This is going to be a lengthy post, I hope it helps you.
Here is the list of boots I’ve owned for hunting, backpacking, and hiking the last four years in Colorado.
Scarpa Kinesis GTX
Zamberlan 1030 Sella
Crispi Hunter
Lowa Tibet LL
Scarpa Kuiu Rebel K 8
This is just a list of the ones I’ve owned and used. There have been around a dozen other pairs from various brands that I wore in my home and returned.
In the last three years I have:
-had my foot professionally measured and done it myself as well.
-worn dozens of combinations of socks to include wool socks, synthetic socks, silk liners, wool liners, toe socks (injinji), thin, thick, and no socks.
-used duct tape, athletic tape, leukotape, moleskin, and Compeed (amazing stuff).
-tried gobs of off-the-shelf insoles to include the ones you bake and mold to your foot at home.
I have never had issues with blisters until around 5 years ago. I have always had weak ankles and learned over twenty year ago as a college student and backpacking guide to mitigate that using quality-built, stable, supportive footwear.
I have discovered that feet change as we age and issues that were minor almost always develop into more severe issues over time unless corrected via strengthening, orthotics, or surgery. Just one example, high arches, strong but overused calves/Achilles, poorly balanced foot; this combo sometimes results in boney protrusions on the heel as haglunds Deformity (back of heel) or heel spurs (bottom of heel).
My results from all of this obscene amount of research, purchasing, and testing is that: stiff-ish boots + uphill + under load + heat/moisture + untrained feet = heel blisters.
Solutions? In my case, none are very simple. You can remove a variable or two from the arithmetic above and not develop blisters. But my experience is that at some point in mountain hunting, the uphill/under load/heat/moisture portion of the equation is non-negotiable. That leaves only two real ways to mitigate this issue. Footwear and training.
I firmly believe that the reason I didn’t get blisters all those years ago was that I was always on my feet. In a military academy, we were always wearing shitty footwear, walking somewhere. Standing on bleachers in uniform at football games, marching to meals, running up and down a hill in crappy boots, running to class in leather low quarters, etc etc. Then in summer, I’d pop down to New Mexico in some heavy Asolo boot that was like a Cadillac compared to my combat boots and walk for miles and miles under load. Not. One. Blister. My feet were trained and conditioned.
Fast forward to now. I sit at my job. I sit around watching my kids. I sit at the brewery and I sit on my mountain bike and sit on the chair lift. Every pair of shoes I wear is comfy as hell. I bought them that way! My feet aren’t conditioned.
I just returned from a few days backpacking in the Never Summer Wilderness. I wore the stiff Scarpa Kuiu boots mentioned above as a shakedown for this September. They fit great and have some many nice features. My heels were pretty wrecked after 4500 uphill feet the first two days. The boots fit, I wore great socks and my insole is good for my foot shape and I didn’t even sweat too bad. But…my feet aren’t conditioned.
It does NOT matter how good your boots fit. If there is any friction—and there WILL be at least some friction going uphill under load in stiff soled boots, I don’t care what anyone says—and you have been wearing flip flops all summer, your heels will react to that friction. Full stop.
All of that to say this. Mitigate all the variables you can. Be relentless about fit. About moisture management and about quality. But understand what many here have finally started concluding, you may not need boots with a medium to firm stiffness in the sole. They are heavier, generally slow to break in, and your feet aren’t conditioned to walk in them because most of us don’t wear them enough. Then we set off hunting in them because ”they fit great.” Once you have removed the variables of fit and foot structure, understand that you may still develop blisters. You can only mitigate that through less stiff, more flexible shoes, or training your feet to deal with the kind of shoe you never wear.
This fall I plan on a new approach. Comfort and speed before the kill (like a Hoka Kaha or Altra Olympus Mid and a light ankle brace) and a pair of ”pack out boots” in the truck waiting for me after the first load.
I hope all that helped. Truly. This process kind of sucks.
