[pct-l] Five-Fingers

[Blanchard, Sym (GT&D)]

BigToe,

Great input.  Thanks!

Did you find that you needed to "size up" in order to account for
swelling feet?   If so, how much?

I am thinking of getting the FiveFingers KSOTreks.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Symbiosis
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Message: 8
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:04:12 -0600
From: David Ellzey <david at xpletive.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Five-Fingers
To: "pct-l at backcountry.net" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Message-ID:
	
<3CF44C7E5B716541B6A0A9AF694AC663339869BD1F at AUSP01VMBX02.collaborationho
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Nathan,

I've used them for hikes up to 150 miles. They are pretty much like
going barefoot with good protection against abrasion but not much else.
I think I only did somewhere around 15 miles a day in them on average,
as I would need better protection crossing the more brutal rocky
sections. Also, you freeze you feet off in them potholing though snow
although I've never seen anything dry so quickly after stream crossings.
Finally, stepping on a pointy rock with your insole or stubbing your toe
and really, really hurt possibly causing a long lasting injury.

Despite all of the downsides, I still enjoyed having them with me. They
weight almost nothing and are insanely comfortable. I cannot stress
enough that you need to spend a long time conditioning your feet prior
to attempting long hikes with them. Everyone who wears shoes regularly
has allowed the muscles and tendons in their arches to atrophy. If you
do not take to time to gradually build that strength back up you are
going to hurt yourself, possibly seriously.

When you are on trails, pay attention to foot placement. When you get
too tired to do that each day, it's time to switch to shoes. It felt
nice to change up the footwear each day too. Switching from an
ether-light foot cover to an UL trail shoe and vice-versa pretty much
eliminated repetition based foot injury. Another side benefit to wearing
them is that you should have stronger feet even when you have shoes on.
In theory that should translate into being less injury prone.

Dave (BigToe)

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net
[mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Nathan Burgess
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 1:23 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Five-Fingers

Has anyone ever used them for extended hiking? I've heard about "bare
foot bob" and that is neat, but what about hiking reliability? I think
there could be some problems in extended snow crossings in the Sierra.

Nathan