Tell me your favorite hiking socks for a drying time experiment.

Darn Tough Men’s Hiker Quarter Midweight Hiking Sock
https://darntough.com/products/mens-merino-wool-hiker-quarter-midweight-hiking-socks

Injinji Run Original Weight Mini-Crew
https://www.injinji.com/run-original-weight-mini-crew.html

NRS HydroSkin 0.5 Wetsocks
https://www.nrs.com/product/30011.02/nrs-hydroskin-05-wetsocks

— Rex

You didn’t specify a weight or type.  I go heavy on socks: the Falke TK4 over a Bogg liner is my all-time favorite, but I also like the Darn Tough Mountaineering sock over a similar light merino liner.  Farm to Feet’s Denali is nice, as well.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thurlo heavy hiking weight.</p>

good points:

length of sock likely irrelevant since I’ll be looking at dry weight vs various time points as a percentage of dry weight?

weight is relevant, but importantly, I want to provide feedback on common community socks so different weights are ok. I can always do a sub analysis between weight classes.

injini (2.0, nuwool, coolmax, Lw linear, and wool), Darntough, rei hiker, zpack possum sock, smart wool, will be on the list. Surprised to see a few heavy weight options already. I typically avoid them but If the community is using heavy weight socks then I should include them as well.

I have been rolling with these for 20 years.   Dry super fast and 1oz per pair.  I typically double them up and carry an extra pair as sleep socks.

https://foxsox.com/products/x-staticr-ultra-lightweight-crew-liner?variant=31529244393515&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx4b9-NCL7gIVAr7ACh170A7wEAQYASABEgI5sfD_BwE

Darn Tough Vermont Run Merino Micro Crew Ultra-Lightweight (Style 1790)

Midweight Darn Tough or Wrightsox double layer

Darn Tough wool socks, single layer. I use just one pair for up to 5 days.

I carry the possum down socks for sleep socks; never have used them for hiking.

Surprised to see a few heavy weight options already. I typically avoid them but If the community is using heavy weight socks then I should include them as well.

I can’t speak for the community, but I typically can’t wear the lighter shoe/boot options that are understandably popular, so my sock choices reflect that necessity.  I also have a few heavyweight pairs from Fox; I like them a lot, but I wasn’t impressed with their silk liners.  SmartWool and REI options were both outright disappointments for me; I use them for gun cleaning rags, now.

@erica r

I also use the single layer darntough socks without a cushion. They are very warm and robust for their weight. They will be in the experiment.

community question: do you think it’s appropriate  to use lightly used socks and new socks in the experiment or for fidelity should we use only new or used? I’m thinking although less helpful for real world comparison, new socks may be best for data.l?

Seems like the most important variable will be the percentage of wool vs synthetic fibers, and the types of different synthetic fibers in the sock.

For any one type of sock, 1/4 height, no cushion, for example, Darntough has different blends of fabrics and sometimes the blends change year to year.

Yes – that was actually the impetus for doing the experiment (that and noting that coolmax blends behaved very differently regarding moisture control).

Drymax Trail Run 1/4 Crew.  I learned of Drymax socks in John Vonhof’s book Fixing Your Feet.

community question: do you think it’s appropriate  to use lightly used socks and new socks in the experiment or for fidelity should we use only new or used? I’m thinking although less helpful for real world comparison, new socks may be best for data.l?

Ideally, you would use only new ones, because they’re all  the same; new socks are all unworn and unwashed, and that eliminates any variables that could come from fabric wear and tear, sweat, etc.  Or, to put it more simply: the elimination of one variable protects the validity of another.  If you wanted to test them when “used” you would – again, ideally – come up with a way to have them all experience the same level of usage.  That would be…well, rather difficult.  You could kind of approximate it in a variety of ways, but achieving uniformity across the samples seems like it would almost require a lab of some sort.  The goal is repeatability of every step, uniformly, for every sample.

Thor-Lo Hiker

+1 to polypropylene injinjis

Duckworth vapor wool and lightweight crew socks.

Duckworth blends their wool fibers into different fabrics (vapor wool is wool+polyester, the lightweight crew is wool+nylon) vs Darn Tough who layers lycra, wool, and nylon. I would be excited to see them side by side.

If you have the same pair used and new that could be interesting to compare, but when comparing different socks it would be nice for them to be from the same baseline.

Smartwool Mountaineer for me—thickest they make but not THAT thick.

I like the cushioning effect as the thick bottoms act as a kind of bonus insole.

I take two pairs on every trip nomatter if the trip is 5 days or 27 days.  One stays dry at all costs for in-camp sleeping and the other gets wet or stays dry whatever I can hike in it either way.  Wet wool of course takes a long time to day.  Damp socks can be worn-dry in the tent if it’s not too cold.

. DRYMAX HYPER THIN™ RUNNING NO SHOW .

Hey guys thanks for all these sock suggestions. My wife has some serious questions about all the socks coming into the house right now.

I’m looking for some feed back experiment design. please advise / contribute:

– inter sock validity (will subject each set to the same variables so n=2.
– repeat variable twice.
– design: two experiments (a) passive. (B) active.
– (A) weigh dry sock. wash all socks in cold water rinse cycle twice no detergents. Weigh damp sock. Dry all socks and hanging inside a large cardboard box on a mesh table outside in the winter cold to “approximate” winter tent conditions (or I could use a real tent). Collect a third end point weight at 12 hours. Provide data on dry weight as a percent of the third 12h weight and dry weight as a percent of damp post washing machine weight. Compare percentages to approach an understanding of their wick potential sans heat vs there passive drying potential.

