When organizing my Kilimanjaro hike, I was obsessed by one major concern: How to keep warm feet (or rather how to avoid frostbite) during summit night? Fear turned into excitement when I learned about chili-feet from a real outdoors expert. According to him and all my further research, they are the warmest insoles currently in the market. In essence, their innovative material produces heat purely from the pressure of walking. How wonderful would that be: Just put them into your shoes and no more cold feet when walking in winter!
Too good to be true? I was sceptical, and so I tested them several times. What a miracle – indeed they worked like a charm! My feet felt nice and warm whenever I was walking purely from the pressure of my own body weight.
Now you may wonder: If they are that good, why have you never heard about them before? Because they are a relatively new Swiss invention and have so far focused their distribution on Switzerland. However, international customers can simply order them online.
NB: I am not in any way benefiting from orders. My only hope is to make you aware of what I believe to be the best product in the market.
Would I recommend chili-feet for Kilimanjaro?
Depends. I went during a relatively benign season with plenty of sunshine, so I only needed them for the final summit night. We ascended to the summit as a group and our pace was set by our slowest hiker who had real problems with the altitude. Thus, our pace for the final overnight push to the summit could no longer be described as a walking pace. It literally had reduced to a ‘step–break-to-breathe–step–break-to-breathe’ kind of pace. Therefore, chili-feet didn’t work for me during summit night because we were literally not walking, in a continuous motion that is, at least not fast enough to create enough pressure. However, other people were overtaking us at a more steady pace, so it might have worked for them.
-> If you go in an average group, or if you doubt your own physical strength or your body’s ability to acclimatize, you might be better off with warming insoles that don’t rely on your body pressure.
-> If you are an experienced hiker confident of your ability to acclimatize, I’d recommend you to try chili-feet. Should I ever go again in a private hike when I can follow my own pace, I will definitely use them again.
Would I recommend chili-feet for any other cold climate walks or hikes?
YES, definitely. With a normal walking pace, they work like a charm.
Kilimanjaro is an exception as it is the highest mountain you can literally hike up to. For any other walks or hikes elsewhere, that will by default be at lower altitudes and thus at a normal walking pace, I’ve tested chili-feet several times and they’ve always kept my feet nice and warm.
Best of all, their use is not limited to extreme outdoors activities. They also come in a thin version that fits into normal shoes, so no more cold feet when walking to work in nice dress shoes, when strolling through town in pretty boots, when going for your winter walk (or jog) . . . Wouldn’t that be nice?
Lacking ideas to come up with Christmas presents for you loved ones? Perhaps you want to give them a pair of warm feet this year 🙂
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