VtSkier wrote:

[snip]
I'm a firm advocate of keeping your body core warm and you'll have warm
hands.

People vary a lot in how they thermoregulate, and how well they
thermoregulate in heat vs. cold, but there are some basic mechanisms
that are part of human physiology. When the body is exposed to cold,
the brain tries to play a balancing act between preserving the
extremities, by sending warm blood to them, and preserving the core
temperature, by reducing the flow of blood to the extremities if the
blood sent there keeps coming back cold. In really extreme conditions,
the brain goes into survival mode and preserves the core temperature to
keep itself functioning. I believe the thinking is that Reynaud's is a
sort of exceptionally paranoid form of this reaction, whereby the brain
goes into this sort of extreme survival mode at a level of chill that is
far from truly threatening to its survival.

So I guess reason says there's no hard and fast rule, whether the secret
to warmth is to concentrate on warming the extremities, or on warming
the core. Either is going to help: keeping the extremities warm keeps
the brain feeling all reassured and continuing to share its nice warm
blood, and keeping the core warm does the same. A lot probably depends
on your individual construction, whether you've got a short and stocky
heat-preserving physique, or a lanky heat-radiating physique with long
hands and feet and limbs. If your hands and feet are natural radiators,
you'd probably put some effort into them.

I spend a lot of time chasing little kids around on skis, and when I'm
having a really hot and sweaty day, I find it helpful to ditch the hat
and gloves altogether. When it's cold and I'm not chasing kids, I find
the real key for me is to be comfortably warm before I go out. If I'm
feeling the least bit chilled when I go outside, I'm not likely to warm
up on the hill.

I have a pair of mid-weight BD skiing specific gloves, a pair of
leather racing gloves and a pair of Extra Large thinsulate, leather and
fabric, workman's gloves from the local hardware worn with a pair of
fleece liners. The latter are the warmest and have the advantage of
being able to keep the liners on when you remove the "shells". The
latter are also NOT waterproof as the leather are pretty good and the
BD's are goretex. Weather determines the gloves I wear.

VtSkier



--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.