Trail runners half a size up, thin merino liner plus a cushioned sock, changed at lunch. Day one is fine. Day two both heels have hot spots by mid morning and blisters by camp. 15-18km days with about 12kg. I have tried taping in advance which helps on day one and then peels. Feet are otherwise normal, no unusual arch or width issues.
How much are you drying your feet out? I take socks and shoes off at every long break, even ten minutes, and let them air. Macerated skin blisters at a fraction of the friction dry skin tolerates. It sounds like a small thing and it changed my trips.
Rinsing feet in a stream at lunch and drying properly is worth the ten minutes on hot days. Grit is abrasive and it is doing some of this too.
I have been changing socks but keeping the shoes on and never actually airing the foot itself. Will try.
Tape peeling usually means moisture, not bad tape. Apply to genuinely dry skin in the morning, with a thin layer of tincture of benzoin underneath if you can get hold of it — it makes tape stick through a full wet day. Kinesiology tape holds far better than fabric plasters for this.
Half a size up may be too much if you are also running two socks. The rule of thumb is a thumb width in front of the longest toe, with your normal hiking sock on, laced, standing. Some people need a full size, some need none at all.
@ridgeline_rowan · 5mo ago · 3 replies
Drop the liner sock and try one well-fitted sock. The two-sock system is meant to move friction between the layers, but with a half size up and two socks a lot of people end up with the whole stack sliding inside the shoe instead, and the heel is where that shows first.
Then lock your heel down with the lacing. Use the top eyelet as a heel lock — thread the lace back into the same side's top eyelet to make a loop, cross through the opposite loop, pull snug. Ten seconds, and it is the single biggest change for heel blisters I have made.
Day one fine and day two blistered is also a swelling story. Your feet are bigger on day two. Loosen the forefoot and keep the heel lock tight.
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@soloseat_sana · 5mo ago
Heel lock lacing on its own got me through a three day trip with one small hot spot and no blister. I had never heard of it.
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@fiber_finn · 5mo ago
It is the most useful thing in this hobby that nobody tells beginners. Works for downhill toe bang too.
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