When going into the backcountry, your feet are the most important part of your system and often the weakest link. What I put on my feet is of huge importance. Prior to completing the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic in 2011, I thought that foot fatigue and damage limited performance more definitively than muscular fatigue. I now know that while this does happen, it's not necessarily always the case. Thorough, well-considered training of your feet and legs is one step towards eliminating this barrier to wilderness performance. A solid footwear system is another.
Preemptive foot care is vital because getting anything beyond trivial maladies to heal while on the go is difficult. Footwear is one of the few “no fail” pieces of backcountry gear. A torn raincoat, punctured Thermarest, or ripped sleeping bag would be a nuisance, but not life threatening, and field repairable. Catastrophic shoe (or backpack) failure has the potential to seriously ruin your day. This article is written around the assumption that preemptive foot care and bomber footwear are interrelated prolegomena to backcountry enjoyment.
This article is limited to shoulder season footwear for a light and fast approach to wilderness travel. Shoulder season is here defined as lower 48, Rocky Mountains centric. For me, shoulder season is too cold and wet for just wool socks, with snow possible but temps much below 20 (F) unlikely. Stream crossings, wet postholing, and soaked brush make Goretex socks sub-optimal. In Montana, this period is normally late April through mid June and September through mid November, depending on year-to-year variation and altitude. Fast and light simply means this: enough continuous, all day motion to provide a dependable source of warmth. The systems outlined below depend on this, and the level of exertion required will vary substantially person to person. If these conditions and this approach sound like they’d fit well with your hiking, read on. If you hike on dry trails most of the time, stay away from gnarly weather, and take hour-long tea breaks while backpacking, this article is not meant for you.
My system is built around simplicity and the ability to keep feet warm by generating heat. If you prefer to travel slower, or have cold feet, some of the ideas outlined in Rietveld and Reichl’s Lightweight Footwear Systems for Snow Travel or Ryan Jordan’s Spring Footwear would be worth looking at. I find Jordan’s overboot system too hot for just about any conditions in which I won’t be wearing ski boots, and, as discussed below, merely relying on thick wool socks for insulation from the cold (as Jordan does in his lighter system) can be effective but is not as good as light neoprene socks. Rietveld and Reichl’s systems are light and flexible, but the less-warm incarnations rely on Goretex socks for water protection. As outlined below, my shoulder season hiking invariably involves wading streams far deeper than Goretex socks are tall. For this terrain, neoprene socks are more effective. Neoprene socks are also very durable, whereas Goretex socks are notorious for loosing their waterproofing in high wear areas like toes and the heel. Many users will find the comprehensive system outlined below to be more effective and efficient.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Principle #1: Wear light, non-waterproof trail shoes that fit well and provide optimal traction for and protection from the expected terrain.
- Principle #2: Wear gaiters.
- Principle #3: Have an outside-the-box sock quiver.
- Principle #4: Give your feet time to recover.
- Review:
# WORDS: 3020
# PHOTOS: 8
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Fast and Light Shoulder Season Footwear Tips
Regarding Flat feet–it's important to strengthen the feet as much as possible. One exercise is to put a towel on the floor and use your toes to scrunch and draw the towel towards you (put a weight on the far end of the towel.) Also, walking barefoot uphill in sand. Wearing arch supports can really help prevent foot fatigue, and they improve stride efficiency by providing a more functional lever to push off with, and to edge with on sidehills. Flat feet tend to be pretty hypermobile and apropulsive.
I recently started doing Yamuna Foot Fitness (the "foot waking" program) which strengthens all the foot muscles and lower leg muscles while adding flexibility to the calves/Achilles. It would also help strengthen weak ankles. You use knobby half-balls, about the size of a grapefruit half, and roll your feet over it in multiple positions articulating each toe and working every muscle in the foot and lower leg. You start sitting and work up to standing. The knobs really hurt at first, so start with thick socks. You can get the Foot Waking program and DVD online (Amazon, etc)
Skin–A book called "Fixing Your Feet" is also great for tons of advice about toughening up the skin, etc. A lot of it is more anecdotal than evidence-based, but it's nice to learn what some ultra-runners do to toughen up their skin and prevent blisters– with tea, alcohol; some use drying agents and some swear by lubricants. My favorite is the ultra-runner from S. America who marches in a washtub filled with rice. That would strengthen the feet as well, I'd imagine. Cheers.
I do not wear knee high socks, but just knee high gaiters do the job for me when it is not too cold. They even keep my feet reasonable warm in cold river crossings and double as lower rain protection.
I need such gaiters for bushwhacking and sharp vegetation in NZ anyway.
As mentioned earlier, goretex socks and shoes would only make sense if water never gets inside them.
Thanks Mike I appreciate your insight – fording is unlikely as long as I traverse the logs and snow bridges appropriately :) so I think I'll give the trail runners a shot. Cheers
So I suppose there's not too many good/fast methods to dry shoes/socks out once they are wet..?
Yeah, it's called a fire. Be careful though, you can really harm or destroy clothing if you put it too close to the fire. Obviously for some this might not be a reasonable option, for whatever reason. But it's definitley the best way.
Has anyone tried thinning down some silicone and brushing it on their shoes? I haven't tried it but was thinking it might strengthen the mesh a little and have the added benefit of reducing water absorption in the mesh. If it was really nice and thin it seems like it would add minimal weight.
A fire might work good, but you don't always have a lot of control over the temperature that hits the shoes. Lots of shoes and boots are glued together, and some of the glues will fail after they've been heated just a little too much.
