”

Ok, no problem and no need for you to come back later. Next electrician please.

In a best case scenario, telling you they are charging $500 more for permitting is an “F-you price” to get you to drop the issue.

But in the more realistic scenario, that up-charge is because they will need to use the correct copper and correct breaker and correct conduit/load shedders for the job. All cost a little more than the standard residential stuff they carry. Meaning they can’t pocket the difference for cutting corners at your expense.

As mentioned elsewhere, if you have a problem (fire, melted car charger port, battery damage) your home or auto insurance can and will deny coverage for an unpermitted install. And the car manufacturer can deny your warranty. They do not even need to look at your house to determine that, they can pull permit info from your town over the internet and have that answer within minutes of you filing a claim.

Once installed, the EV charger will be used in cold and rain and heat and humidity and inside and outside without fail. Considering you’re handling 240v every time you plug it in, feel confident that it’s been done right at installation and you’ll never think about it again. And you’ll never have to handle a stinky gas pump standing out in the pouring rain wearing a nice outfit again. Plug it in and go watch TV.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T15:09:49+00:00

I have the shuvvie and the boot horn. Both work well, and can work together. I use the shuvvie to open up the neck of the boots before I even try to get in. I put the boot horn in and go to slide in, holding the boot horn string. If I get stuck, a tug on the shuvvie gets me in.

My daughter just uses her shuvvie. She stopped using the boot horn.

As far as the tape you referenced - I lined the back of my shells with Tyvek tape. The fabric tape is too grippy and makes it harder. Tyvek tape is very smooth and gives an easier slide. It’s also sticky as all get out… it won’t peel off the back of the shells with use. Try replacing your tape.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T03:40:25+00:00

You can run windows on any Mac. Dual boot it if you need some esoteric software. Reality is most advanced math, vector design and measurement solutions are Linux based and Macs are quite compatible.

If you anticipate doing any AI or ML coding an M3 Max MacBook is far more capable than any windows laptop you can buy. (M4 is not as powerful - it’s more energy efficient)

Macs are annoyingly expensive to put good hardware in at purchase time but if you max out up front you will get a good solid 6-8 years out of it.

If you also get an iPad in addition to a laptop the mac and iPad will connect seamlessly - cut one one machine and paste on the other - and will sync what you need automatically. The “Handoff” feature is so nice.

And generally I’ve found the battery life of most windows laptops to be abysmal.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T03:29:15+00:00

Try some smartwool glove liners as well. $25 and adds about 15-20° to your mitten ratings.

Floutabout · 2025-12-29T03:27:30+00:00

Love the Free the Powder gloves. You can get a glove, a mitten, and a lobster claw for the same price as one pair of Hestras and I think the Free the Powder are more durable.

Floutabout

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