Hiking advice chliché nr 4: Wear sturdy mountain boots with ankle support

A number of the same 'rules' appear in every hiking advice and guideline. They certainly make sense and are a great starting point for beginning hikers, but by virtue of being short and simple they tend to cut out a lot of nuance. In this series of blogs, I'd like to provide a more nuanced view - because from the experience and knowledge I gained over the years, I learnt that the issue of outdoor safety is just not that simple. Today, hiking advice cliché nr 4: "Wear sturdy mountain boots with ankle support".

I've always worn those kind of boots during hiking, right until the end of 2014. That summer I had done a beautiful, extremely rainy trekking in southwest Iceland and right after joined the Nijmeegse Vierdaagse in the soaring heat (the Vierdaagse is a Dutch walking event in the east of the country, where you walk 40 km each day for 4 constructive days, together with thousands of other people, cheered on by even more). I started to realize that I wasn't exactly happy with my boots. They are hot and heavy and very slow to dry, and the worst thing was that I just continued to have blisters and painful feet. Taking them off at final destination of the day was a big relief. Then why had I kept wearing those kind of boots? Until that point, I just hadn't considered anything else. Those were simply the shoes to wear if you go hiking - my parents bought them for me, every advice said so, I heard it from every sales person. Wear sturdy mountain boots or Bad Things will happen to you. You'll twist an ankle, or you'll injure your feet, or you'll trip on the trail and break your neck. 

You know the ones. Heavy, stinky, stiff. With the row of hooks on top that can catch and trip you up so nicely. Sometimes people don't wear them for a year and the soles detach mid-hike because the glue has crumbled. Fun times. ;)

And that's a bit of an exaggeration. The truth is, footwear is a personal choice - depending on your feet and ankles, the circumstances you're hiking in, and your own preferences. Surely don't hit any serious trail in flipflops or sneakers; choose sturdy footwear with grippy soles instead. But it doesn't necessarily have to be boots. 

I now wear trail runners on all my hiking tours except for showshoe trekkings. Since I switched to them, blisters and painful feet are no longer an issue. They're comfortable and easy enough to wear around camp and since they dry so fast I even keep them on while wading through rivers and bog. I do feel a little more strain on my ankle muscles in trail runners, but that has never caused any problems. I even wore trail runners on rough, remote treks in Greenland. Hell, I even walked to Everest Base Camp in them - crossing glaciers and a 5500m high mountain pass on the way. 

Crossing Kongma La (5500m) in Nepal on trailrunners

So what are the limits of trail runners? First, you can't wear them in combination with crampons (microspikes are fine, though). For sub-zero winter hikes trail runners are too cold - you need insulated boots instead. If you know you've got weak ankles, I would also advice to go for mountain boots. Although those won't stop you from twisting an ankle - I've literally seen it happen right in front of me in Marocco, and she was wearing high mountain boots - but they do offer more support. If you absolutely want to keep your feet dry, trail runners aren't the best choice either. Finally, trail runners tend to run down faster than boots.

Other footwear than you've always used might suit your needs better. New technologies have brought us and continue to bring us new things, sometimes unnecessary, sometimes wonderful. It is a shame not to even consider using it.