–B.G.–
Silicone won't adhere well to nylon. Aquaseal or Shoe Goo works well as a reinforcement. I use the former full strength, but put the tube in hot water for a minute to facilitate easy and thin application. If you put too much on excessively porous mesh, you risk creating a bumpy texture inside which can cause abrasion.
There are lots of ways to dry shoes, most revolve around fire. Be careful, melting the sole off is not cool. Hot (but not too hot) rocks placed in the shoes are safer and work well. Sheets of newspaper wadded up inside are surprisingly effective, and can be burned after use. Mostly I just don't worry about it.
Good point Bob. You would have to be careful with shoes, and extremely so with leather boots. I was thinking more about socks and clothing though. During long winter nights hanging around the fire I usually end up wearing my sweaty layers dry.
> So I suppose there's not too many good/fast methods to dry shoes/socks out once they are wet..?
The best way is usually wearing them while walking.
Btw – you don't need to dry your socks & shoes overnight. Just don't let them freeze. A large plastic bag placed under the end of your quilt works quite well for that.
Cheers
PS: Dave C: +1
To abrogate the prolegomena, or cut to the chase, this is an excellent article.
I have no experience with neoprene – how breathable is it? Accordingly, is there an upper bound to the comfort? At what temp should I expect to switch to wool? I know everyone's different, just looking for anecdotal experience.
So what you're saying is that those canvas shoes I had when I was a kid… The ones with rubber soles… Those are the best shoes ever!
I don't bother with drying footwear, they will get after less than 1 hour on the next day anyway.
You can walk socks dry amazingly fast.
In regards to breathability of neoprene:
It breathes fine, I don't wear it when it is warmer than 55 F and I don't have to cross really cold and big rivers.
It is either just one pair of socks for me or the nsr hydroskins. Note though, that everyone has different feet and I get warm fast when I am walking.
Hi Brian. A website I've found helpful and comprehensive is naturalrunning.com tag words for a good strengthening video on YouTube are stability and mobility for healthy natural running There are also several feet strenthening videos on YouTube
I'd like to emphasize how important it is to go slow with transitioning from a thicker to a lower heel. One wouldn't walk into a gym for the first time and do 5,000 curls and that's what it's like for calve muscles to go out and say run or hike even five miles with a change in heel height. Calves do get sore at first. This is pointed out in a good podcast 'Dr. Mark Hits One Outta the Park' art and science of running form.
A personal benefit that I've experienced with a zero drop heel is a life long menescus problem in my knee has dissapeared.
Edited for being all thumbs on my phone
Nice article. I'm a big fan of principle #4. This past summer I got into the routine of taking off my shoes and socks and letting my feet air out every time I took a break. Definitely a nice little recharge each time.
Sorry, slight deviating comment to follow:
“April in Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho.”
What? I didn’t see you there? Of course it was kind of empty. I was with my cousin there at the same time.
You get the nice foot workout there:
This is one of the few times I will not be spotted with sandals because of continuous 20F cold. I used boots!! Sometimes, in the winter I wear North Face Nuptse boots. Yes, my winter weight footwear is LIGHTER than my 3-season wear:
10oz for North Face Nuptse
12oz for Teva TerraFi3.
I like your point of fitting to thin and thick socks w/o blood strangualtion. One of the joys of my footwear is I can go from a thin nylon sock to a thick wool sock with a down bootie pulled over that! And then I can quickly cinch firm for backpacking; and totally loosen up at rest for a comfy slipper feel.
May everyone find their footwear zen,
-Barry
Awesome Barry, glad someone else is backpacking there in spring. My wife and I are looking forward to doing another trip this year. A bit out of the way, but very much worth the effort.
Nothing truly new in the article that hasn't been hashed out before.
I simply wear these with non-gortex shoes and tall gaiters in those conditions and it works well in the Northern Rockies. I use a 0.4oz liner sock under the gortex socks:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/rocky_gore-tex_sock_spotlite_review.html
But it would have been nice for a few photos of shoes-N-socks and such. OK, back to the thread. Or NM.
I agree Warren, but based on a few posts this was apparently a re-hash of an old article. Maybe that is why there were no relevant photos.
"rehash" or not this is the kind of article I appreciate and had previously come to expect from BPL; I've been unable to solicit any feedback previously regarding the recent article quality, but it's been my impression that the subject matter of too many of the articles in the past year have been peripheral to the core audience. Thanks for the article Dave, here's hoping for more for the core.
The core of this article was first publicly presented in the aforementioned blog post (in the fall of 2010). Since then my experience has only confirmed most of the core tenants, ergo I saw no need to change them. Nor rewrite them, as I was quite pleased with my original efforts. I have more recently been experimenting with ever more minimalist shoes, as well as discussing how other hikers have found this sock system. Just about the only reason anyone who actually tried it didn't like it was if their preferred hiking pace and/or circulatory issues demanded more warmth.
As for pictures of socks and beat up shoes, I trust in Google to guide readers. It's harder to evoke things like a mountain snowpack in full melt to folks who have never seen it. That and my ongoing goal to be at least as inspirational in gear articles as I am informative and descriptive.
Perhaps I should have embedded this video to make the point more emphatic: https://vimeo.com/11957531
Minimalist highly breathable shoes paired with a liner sock, thicker wool sock, and gortex sock
This was a strategy I first learned from Dave's blog. For what it's worth, the X-country is way too narrow a shoe for my foot, but I really like oversized MT 101s for winter. Just enough of stiffness for snowshoeing.
The article doesn't have to be new to be highly relevant to our community. I'm sure there are many out there who are investing in expensive boots for winter when they could be going cheaper, lighter, and more comfortably this way. These are the kinds of technique-oriented articles that make BPL worth the money for me.
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