Having pain in our feet can take the joy out of backpacking, slow you down, and cause you to not complete the trip. Blister prevention begins with three main considerations:
Comfortable footwear
Your sock strategy
Foot conditioning
Preemptive practices
1. Comfortable Footwear
Good foot care starts with choosing the right shoes for your feet and the terrain conditions. The main considerations are looseness for warmth, traction, ankle band for security (boot doesn’t come off), sufficient sole flexibility for distance hiking but rigid enough for crampons, level of cushion for the sole of your feet, a reinforced toe box for kicking-steps in hard snow, and water resistance versus breathability to keep your feet dry.
This information is specifically for backpacking in the winter conditions of the Pacific Northwest and Cascade Mountains.
Pain in our feet can take the joy out of backpacking, slow you down, and prevent you from completing the hike. Think of your footwear as a system of socks, shoes, and traction that needs to work comfortably and efficiently together in winter terrain. If one or more parts fail, our movement is slowed and we become susceptible to injuries such as falls, blisters, and sprained ankles. If this system is not in sync we expend energy inefficiency.
It is not always easy to predict snow and terrain conditions. Having the necessary footwear system is essential for warmth and stability.
Our winter backpacking group hikes year-round in the Washington Cascade Mountains in different terrain and weather conditions—from rocky coastal terrain to icy mountain slopes. For some trips traditional hiking or trail running shoes work fine and for others more rigid boots are necessary. You may choose to use different footwear for different events or you may want to buy one pair for all your needs. In rare cases, you may even want to bring two pairs of shoes such as a comfortable flexible shoe and a stiffer boot, such as, on a long dry approach that then turns into hard snow. However, given the extra weight, a single all-purpose boot is ideal.
Main Requirements
Our group is mainly hiking below 8000 feet on snow and ice, and smooth and rocky terrain (scree and tallis) in temperatures 5º F and above. Typical distances range from some deep snow events that are less than 7 miles round trip to longer mixed dirt and hard snow events that can exceed 12 miles per day.
