Footwear

 This review covers my foot care system, boots, socks and insoles.

I was extremely happy to have spent 55 days walking almost 600 miles along the Pyrenees, and to have arrived at Banyuls without having had a single blister, or foot problem of any kind. The same goes for my Pennine Way walk (c300 miles) last Autumn. I have had blisters in the past, but over the years I have evolved a foot care system which works well for me.
Looking after your feet is so important, blisters can be miserable things to have!

This is my system:

1. Each morning before I put walking socks on I put a little CCS cream around the toes as a lubricant. CCS cream is easy to find - Boots sell it - and is not expensive. There may well be other creams that work as well, but whichever you use, make sure it has urea as an ingredient.
2. I always used to use 1,000 mile socks, which have a thin, integral inner liner sock. I think the inner liner really helps. Taken together with the foot cream it means there is nothing rubbing on the feet, nowhere for a blister to start forming. In recent years though I have preferred to use Rohan liner socks and separate outer socks .. the Rohan socks are so light that taken together, they still weigh less than 1,000 mile socks do. But it is a personal thing.
3. I use Brasher Supalite leather boots, see below. Use whatever boots or shoes you find comfortable, but buy them a 1/2 size too big, throw away the insoles, and instead fit good quality insoles such as shockstopper double strike. They are not expensive, bought online, and make a big difference.
4. Feet are not designed to be encased in leather all day! Try to take your boots and socks off at least once during the day and let your feet breathe for a few minutes. Also note that if you are walking all day your feet will swell somewhat during the day. Make sure your boots have space for that!

None of the above takes much time or effort, and the results speak for themselves.

Boots

Once upon a time, I wore Meindl Burma Pro leather boots. They were solid, fully waterproof and bombproof. They were built to last a lifetime. I wore them when I first walked the Pennine Way in 2009, and my son still uses them today. They were quite comfortable (but I did get blisters!) and their only real downside was their weight - 2,253g the pair! (UK size 11) I'm pretty sure that walking takes more effort, when you are swinging more than a kilo on the end of each leg.

Before I went to the Pyrenees in 2010 I had a look around for something lighter, and eventually settled on a pair of Berghaus Explorer Light boots. Light, or at least lighter, they were, at 1,343g the pair, and also comfortable straight out of the box. Unfortunately they were not at all solid or bombproof! They were goretex lined and to start with, waterproof, but that did not last. After a fortnight of admittedly bad weather, quite wet, they leaked like a sieve. After three weeks they seemed to have become the reverse of waterproof... stand in a puddle and the boots seemed to fill, the puddle emptied!
When I got back to the UK I sent them back, and got a refund. Then I started to look around again, for something stronger but ideally, not heavier.

What I found was a pair of Brasher Supalite boots. They are full leather boots, but they only weighed 1206g the pair without footbeds (for size UK 11.5). Add in a pair of sorbothane shockstopper insoles and you get to about 700g per boot, not much more than half the weight of the Meindls. They were comfortable straight out of the box, and I love them. I took them to the Pyrenees the second time I went, and they lasted the course well with no problems, except that the sole treads, never spectacularly deep, had worn down rather by the end. The soles were still adequate, but for clambering about rocks etc I felt I needed a new pair for the third Pyrenees trip in 2013. Since I bought my first pair, the Supalite range had started to attract a certain amount of criticism online. Some said they were not as good as they were. Possibly to counteract this, Brasher brought out the Supalite II. Not long after, they moved production to China (from India) and started using Pittards leather. In the expectation that the original comfy-out-of-the-box qualities would have returned, I bought a pair online (for £105 vs the then RRP of £145) from a very fine shop called Country Innovation. They are similar to the current 2015 version, (now rebranded as Berghaus and with Vibram outsoles), and are still available at discounted prices online. Their claimed weight is 1122g, but that will be for a smaller size than my 11.5 clodhoppers.

At the same time, I found that the older pre-Pittards version was available now very cheaply, and bought a pair for about £60 from Sports Direct. So I now have three pairs:

- original
- intermediate pre-Pittards.
- Pittards, current version

Kept up with all that, have we? This is a very brief summary of my experience with each of them:

- original: excellent boots, have survived a lot of walking including a Pyrenees trek and are still in use today though the soles have worn down rather.