Questions:

1) are more time points relevant in this passive study? I don’t think so.
2) Are the above percents reasonable to present this data?

(B): active experiment (less Enviromental variability, and can possibly graph some nice curves). Start the same: dry weight measured followed by cold water wash in the washing machine no detergent. Measure damp weight. Toss in the dryer on low setting all together. Measure weights at 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes and 20 minutes and 25 minutes of total dry time (not total time since a weights will take a couple minutes). Plot curve of each socks percent weight compared to damp sock and see how fast they reach dry weight.

questions:

3) No SD with only two socks unless I repeat experiment a few times which maybe is required for rigor? Not sure.  4) Please advise if you see a reason to consider changing this experiment design.

5) There will be a mix of light weight and heavier weight socks. I think it’s best to subject them all to the same conditions  at the same time. by doing all these the community can compare the socks that are most relevant to their specific use case scenarios. Do you agree?

6) should I hand wash socks in an electrolyte solution that mimics the salt content of sweat and the spin them in the machine instead of a cold water wash?

7) A first then b second in case the dryer fundamentally changes the sock properties in a way I haven’t anticipated?

8) Any other data that would be good to collect?

9) I’m going to Saftey pin the socks together with a number tag so I’m somewhat “blinded to the results. Alternative I could insist my wife to do weights (she has no interests to disclose). Any other thought on the need to reduce bias? (There’s some inherent bias on the selection process that’s unavoidable given that these socks were only picked from our community).

Thanks!

I have no interested to disclose FYI.

Suggestions:

– What do you want to know? Make sure the tests get you to that goal.
Seems something like “Sock X takes time Y to dry in environment Z” for certain combinations of X, Y, and Z. But I’m not exactly sure. Write that goal down, and keep it handy.

– Run through your entire test protocol once with one sock or a few socks to see if you get reasonable answers. If that works OK, run again with a very different sock, like thick vs thin. You might need changes; hard to anticipated “unknown unknowns” until you try. Same with electrolyte soak or soap/no-soap wash – try it first, see if it makes any difference. OTOH, if you have few enough socks – go for it, but when unexpected stuff happens, plan to make changes and re-run.

– A few early tests might give you some insight into variability. If you don’t see much, I wouldn’t worry about standard deviation, especially if you aren’t going to test 40+ pairs of the same make and model of sock! Maybe repeated tests can be for your next journal article :-)

– Personally, “ambient” drying times in 1-hour chunks might be close enough. Laundry dryer drying times based on hot air and tumbling might not tell me much about drying while folded in half, hanging inside a tent, or hanging off the side of my pack. But maybe that’s a question you want to answer: how do dryer times compare to backpacking drying times? Probably a separate experiment.

– Suggest using a real tent, documenting make/model/year, noting any vents/doors/etc. open, plus local weather (temp/humidity/wind speed) and providing before/during/after photos. Lots of variables in tent ventilation, etc. that aren’t easily extrapolated from a box on a mesh table. Like condensation on the tent walls! Or just use a tarp, to make replication by others easier.

– Maybe try drying socks while hanging off a documented pack full of stuff, as above. Might be hard to cram a bunch of socks onto one pack. Sitting on the ground (or on your mesh table) isn’t exactly like hiking a trail while moving in and out of direct sunlight – but better than nothing.

– I wouldn’t worry about blinding, unless you planned to put your thumb on the scale :-( Most socks have branding on them now that can be impossible to mask without skewing the results. And the results could be skewed in many other ways without both true blinding and randomized sock order at various steps.

– As you wash factory-fresh socks, you could be washing out soluble compounds that affect drying times with repeated wash-dry cycles. Might be worth investigating separately.

Don’t get over complicated! You’ll still be making backpacking sock test history with a simple experimental design. Go for it, document everything, and let your peer reviewers (BPL commenters) suggest improvements.

Hope this helps.

— Rex

I’m learning from research and interviews for my BPL Standards Watch columns that ALL “lab” tests are compromises, with some well-known tests much worse than others.

At some point, all you can do is document like crazy, and hope the test tells you something useful under real-world conditions.

Good luck!

— Rex

I’m probably the only one here still using a thick ragg wool sock year-round.   The quality of them has gone down over the years but the thicker the better was always my philosophy.    I hiked 1200-miles in ONE pair of REI wool socks.   They outlasted my boots.  They were some goofy color I got on closeout (in college at the time).   I’d pay really good money if I could find that quality again.    They were super tight weave and thick 100% wool.   The versions available today are lighter, less wool, less tightly woven.

They don’t dry faster but when they get wet it really doesn’t matter.   I use quick draining/drying boots and within 5-minutes of tramping through a stream I don’t notice that they are wet any longer.

If you take them off in freezing conditions you better keep them somewhere where they won’t freeze.    I’ve put them on in the morning like that and if your socks are frozen it means your boots are too.   It is hard to say which takes longer to get warm again.   A dry extra pair in cold frozen boots makes the next morning manageable.

How long do socks take to dry while I’m hiking in them with my usual shoes and gaiters, on sunny or cloudy or rainy or windy days at various temperatures?

Maybe they got wet from a stream crossing, or rain, or melted snow, or …

I have no idea how to test this with some degree of repeatability and real-world relevance.

That’s why I’m throwing the idea out here.

— Rex

Please also add something like Gold toe men’s dress socks. I use some plain, smooth dress socks I got at the drug store that I presume are similar. I know they have terrible dry time but I find them to be the most comfortable socks.

As for “performance” socks, I like thin merino wool socks without cushion, sometimes called bicycle socks. Brand name unimportant.