Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please

Peewiglet wrote:

Right, but that's nothing to do with the scenario painted by the OP,
which is why your response amazed me. He said the person in question
is new to walking (in the URW sense), so he has no experience in the
mountains. If he'd painted a different picture then my response would
have been different.

I will freely admit I misread the original and had thought it was one of the experienced walkers that wanted to go barefoot. However, if his routine barefoot experience is around town, roads etc then those are actually considerably harder and more foot-hostile than most mountainsides. Really!
I'd want to find out what "habitually goes barefoot" means: I routinely go barefoot round the house and garden but am not up to serious hiking that way, as I know from wandering up the lane to post a letter without my shoes on (which I do from time to time, to help toughen up my feet). That's slow going for me, but someone who did it every day would have no trouble.

I was also surprised by some of the other things you said, including,
for instance, your suggestion that the risk of injury to bare feet
from walking on rocks in the Welsh mountains in October is a bit like
the risk of injury to hands from climbing. Um... since when did
climbers climb with their entire body weight on their hands, for 8
hours at a time, whilst carrying a rucksack?

Not really what I meant. I meant that hands are not normally expected to do what rock climbers ask of their hands (how many people heave their bodyweight up from small holds on hard rock, and jam their fists into cracks?), but despite that people go rock climbing and come through it smiling despite numerous small scrapes on their hands, which they continue to put in dirty places and not typically suffer infections.
Feet have evolved to support weight all day long and get you about the place. So all we're asking of them here is they do just that.

Your analogy with children playing on rocks  at the seaside seemed a
little misplaced to me too. Um...? We're talking about people carrying
rucksacks mountains in Wales in winter, not beaches on sunny days in
the summer.

October isn't winter, and rocks don't get any softer in summer. And kids' feet are typically less hard wearing than adults' feet. I don't really see where the rucksacks come into it... people have been walking barefoot for millennia, including carrying loads in their hands, on their backs and on their heads.
The illustration simply serves to show that if children can play happily by choice on hard rocks then consenting adults can probably manage to walk on them without being in pain.

You seem to have assumed that I take the view that only sturdy
footwear is appropriate in the mountains

I have? Sorry if I gave that impression, but I don't think that. I was simply using an illustration of conservative thinking that many people do think like that, I didn't particularly think you're convinced of it yourself.

running. If a beginner asks me whether it's safe or sensible to walk
up Welsh mountains in late October, though, in bare feet, I'll be
telling them it isn't.

But the basic assumption is that they'd be like 99.999+% of the population who don't typically walk around barefoot. Since such people would have trouble getting to the local shops without footwear of some sort then that would be the right answer, but if they're quite used to walking around on sharp, hard road surfaces throughout the year on a day to day basis and are uncomfortable in shoes then is it /really/ right to force them into something they won't find comfortable and aren't used to?

Feet are pretty capable things, if you let them be. And the UK's hills aren't necessarily /that/ daunting in October, and a weather forecast will give a reasonable idea of how cold it'll be for exceptions.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch                    Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637   Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177              Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@xxxxxxxxxxxx     http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please
    ... >> North Wales to be cold, ... >Sunday up on the Arrochar Alps, wasn't exactly /hot/, my feet were fine. ... >People were wondering about the pain of walking on rock. ... Mountains aren't, in the UK they're mostly grass, heather and ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please
    ... North Wales to be cold, ... I have walked around winter campsites, in snow, in barefeet, and I've done that from since before I'd really hardened up my feet. ... question is used to walking barefoot, so I drew the fairly obvious conclusion that his feet have adapted to the conditions he's walked in. ... Mountains aren't, in the UK they're mostly grass, heather and bog. ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please
    ... The point is that walkers can expect late October in the mountains of ... >and rocks don't get any softer in summer. ... Cold and difficult conditions make walking ... >kids' feet are typically less hard wearing than adults' feet. ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please
    ... >> rocks, and the sort of small, loose rocks and shale that one would ... >ones that aren't very good in bare feet, ... If you're used to walking barefoot then there shouldn't ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Barefoot Walking - Advice please
    ... rocks, and the sort of small, loose rocks and shale that one would ... IME it's the in-between ones that aren't very good in bare feet, but outside of pebble beaches these aren't actually that common as a surface, or at least unavoidable surfaces. ... most of the time and are walking in natural or semi-natural environments. ... I think barefoot walkers will find similar. ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
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