- intermediates: the first time I wore them, I only went about three miles in them but they managed to strip all the skin off both my heels at the back, very painful! The leather on this pair is much harder than the other two. I did persevere with them and they eventually became an excellent, comfortable pair of boots once they were fully worn in.

- current Pittards version: also very comfortable, nice soft leather. I "kept them for best" and wore them when walking along the Pennine Way last year. Unfortunately, I had a disaster with them in that shortly after setting off across the Cheviots from Byrness (ie, the worst possible moment) one of the lugs that secure the laces came adrift from the boot. I redid the lacing, but my feet began to slide around in the boot. In the end, I had to use the Merrill "camp" shoes I had with me instead, and tie the boots to my rucksack.

When I got home I contacted Country Innovation, who told me to send the boots back to them. They had them repaired by Brashers and sent them back to me. All free of charge, which was quality service indeed. By then the boots were out of warranty, although it was clear they had not had much wear.

The repaired boots are fine but I did somewhat distrust them after that, what would I do if it happened again miles from anywhere, up in the mountains? [update: they were fine on my 2019 Pennine Way walk] ..In the end I took the the older intermediate pair on my 55 day trek this year. They performed brilliantly and looked as good at the end as at the start - soles worn down a bit, that is all. I did not take any dubbin or wax with me, but about half way through I took pity on them, and bought a small tin of dubbin in Vielha which I used two or three times in all. It is not a good idea in my opinion to treat goretex lined boots too often - the more flexible the leather, the more the goretex liner is stressed.

So, all three pairs of boots are still in use, and all are still fully waterproof even though the oldest pair has deep cracks in the leather now. They are fine boots, they have put up with years of hard treatment, and I fully recommend them.

I recognise that some will see them as rather old-fashioned. These days many wear trail shoes or trail running shoes, and that's fine if they work for you. All I would say is that if you want to do a serious walk through mountainous territory, you must make sure that your footwear has all of the following qualities:

- excellent grip on wet rock
- thick enough soles that you can walk over sharp or pointed rocks without problems.
- sufficiently robust to last the course
- waterproof

I am still looking for a pair of trail shoes that will do all the above. Makes like Innov8 are interesting, but are just not robust enough. Some say that mesh shoes work well, they let water in but they let it out again quickly too. That is fine in some climates, but when there has been an overnight frost and the ground is sodden and cold all day, you will have two blocks of ice in no time. I would not use them even on the Pennine Way, never mind in the Pyrenees. Suggestions welcomed!

Insoles

I use Shockstopper "sorbothane" double strike insoles. I have knee problems and want to reduce transmitted shocks as far as I can, these seem to do the job as well as anything. I have not tried Superfeet, which are also well spoken of, mainly because I just can't bring myself to spend upwards of £35 on a pair of insoles. Shockstoppers cost £15, or less on Ebay.. they are comfortable, and also quite long-lasting.

Socks

Over the years I have tried virtually all known makes of socks... Brasher, Bridgedale, Smartwool, 1,000 mile, Icebreaker, Rohan and more besides. My feet tend to run hot and I found Smartwool and Icebreaker socks too hot to use in leather boots. Surprisingly perhaps I do not find 1,000 mile socks hot to wear even though they are double layer. There is also the blister issue, see above.. 1,000 mile socks and Rohan socks with liner are still the only ones that I have never ever had a blister from.

Now I have settled on a combination of 1,000 mile socks and Rohan. I use the 1,000 mile tactel socks for "serious" walking - 20+ mile days -  and the Rohan ones the rest of the time, ie for shorter days, evenings, daywalks etc. I took two pairs of 1,000 mile socks and one pair of Rohan socks to the Pyrenees, and they all lasted the course well and are still in use. The Rohan socks are excellent in that they are not only comfortable but also very light indeed, at only 54g/pair. I use the "Hot & Temperate" ones, which are perfectly warm enough in leather boots. The liner socks only weigh 20g/pair!