One approach is to acclimate. I live in central NY and walked home from school (~30 minutes) every day of the year in t-shirt and jeans. My body adapted to the cold so, even though my ears and, to a lesser extent, fingers were being frozen off, I was sufficiently warm.
The one thing you don’t want to do is overdress so you wind up sweating. In particular, you’re going to want to wear less than you would if you were just standing around outside. If you’re going to be at different periods of activity, then layering is a must so you can layer down before the activity and layer up after. If not, layering is still a good idea.
Boots should be insulated, waterproof, and thick-soled. Mittens have less surface area than gloves and therefore keep hands warmer. Hats should cover ears. Pants should go most of the way down boots and belong on the outside, so if you walk through snow, it doesn’t get caught on top of the boot and fall in, and generally benefit from being waterproof. Avoid cotton (it absorbs and holds onto moisture and loses all insulative properties when wet.)
This is likely overkill. You are going from indoors to plowed streets to indoors. There’s things that you must do if you’re going to survive multi-day winter camping trips, but “put on things to cover parts that are getting cold” is all you really need.
The important thing about avoiding sweating is, you need to notice that you’re too warm and unbundle just a little so you aren’t, before you get wet. Once you’re sweating, it’s too late and you’re kind of screwed.
One approach is to acclimate. I live in central NY and walked home from school (~30 minutes) every day of the year in t-shirt and jeans. My body adapted to the cold so, even though my ears and, to a lesser extent, fingers were being frozen off, I was sufficiently warm.
The one thing you don’t want to do is overdress so you wind up sweating. In particular, you’re going to want to wear less than you would if you were just standing around outside. If you’re going to be at different periods of activity, then layering is a must so you can layer down before the activity and layer up after. If not, layering is still a good idea.
Boots should be insulated, waterproof, and thick-soled. Mittens have less surface area than gloves and therefore keep hands warmer. Hats should cover ears. Pants should go most of the way down boots and belong on the outside, so if you walk through snow, it doesn’t get caught on top of the boot and fall in, and generally benefit from being waterproof. Avoid cotton (it absorbs and holds onto moisture and loses all insulative properties when wet.)
This is likely overkill. You are going from indoors to plowed streets to indoors. There’s things that you must do if you’re going to survive multi-day winter camping trips, but “put on things to cover parts that are getting cold” is all you really need.
The important thing about avoiding sweating is, you need to notice that you’re too warm and unbundle just a little so you aren’t, before you get wet. Once you’re sweating, it’s too late and you’re kind of screwed.