Gore-tex Boots or Neoprene Socks?

You will never know until you try.

Cheers

I’ll toss in another choice, gore-tex socks.

Curious, what do you use sock wise?

What is the goal here? I assume it’s warm feet all day.

1. GTX boots to keep the inside of the boots dry and warmer.

2. I am of the 3 mm neoprene diver’s sox “persuasion”. I wear thin poly liner socks under them and change them out with a fresh pair every night when winter camping. (wet, skanky liner socks go in a ZipLoc freezer bag.)  Wear heavy wool sleeping socks over the poly liners.

At night turn the diver’s sox inside-out to dry in your tent for 15 minutes then put them in the foot of your winter sleeping bag along with your boot liners. Of course your boot liners will still be dry because you wore neoprene VBLs.

Even if you get water in your boots the divers’ sox will keep you warm, something that cannot be said of GTX socks. To me GTX socks are as useless as teats on a boar.

But always wear gaiters in rainy weather when using GTX boots. Keeping rain out of your boots is a no-brainer.

Thanks for your replies.  All good suggestions.

I wear thick Smartwool socks.  I also wear rain pants, so no need for gaiters.

Not sure I understand the difference between neoprene and Gore-tex.

Have I ever actually seen Gore-tex?  No, because it’s always sandwiched in between layers.  Neoprene?  Yes.  It’s wet suit material.

I had an L.L. Bean jacket with Gore-tex that worked for a few years and then slowly gave out.  Back then, I thought it was a coating.

Thanks for your replies.  All good suggestions.

I wear thick Smartwool socks.  I also wear rain pants, so no need for gaiters.

Not sure I understand the difference between neoprene and Gore-tex.

Have I ever actually seen Gore-tex?  No, because it’s always sandwiched in between layers.  Neoprene?  Yes.  It’s wet suit material.

I had an L.L. Bean jacket with Gore-tex that worked for a few years and then slowly gave out.  Back then, I thought it was a coating.

Anyone think my theory is possible: about Gore-tex failing when it creases too many times?

@Christine:
For three season hiking, I normally hike in a mesh low top or mesh mid hiking shoe. Stream crossings and goretex linings are not a marriage made in heaven.

My feet seem to be getting colder and colder lately. This winter for hikes when I expect cold and rain, I opted for a Goretex lined mid top hiking shoe from Merrill, the Capra Sport Mid. It is only few grams heavier than a pair of Innov8 mid tops I was wearing last winter but the Merrells have a much stiffer midsole that I prefer. The shoes seem relatively water proof.
The front of my house flooded in our California storms a few days ago and I was walking though 4 or 5 inches of water and some leakage occurred. I suspect this is because the seams are not taped but who would want taped seams in a hiking boot. In principle, I agree with the recommendation to wear shortie gaiters like stated above. But the gaiter also prevents venting from the top of your boot which can cause perspiration to accumulate in your sock and boot. So it is a tradeoff. I tried the neoprene sock route for winter hiking on snow and just did not like it. Your experience may vary.

If you struggle with circulation issues or just have cold feat, neo socks are probably not for you.  Sadly the alternatives are not great.  Goretex does seem to wear faster when subject to flexion, I’ve yet to have a non-leather pair of Gtex shoes that didn’t leak at least a bit after a year.

IF they fit yr foot goretex socks will keep u mostly dry

however you need to change yr technique …. Only wear liners or lightweight socks underneath em … Basically treat em as a VBL

if water get inside em, simply take em off turn em inside out, wipe em down and put on yr spare pair of liner/light socks … You can dry thr damp pair by sleeping with em

With proper technique yr feet should stay mostly dry even in multiple days of constant cold rain

the temperature range is limited however 30-50F … Any hotter and youll sweat in em

Make sure u try em on before u buy em … And from somewhere with no questions asked returns and free return shipping

;)

So, let me get this straight:

Thin wool socks > VBL>shoe?

Thick wool socks>VBL>shoe?

Am I going to have to go up a half size on my shoe for a neoprene or gore-tex sock?  I went out and looked at Sealskinz, and they were holy-hell thick.  What are they made of?

