From: Leo Broukhis
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 11:05:31 -0700
Subject: Vacation report: snow barefooting, etc.

After not visiting my country of origin for 2.5 years, I went there (to 
Moscow, Russia) for vacation (3/8-3/31). The spring in Moscow seemed to be an 
early one at first: the snow started to melt in late February, but in early 
March it snowed again, the temperature went down and stayed around
freezing or slightly below for the whole month of March;
pretty fortunate for me.

It snowed the first time the next morning after my arrival and I didn't
miss the occasion; I knew that the the uncomfortable numbness in my feet
will go away and kept walking around the apartment building my parents
live in. The fresh snow felt great; after a couple of minutes I thought
that I could go like that indefinitely - my feet became warm and pink
in color, but decided not to push my luck the first time and returned
back home. One person I've met during my walk made no comments
and I doubt he noticed my bare feet at all.

The numbing effect disappeared after a couple of days; by that time
I've noticed that the foot tops get conditioned as well and enjoyed
watching the "miracle thaw" effect on my foot tops when walking
on ancle-thick snow. It's even funny to walk wearing shoes, then
take them off and continue as if nothing changed. Well, it's cold,
but it's pleasantly cold.

Several days after Hisielinde Halgi
and I arranged a meeting (I brought him 3 copies of "The Barefoot Hiker")
and we went to "Serebryany Bor" ("Silver Pine Forest" park) on the
outskirts of Moscow, traversed by Moscova river that has many bays
and little islands there. The ice was still thick and hard after an
unusually cold winter and despite a short warm-up in February, so there
were several amateur winter-fishermen sitting near their ice holes.
The temperature was just above freezing.

We removed our shoes and approached them: "How's fishing?" -- "OK",
no reaction to our bare feet. We continued our walk on the icy
surface; there were patches of perfectly smooth ice and I tried some
barefoot ice skating - feels funny and very cold because of prolonged
contact with ice and rather large contact area. Our "goal" was to
meet people and watch their reactions. There weren't many people
walking on ice, so we returned to the ground and continued our quest.
All we got is a grandmother saying to her granddaughter, pointing
to us (not literally, but the general idea): "Don't come close to
the water; you see those two men apparently got their feet wet,
so they have to walk barefoot.")

Finally it was time for me to go on, we put our shoes on and got to
a subway station. My estimation of time we spent barefoot - a little
less than half an hour.

After that I was doing my barefoot walks almost every day, often
in the park along the Volga-Moscova canal near my parent's house or
when going to a subway station (7 minutes away) in the morning
and back at night. People that
noticed my lack of footwear usually tred not to make eye contact,
but if they did, they asked nothing and I just smiled. Sometimes
they stopped and watched me go with disbelief (mostly women in
their 60's+); once I heard one such woman to mumble something like
"He's completely out of his mind." Some people asked if
it's cold; "no" was my usual answer. One young boy asked me
if I'm nuts, same answer. :-) One woman apparently tried to be
wit and asked if my feet are hot; I said "no, and not cold either".

My walks in the park and on the canal were quite long; once I met
several men - "polar bears" (in Russian, they are called "walruses")
that were making a hole in the canal surface for swimming.
They were surprised by my ability to walk barefoot for kilometers.
I explained them that if the only uncovered part
of my body is my feet, I wouldn't get a frostbite. (Actually,
during one of my barefoot walks in the park after a particularly
heavy snowfall I decided to try to take of my jacket and shirt
and lie and roll on the snow bare-chested. It felt good, much more
pleasant than a cold shower, but the tips of my toes started to
freeze and I had to run back home. I don't know whether this was
the reason, or the fact that it was my only walk when I didn't
have any shoes with me; the psychological effect of always
having a resort - in this case, shoes - may have some so{ul,le}-warming
effect.)

Most these walks were during Celsius-nonnegative temperatures (or maybe
1-2 degrees below freezing), and my walks in the park were at least
30 minutes long and a couple of times 45-50 minutes long (I felt like
I can do more), but one time, several days before my return,
I went to the park when it was probably about -5 C (20 F) and quite windy.
After 30 minutes I felt uncomfortable (although no signs of decreased
blood flow were visible) and had to put my shoes on. It turned out that there
were symptoms not of a frostbite, but of a starting blister:
the skin freezes to the smooth packed-snow road surface for a split second,
and is therefore "ripped off" a little with each step.

Overall, I consider barefoot snow-walking much more healthy than
barefoot hot-asphalt-or-hiking-trail-walking.
After a week of regular snow barefooting the skin on my soles got
thick (snow is quite abrasive, especially refrozen one after a
freezing rain) and smooth. Water is the best moisturizer: I brought
a jar of "Bag Balm" with myself but never had to use it.

Happy snow barefooting,

	Leo