Wet feet and 30 Degrees F

[Roger Caffin]

two weeks with planned wet feet in Alaska last year just drying my feet at night and putting wet socks back on in the morning.  Temps were from 40-50 most days and down to 20-30 at night.  I didn’t have any real problems but my Salomons were soaked and didn’t dry the whole trip.

Yeah, been there, done that, for 4+ weeks in Europe. Wet feet did not present a problem. After all, right under the thin outer layer of dead skin cells, your feet are quite wet!

BUT: my wife’s shoes had a wide leather trim or top surface. The leather got totally soaked and leached of all conditioning. When we finally hit dry weather the leather dried out and SHRANK. This was sufficiently bad that my wife had bleeding inside her feet from the increased compression and internal friction, with the blood pooling inside the soles, in just one day. Yeah, I’m serious. It was BAD.We were both very very startled.

I stripped all the insides out of the shoes and gave her just thin nylon socks to replace her thick wool Darn Tough Vermonts. That gave her enough room that the next day she could hobble gently to the next town, where we were able to replace her shoes.

Bottom line here: never again will we buy any shoes which have any leather in them, not even trim. We will only buy shoes which are totally synthetic – and won’t shrink.

Sizing: yep, up at least a half size, and check that the shoes are wide enough! Do NOT allow the fit to restrict the blood flow.

As for the GTX socks – we have tried that idea. Seriously bad as well. Utterly soggy prune feet – far, far worse than ordinary wet socks. Steam-cooked feet – ugh. We won’t go there again either. Although we do use GTX shoes when walking in dry snow (or snowshoeing). But our socks stay dry then.

Cheers

 

[Justin Baker]

Roger, the GTX socks work best in cold weather, like walking through snow or slush. If your feet were getting steam cooked then it was too warm for you to be wearing them.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Justin

I agree.

Cheers

 

[James holden]

brad …

for GTX socks

• use the thinnest liner socks … i use wigwams liners, the socks you use should have no insulation, they just wick away the moisture from your skin
• you really have to try the goretex socks in the store … theyll either fit your foot or they wont
• with the thin liner sock and the the gore sock i have no issues using them in my regular shoes which i size to fit thicker socks anyways
• the hardest part is putting on and taking off those socks as there isnt much stretch … with thin liner socks this is easier … make sure you dont pull on the stretchy parts, only the non stretch fabric. as this can tear the membrane
• if you do use it for other purposes in colder temps and need more insulaiton, put a loose thick sock OVER the gore sock

personally ive never had my feet turned into prunes … you have to remember that these socks are a specialized piece where youre running into constant puddles and small streams in COLD rain … and as said you MUST use only a thin liner sock, if you wear thicker socks its just more insulation which causes feet to overheat and more material to absorb moisture

when used properly in the proper conditions it prevents the cold water from constantly pumping in and out with every step … and it keeps you feet mostly dry, perhaps damp, but not soaking wet … and those damp thin socks will easily dry off overnight

basically its the upgraded version of “bread bags”, and your feet wont slip inside yr shoe as its not a slick bag

one other note is that in the conditions its meant for … overheating is not really and issue as everytime you step in a puddle or small stream there will be quite a bit of convective cooling … you will instantly feel its, and there may even be a slight be of condensation inside … however your feet will be slightly damp and not soaking wet

in the end in truly soaking trail conditions (full of puddles, slush, small streams, mud pits) at freezing, it makes hiking ALOT easier IMO as you can just walk right through everything and not have to tip toe around (if you walk through a deep puddle with freezing water and slush you feet will instantly get quite cold) … and doing the direct line over a longer distance saves quite a bit of energy

;)

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