Sealskinz are Gore-Texesque

I have not tried Gore-tex socks, but they seem not to cheap.  I suspect they don’t vent too well, especially inside a boot that is not wicking to the outside.  If you want to try in the narrow temperature range, just use plastic bags as your vapor barrier.  Thin socks > VB > cushion socks.  If you were wearing any type of thicker sock before you can find a combo that probably won’t size you up.  That’s pretty cheap to try.

I’m also inexperienced and  suspect of neoprene for the purpose you suggest.  I have used wetsuits made from Neoprene for many years.  Wetsuits fill with water and hold it against your skin.  Your body heats the water and you feel more comfortable versus just being in the cold water.  Any breeze and the water starts to cool off from the outside.  Inside a boot, you would presumably be dry, until you sweat or have water seep in from the outside.  I think the Neoprene will attract and trap the water in your boot and against your skin.  It sounds clammy at best.  Like wetsuits, it relies on your body heat to warm up the water.  I just don’t see these drying out – ever, until it’s dry and sunny and you don’t need them anymore.

I converted to the non WP shoes years ago, but I do wish I had a waterproof/breathable boot for the times when it’s continuously wet and cold.  You said your backpacking boots are still waterproof, but heavy.  There are lighter boots that can be waxed or have a liner, and I’m sure they will work for awhile.  Maybe the lighter they are the quicker you will need to replace or reseal them.  I just started looking at Lems Boulder boot for this purpose.  They are light and have a wide toe box, but probably don’t have the cushioning I need.  I may also try some WP/breathable Keens – which fit me well or maybe Solomon, which I saw some good reviews for.  They are not light by trail-runner standards, but for the times you know it will be wet and cold and unlikely to become dry and warm they may work.

If you are talking really wet and cold, check out a recent video by Shug on having warm feet when camping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seqBY9VM1bs.  It’s about sleeping warm and standing warm, more than walking warm.  Also it’s not about lightweight camping for him in Winter, but he is a backpacker, was an UL backpacker, still relatively lightweight, and you might find it useful (and funny).  Shug has many good videos – and he camps in the Minnesota Winter so I think he’s got the cred.

Be nice to get some more info from the OP. Where she hikes and what kind of conditions. The beautiful thing about the gore-tex sock route is that you only wear them when you need them.

don’t know anybody that would wear vbl socks above freezing.

Sealskinz are Gore-Tex

No, they’re not- They use Porelle and are thicker because the face fabric is knit but they also absorb lots of water therefore. And, they are not durable and can start to leak after only 2 days.

corrected Woubier. Mine though have lasted years. But anywhoo there are goretex socks as well.

Rocky goretex socks are much more durable than any plastic bags

also yr foot slides around much less in the shoe as the gore sock has texture and isnt smooth

use synth or a synth/wool blend …. Only liners or thin socks, not thick ones

if you can wear a thick wool sock with yr normal shoe the a thin sock + gore sock should work fine

as i said its a fairly specializes piece that golden in cold wet conditons where the trail is basically a swamp and theres many small creeks

;)

I’ve come to the conclusion after many years…. that wet feet at least some of the time go with the territory.   It isn’t hard to deal with for short stretches.     Long cold multi-day treks are where managing your feet becomes more of an issue.

I’ve found no system that is 100% so I just bring extra socks and rotate them into drying mode.   Body heat will dry them given time and proximity to your body.

I use old school Ragg wool socks, extra thick, all year.    I use no liners of any sort but I switch to all leather/gortex footwear in the winter and use gaiters.

I have used a neoprene sock/running shoe combination for long trips in Alaska; for example, I walked 65 miles in Katmai NP a couple years ago.  There was a lot of marsh/bog/stream crossing hiking and the combo worked great – warm, fairly dry feet.

Caveat – the neoprene sock will be wet inside from foot sweat; it is vital that at the end of the day you turn the socks inside out. The danger is trenchfoot, so it’s important to dry off your feet every night. I have used a thin liner sock sometimes – I like knee high nylons which make it easy to put the socks on and off.  The  liner sock needs to be dried out every night as well.

