Boots - are we doing it wrong

[ih8hunting]

How do you propose to support your feet and ankles when carrying out half an elk over uneven and steep terrain without supportive footwear?

Cut the bs-
You can't carry a 1200 lb. elk regardless
you can only adjust to carrying half an elk because it's about the same size as your mother
since I am much wiser- here is my advice to a novice such as yourself.
1. use a scalpel
2. cut the cape, starting at the leg
3. muscles
4. head

if you can't carry meat and a head that's almost as empty as yours- then I'd retire hunting and go into ballet.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Cut the bs-
You can't carry a 1200 lb. elk regardless
you can only adjust to carrying half an elk because it's about the same size as your mother
since I am much wiser- here is my advice to a novice such as yourself.
1. use a scalpel
2. cut the cape, starting at the leg
3. muscles
4. head

if you can't carry meat and a head that's almost as empty as yours- then I'd retire hunting and go into ballet.

Wow

 

[Geewhiz]

Cut the bs-
You can't carry a 1200 lb. elk regardless
you can only adjust to carrying half an elk because it's about the same size as your mother
since I am much wiser- here is my advice to a novice such as yourself.
1. use a scalpel
2. cut the cape, starting at the leg
3. muscles
4. head

if you can't carry meat and a head that's almost as empty as yours- then I'd retire hunting and go into ballet.

Bad day??

 

[WaWox]

I do love the pro boots argument along the lines of "people at this job would laugh at you if you were to show up with lightweight shoes". If the people in that profession *laugh* at the thought of trying something different, then by definition almost, they havent tried anything new. And without experimenting with something new you can stay arbitrarily wrong for arbitrarily long.

We laughed at washing hands in medicine, we laughed at small calibers for big game, and we laughed at minimal trail runners. Without experimenting you simply dont know what would be better.

Note, not disputing the need of a firefighter to wear ultra protective boots that protect against burns, nails or rebar poking through, etc. Steel capped boots have probably saved a lot of feet across a lot of industries. Keep wearing those -- but give minimal shoes a try in the mountains.

And to the goat argument... I have goats. I trim their hooves. Their nails softer than my toe nails, just thicker, and their hooves are incredibly articulate and flexible. Each toehoof can move independently and with huge range of motion. Thats how they climb -- and thats why i need flexible boots on bad terrain, i need to feel the little crevices and little cracks to balance and climb

 

[Coldtrail]

I've battled foot and tendonitis issues most of my adult life, tried lots of different footwear to remedy it. I was able to control tendonitis by switching to lower height boots but the foot pains are a never ending battle. This summer I was starting to end hikes with the onset of metatarsalgia and certainly didn't want that to set in for the fall/winter so I set my stiff boots aside and started using trail runners for my climbing workouts, I've done several climbs in rocky terrain and not once hiked out with anywhere near the pain my stiff hikers gave me. I did 7mi yesterday with a 20lb day pack wearing a well fitting pair of 7" red wings.....no pain for the first time in months. I wear 12" pacs with minimal support daily all winter long with a pack logging lots of miles and rarely have any issues during those months. Will going with less support work for everyone? nope, but worth a try.

I think the boots are like truck tires, a person will spend a fortune on lift kits, wheels and tires to put on a truck that logs 2000mi of driving at 80mph on cement to get to a hunting destination, but run mud tires just in case we get that weather event that happened back in '93 where that 10mi of road got muddy. Then complain that everything upstream from the wheels is wearing out faster. Same goes for boots, buy footwear for the 2000, not for the 10, save your feet, knees, hips, and lower back.