BTW, no one has mentioned this yet, but most men seem to have ths macho thing going on about how they only need a thin base layer, a midweight mid layer and then a shell and that seems to keep them warm down to 0F (I hear this all the time on Epic and on Teton Gravity). My repsonse to that is they must either be skiing very inefficiently (and therefore generating huge body heat) or they must have some nice extra padding on them that keeps them warm. I need a lot more than that to keep my core warm on the mountain. In general if your feet and hands are getting cold, your core is not warm enough. Your core may feel fine but that is because your body has sent all the blood to the core to keep it warm. Your core feels fine but your extermities are turning blue. I ski in Montana on days when it is -15-20F before wind chil (luckily the wind isn't too bad in MT) and my feet and hands never get cold because I have dressed so warmly on my core. Get the boot glove, get the hotronics, but also add a layer or two or three to the core and see if this doesn't make keeping your feet warm quite a bit easier.
For me on a normal 18-22F degree day in MT I wear a midweight base layer (Mountain Hardware Butterman shirt) a Patgonia down sweater and a Patgonia down jacket on top. I'm never cold and I'm also rarely hot (which is easily rectified with pit zips or by taking off the head gator and or unzipping my collar some). My feet are almost never cold and I don't own hottronics only boot gloves.
Keep your core and your feet and hands have a shot. When your core is not wram enough (even if you don't feel cold on your core) your feet and hands have no shot!!
Everyone handles the cold differently. My youngest will remove his jacket anything over 20 degrees...he's like that all winter long even when we aren't skiing-wears shorts to school in January 9we live in western, MA not florida) but he is miserable in the heat.
I find as long as I'm windproof I'm comfortable. Though, I've taken to wearing a thin balaclava under my helmet on any day under 28 degrees.
My wife gets cold really easily and bundles up on days most folks are in vests and short sleeves.
It's not a matter of skill or weight, just unique physiology. It certainly isn't a reflection on manliness-being cold or being warm.
But the advice about the warm core is good advice--however, for some, it's not enough.
Cold feet is a tough thing for skiing...I know more than a few people who eventually gave it up because they couldn't solve that condition (with the boot glove or hot tronics).
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