Any recommendations for a cold weather hand sanitizer/wipes/soap that will function in 10F to 20F? I'm not a germaphobe but in going over some of the details of my upcoming trip to climb Aconcagua I was thinking I may want something of this nature. Or maybe they aren't something that's required or something that people bring, dunno (shrug).

What do people do if anything? Having to carry your "stuff" off of the mtn means you're going to be handling it daily. So I was thinking some sort of disinfecting wipes might be a good idea but don't know how they'd function in the cold. Or am I over thinking my sh!t.... literally

should an engineer be asking this question? ethyl alcohol doesn't freeze until -100F or something.

but to answer the question, any hand sanitizer will do as are baby wipes.

This is something I did note on a trip up Denali. When the temps really started dropping the generic hand sanitizers separated. You still have the alcohol and it was fluid but it was not thickened at all so it poured out of bottle too fast. Better brands like Purell kept there integrity even as temps dropped to -20 and below. Not a big deal but for me the small additional cost would be worth it.

werefrog wrote:This is something I did note on a trip up Denali. When the temps really started dropping the generic hand sanitizers separated. You still have the alcohol and it was fluid but it was not thickened at all so it poured out of bottle too fast. Better brands like Purell kept there integrity even as temps dropped to -20 and below. Not a big deal but for me the small additional cost would be worth it.

Perfect! Thanks werefrog, that's exactly what I was looking for.

For the record me iz an structural engineer. I play with stuff and stuff

I doubt it's a big deal in the case of small amounts of hand sanitizer, but keep in mind that anything that evaporates has a cooling effect. (This is also good to remember when handling stove fuel - a spill onto bare skin can be a problem in really cold weather.)

I'd stick with cheap, thin TP (less bulky) and use a little liquid sanitizer at the end, rather than carrying pre-moistened wipes (up and down the mountain).