Anyone else had frostnip in their toes? I came back from the ‘puffer with numb toes, and they swelled up once they’d warmed up after I got home. No blistering or anything like that but they were quite red and painful. 10 days later the swelling’s gone down and they’re a normal colour/size but they’re still numb/tingling, like permanent pins and needles and it’s bloody annoying. I assume I’ve got a case of frostnip, anyone else had this? Will the feeling return or am I doomed to tingly toes forever? More importantly would going out on a ride in cold conditions be a stupid thing to do? I really don’t want to wait til spring to get back on the bike again.

I’ve got this – it started during the Festive 500 last year (2013) and took about 3 weeks to settle down after that. However, with the first cold day of the autumn this year, it’s come back and not really gone away all winter. My toes are now always a dusky purple colour and, after a cold ride, they go white then dark purple as they warm up. The skin is shiny and swollen over them too, which makes me think there is actually some tissue loss.

Gonna go to the GP at some point and see if there’s anything they can do…

Tl;dr version – The feeling will return eventually. I’d make sure you wrap up extra warm on any rides you do in the near future to prevent any future damage (I feel like mine might have been made worse by repeated rides in the cold).

I had this a few years ago after getting my feet wet and then riding around in sub-zero temperatures. It lasted about a month. But they didn’t change colour, just hurt a bit… 😯

I did some fingers a couple of years back on a snowy ride with a stupdenous amount of faffing. Can’t really tell you how long it took to get all the feeling back, several months anyway- I kind of stopped noticing then one day realised they were almost back to normal.

After extensive questioning of Dr Google, I think I actually have chilblains .

I had frostnip and it was very similar to what you describe- I got normal feeling back after 2 years. Surprised you got so cold at this year’s Puffer- were you in normal socks? I got mine wading through snow for 15 miles on the hills above Loch Laggan.

Had winter boots and woolly socks on with neoprene overshoes! They felt fine on the bike, I think it might have been the standing around in trainers with normal socks on afterwards. Bloody stupid mistake.

2 years 😯 !

It depends how long you were stood about for. I got mine when I was standing in snow at least a foot deep for around 3 hours, do you think it was that long? May just be chilblains by the sound of it.

Guys, sounds like a, ” non freezing cold weather”, injury your describing. Quite a lot of info on the tinternet about this and how to treat it. The MoD are quite hot on it as it can have an adverse effect on careers if not treated properly.

Was stood about for about for about 3-4 hours. Not in snow but on the frozen wet ground around the transition area and the fire-road where the vans were parked. Don’t think it’s chilblains as it doesn’t look like it from the pictures on the web I’ve seen but I could be wrong. More googling required I think. I’ll give it another week and see if there’s any improvement, if not I might have to go through the hassle of getting a GP appointment.

I get chilblains. I can go out on the bike in subzero temps, or walk the dogs for hours in the snow,provided I keep my feet warm,but 10 mins in the yard faffing around in slippers and they’ll come on. They’re a bugger to get rid of.
Thick fleecy socks with thin merinos below, AND merino long johns to keep your blood warm on the way down does the trick.
No nipping out to get logs in just your crocs, or they’l be back again!
Once you have them, you have them!

I got frost nip in my right “ring” finger (if that makes sense) on a six hour ride through the Japanese mountains in a blizzard and deep snow. It was only supposed to be a two-hour commute…

I got so cold I wanted to fall asleep under a bridge, and had to pee on my hands when I finally got home to defrost them enough to unlock my front door 😯

That joint still swells up painfully in the cold now, or when I put pressure on it a lot (e.g. swimming or climbing) , seven years later.