Sandals for Summer Backpacking

I've been wearing Sandals a lot in the last few years as 3-season footwear and have used sandals quite a bit for day-hikes if not fully loaded hikes.

My feet seem to be fine in terms of skin condition most of the time – I guess they get used to it.

I have found problems with one achilles tendon which I think is down to Sandal (perhaps fit) and so for a walk I'm planning I'll be wearing trail shoes (that don't have an impact on this).

In the UK the main problem I've found with sandals hiking is lots of critter bites that sprays don't always seem to prevent.

I think that fundamentally wrapping our feet up in stuff for walking is flawed – we were not born with shoes – and allowing our feet to be more natural is helpful.

Cheap sandals seem to work as well as the more expensive ones IME. The main thing seems to be that they hold your foot in place without too much slippage.

I'm sorry to hear about your Achilles tendons swelling. I had the same thing happen, to a lesser extent, when I was starting to train for barefoot running.

I started be walking a few miles barefoot on the trails in the park by my home. The first week my tendons were very sore. This has to do with the fact that most people wear shoes that have some sort of lift and/or heel, which in effect shorten your Achilles tendon over the years.

I am now running 9 miles per week, barefoot, and on gravel trails. I feel better so much better, with less aches an pains than I ever did when I wore very expensive running shoes.

I plan on doing my first barefoot hike this September.

From my personal experience (Mostly Chacos & older Tevas), I find that on most trips my feet require more maintenance with sandals because of the tendency for them to get dirtier, dry out and form uneven callouses more easily. However, they are still my footwear of choice for summer endeavors mainly in the Southeastern U.S. or Midwest. In the Cascades or Rockies, and other areas where summers can be cooler, they are usually less ideal.

As a whitewater and mtn. guide in Colorado during the latter 90's, I continually experimented with backcountry systems. A couple of the Fourteeners were pleasantly topped in my sandals and I found them to work well for summer mountaineering and backpacking in the Rockies, combined with neoprene socks and/or Gore-tex oversocks & wool. They proved especially adept at frigid stream crossings. The weight savings allowed for a couple extra pairs of socks in ziplocks and the occasional watermelon. As an aside, some of the sandals, such as Teva's Guide Sandal – which were my sandal of choice for 14ers, I would not consider all that lightweight by today's UL Footwear standards. Note: the watermelons were occasionally necessary because your weren't looked upon too kindly when your packweight was less than half of your clients because of the companies' mandatory gear list and burly rental gear. Even with abused ankles from earlier days of Soccer, I never had trouble staying sufficiently stable while under load wearing Sandles.

During the early-mid 90's, When Chacos were still Geckos and Alps were on most river feet, a couple of my friends and I would do multi-day scrambling and bushwhacking trips in the Appalachian foothills in Tevas or Geckos. I found them to perform remarkably well, but need resoling somewhat often due to frequent sandstone encounters. We were so pleased with the more technical sandals, such as the chacos with 5.10 rubber on the soles that we attempted some moderate slab climbing routes with them with mixed success – as you can imagine they smeared well, but edged terribly.

Sandals on top of Mt. Rainier?

To take it one step further, or several perhaps, one of my friends decided to attempt to summit Mt. Rainier in Sandals. Disclaimer: Now do suspend surreptitious judgement as I'm sharing this account for it's anecdotal value rather than any covert technical insight. The Climbing Rangers on Mt. Rainier voiced their displeasure with this strategy in no uncertain terms, so it should not be perceived as being recommended.

Being university students at the time, money had significant influence on gear choices and not wanting to jeopardize his more expensive everyday footwear choice (Tevas), he opted to purchase a pair of cheap Tevaish sandals at K-Mart for somewhere around $5, if I recall correctly. Crampons were ruled out early on, so he decided to make a metal plate with imbedded screws sticking out of the bottom that could be attached to the sandals via additional screws. Feet were protected from weather and abrasion with synthetic liners, then heavy-weight wool trekking socks, underneath Gore-Tex oversocks, and all topped with a custom molded wrap of multiple layers of yes, duct tape. To make a long story shorter and anti-climactic, he actually did successfully summit and did so in a single long day in order to avoid the extra weight of overnight gear. This was not a solo trip and he was roped together with climbers of a more conventional setup. He reported that It was not the most comfortable set-up and the sandals were more or less completely destroyed in a single day, but he made it down with the only injuries sustained being to his self-esteem from the thorough reaming received from the Rangers at Camp Muir for pulling such a stunt.

So yes, Mt. Rainier has been successfully ascended in Sandals, as well as Mt. Harvard, Yale, and perhaps a few more of this country's loftier pursuits: Such as when I was conscripted to be best man at my other friend's (not the Rainier Sandal Vandal one) wedding, you can probably guess what all of the groomsmen were required to don their feet with.