I chose running shoes because they are lightweight and dried out (mostly) overnight as well.  I learned this system from the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic which is an annual point to point wilderness race that usually includes some packrafting – most participants used this combo.  Cabelas has neoprene socks pretty cheap.

You may want to stick with your minimalist boots. They only last a year but same with a typical trail runner.

You can’t compare them with heavy leather boots that can last a lifetime. The foam breaks down over 500 miles or so and continuing to use them causes foot problems once the support is gone.

I’ve never found a full-leather boot that last a lifetime.    Most of them get me 3-5 years but they stay water-resistant much longer than fabric boots.    The Gortex membrane starts to leak after 6-12 months in every set I’ve ever bought.

I don’t do the trail runner thing but I have experimented with boots that drain well and dry fast vs. full leather.    In the summer I use a boot that drains and I don’t worry about my feet getting wet.    In the winter I care about my feet getting wet so I do what I can to keep them dry.

For those folks in canuckistan …. If u buy ur stuff from MEC … Any leaking membrane is covered for years (as long as its not totally worn out or obviously self inflicted damage)

i either buy my WPB from mec or unlimited warranty companies like OR

;)

Since you’re curious, I go to Scotland every year, sometimes summer, sometimes winter.  Gorgeous hiking, and wild camping is allowed BY LAW almost anywhere (except for obnoxious places where a person ought to know better than to pitch a tent).  People are avid hikers and campers there.  Check out this site:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/

It’s the kind of place where, if you wait until it stops raining to do something, you’re never going to do anything.  So, you just go.  Even if it’s not raining, there’s a lot of cloud cover, so its hard to dry your stuff.   Plus, the ground is boggy in places, and you never know when — goosh — you’re in water.

Nor did I find fabric shoes with Gore-tex to be very waterproof.

So, here’s what I’m going to do:  Try every suggestion listed here, take whatever works best with my lightweight shoes — plus pack my trusty (but heavy) Zamberlans, too.

For wet foot canyon trips in Utah I wear draining trail runners with neoprene socks, letting feet dry out each night. For occasional wet water crossings I take my goretex socks and only use them at night to keep my feet dry inside my wet shoes, or I take a water crossing shoe and change into that for the crossing, keeping my hiking shoes dry.

I have been through numerous pairs of gore-tex lined boots, mostly because I work in hiking boots and the boots that fit and otherwise suit my needs often turn out to be gore-tex lined. My experience is that the waterproofness never lasts as long as the boot does. Plus the boots get pretty saturated with water even when they are new and waterproof, since the gore-tex is laminated to the lining of  the boots, thus the outer fabric and/or leather absorbs water. Base on this my take is that I would not count on gore-tex boots  for cold, wet weather. I’d be much more inclined to go for gore-tex socks in a running shoe (drains better, weighs less, doesn’t freeze quite as hard overnight, socks are cheaper to replace when they start to leak) or maybe neoprene socks (though I haven’t tried them). I have Sealskinz socks, and they are not really waterproof. For a few hours they are pretty good; after that they are saturated and take a long time to dry. So okay for dayhikes, not so much for backpacking.

I have also done some hiking in snow and wet trails in just wool socks and trail runners, and that works fine up to a point, the point being I can’t stop for more than a few minutes unless I put on a bunch more clothing to keep warm, because my feet are being cooled pretty drastically. Lunch breaks get to be pretty problematic, and you gotta be good and warm when you start out in the morning so that you have the circulation already running hot. So I’m not so keen on that mode.

VBL I think can work, though if you have sweaty feet like I do it’s kind of complicated to manage. If I did want to go VBL I’d get VBL sox from Warmlite, get 2 pair, one larger, and wear poly liner sock>VBL>warm sock>vbl>shoe. That way the warm sock is protected from moisture from both sides and never gets wet. Heard of a guy who did a 30-day ski tour that way with one pair of wool socks that never got dirty or wet. He only had to change the liners socks.

I have good experiences with VBL socks for winter hiking. – For overnight and longer, I carry two pair of liner socks so I always start with a dry liner – the same caveat applies as with neoprene socks – turn them inside out and dry them every night.  I found that my feet were warmer with them.