Greatest Mountaineering Foot Care Merchandise

Leukotape is a sticky blister prevention tape that includes a powerful zinc oxide adhesive that received’t come off, even in probably the most excessive moist circumstances. It’s additionally breathable, so runners and backpackers can safely put on it for a number of days at a time. It’s finest used as a preventative barrier over potential scorching spots. Leukotape isn’t meant to be used on pre-existing blisters, nonetheless, as a result of the adhesive can pull off unfastened and damaged pores and skin. Whereas it comes on a roll, one of the best ways to hold Leukotape in your first assist package is to pre-cut it into strips and connect it to the shiny paper (known as launch paper) that adhesive labels are hooked up to. Go into any UPS or FedEx workplace and so they’ll provide you with tons of the stuff at no cost. I’ve been utilizing Leukotape for years and nonetheless tape my heels earlier than day hikes and backpacking journeys.

Darn Powerful’s Merino Wool Mountaineering Socks are the most well-liked socks utilized by hikers to forestall blisters, wick moisture, and maintain your toes cool and cozy on the path. They’re additionally robust sufficient to face as much as the abrasive sand and grit that will get into path runners and mountaineering footwear, which rapidly eats by different producers’ socks. They’re out there in a variety of colours, lengths, weights, and sizes, with and with out further cushioning. When backpacking, it’s important to maintain a dry pair of socks in reserve to sleep in, which helps your toes get better after an extended day of mountaineering. My favorites are the Hiker Micro Crew Cushion Socks.

Soiled Woman Gaiters are low gaiters designed to maintain sticks, pebbles, sand, and different floor litter that you just kick up when mountaineering from entering into your path footwear or boots, the place they’ll irritate your toes. They’re primarily used with path trainers and low to mid-ankle mountaineering footwear. They’re ultralight, weighing lower than 2 ounces per pair, and are widespread with hikers as a result of they’re cheap and are available a variety of untamed colours and printed patterns that permit you to specific your self on the path. They don’t have a strap that runs beneath your mountaineering footwear however connect to your laces with a hook and a velcro patch that you just stick with the heel of your footwear. They’re not meant for winter use and dry rapidly once they get moist.

Insoles have two huge advantages: they assist assist your arch which is necessary when carrying a loaded backpack and lock your heels in place to forestall extreme pronation or supination that may result in plantar fasciitis, a painful irritation of the heel that may put you on the sideline for weeks at a time. Superfeet makes one million completely different insoles, however the two hottest ones for hikers are Superfeet Run Help Low Arch Insoles (previously known as Superfeet Carbon), that are skinny sufficient to suit into low-volume path runners and mountaineering footwear, and Superfeet All Objective Help Excessive Arch Insoles (previously known as Superfeet Inexperienced), that’s finest worn in mountaineering boots.

Low cost and plentiful, Vaseline ointment is nice for decreasing the friction between your toes or between your footwear and toes, which might result in blisters. It’s additionally helpful for treating dry and cracked pores and skin, which is the precursor to a callous, by locking within the pores and skin’s pure moisture and serving to it to heal from inside. Vaseline is out there in a 1.7 oz journey measurement, which is sufficiently small to hold, or you possibly can repackage it in a small tub to hold with you. Vaseline additionally makes a wonderful firestarter when smeared on a cotton ball, one thing that different anti-friction powders and lotions can’t declare.

Athlete’s Foot is a extremely contagious fungal an infection that impacts the pores and skin on the toes and leads to a scaly rash that itches like hell and may be very disagreeable. It’s simple to choose up if you happen to go to public locations barefoot together with bathe stalls, locker rooms, or swimming swimming pools, and thrives in scorching and sweaty closed footwear. Athletes’ foot is definitely handled with a prescription power topical cream, like Lotrimin Extremely, however you must be vigilant and constant while you use it to eradicate the an infection or it should persist. Remedy often takes a couple of week, though it’s possible you’ll wish to proceed longer to make sure the fungus is absolutely eradicated. Lotrimin Extremely will also be used to deal with jock itch, one other frequent and ugly pores and skin irritation skilled by hikers and backpackers.

The Victorinox Nail Clipper folds flat to maintain your toenails trimmed quick, stopping them from banging towards the entrance of your footwear, turning black, and falling off, which is usually a painful course of. Additionally they embrace a rough folding file that can be utilized to file down thickened or flaking toenails which have grown away from the nailbed on account of repeated nail trauma. That is fairly widespread amongst critical hikers, however the coarse file makes it simple to maintain them quick and flush with the highest of your toes, thereby avoiding irritation additional.

In contrast to conventional blister bandages, ENGO Blister Prevention Patches are adhesive patches which are utilized on to your shoe, to not your pores and skin. They’re ultra-thin, 0.015 inches thick, so your shoe match is unchanged. Meaning they last more (as much as 300 miles) and so they received’t irritate your pores and skin. They’re additionally water resistant and keep hooked up even when they get moist. They work in all sorts of footwear from mountaineering boots to path runners, costume footwear, and ski boots.  You may trim them as wanted to forestall blisters in your heels, toes, the ball of your foot, the facet of your foot, the arch, and so on. I found these about 10 years in the past and nonetheless use them right now.

Band-Support Hydroseal Blister Cushion Bandages are hydrocolloid gel bandages which are state-of-the-art for contemporary wound care. You need to use them on popped or unpopped blisters. They supply a moist therapeutic setting by using the physique’s personal moisture and enzymes to maintain the wound hydrated, selling correct wound therapeutic. They’re designed for use by themselves, with out the necessity for further antibiotic ointment, and you’ll maintain them on repeatedly for days at a time whereas your blister heals. You may inform that the method has begun after 24 hours, when the bandage plumps up a bit after absorbing your physique’s moisture.  They’re one of the best therapy for blisters I’ve ever discovered, which lets you proceed mountaineering whereas letting a blister heal. They’re equal to Compeed bandages, widespread within the UK, however cheaper.

The Professional-Tec Athletics PF Sleeve is a compression sleeve designed for plantar fasciitis that may considerably scale back your heel ache and maintain you on the path. Overuse accidents reminiscent of plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis may end up in vital swelling within the foot, ankle, or decrease calf. Compression of those areas prevents fluid from accumulating in them and relieves the ache related to swelling. Compression additionally helps blood movement from the extremities again to the guts by the venous system, rising the movement of contemporary oxygenated blood by harm websites, notably the place blood movement is often poor just like the Achilles tendon and foot fascia. I’ve used this PF sleeve myself. It slides over your foot and offers added assist for the arch of your foot. You may put on a mountaineering sock over or beneath it and nonetheless put on your favourite footwear whereas it’s at work.