Could Socks Be Hurting Your Toes!? A Case Study for Hikers, Climbers, & Backpackers

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I’m sure a lot of thru-hikers know about this, but it was news to me. I wasn’t aware that our socks could cause trauma to our toes. I’ll let the video do the talking on that subject; so, I’ll take a little time here to talk about how we never stop learning.

I have done a lot in the outdoors. I have had formal instruction and informal mentorship and have done my own fair share of teaching. But for all of those interactions, we still typically will only bring up the topics that are germane to the trip at hand. So, for example, we would often start our basic outdoors classes talking about footwear choices. As part of those conversations, of course we would talk about fit. And part of that talk about fit was about making sure that we didn’t have shoes or boots that would allow us to bang our toes into the inside-front of those shoes or boots. That happens a lot, and therefore is talked about a lot.

What I had never run into was someone who had their socks create foot pain. It simply never came up. I had never had a partner or student have foot pain on the uphill section of an approach or hike. I had never had an instructor or mentor have that type of pain. Obviously, I had never experienced it, myself.

So, what drive me to discover the root cause and the eventual set of solutions was simply curiosity. Once I had experienced something for which I had no frame of reference, I could have written it off as an anomaly. By definition, it was an anomaly. But I didn’t. I got curious. Could this happen again? What is “this” anyway? Is there a solution?

In some ways, having the blog and YouTube channel has only helped this. If I have a question about my experiences, I now have a reflex to think, “maybe other people will have questions about this, too?”

Curiosity can be a super power.

If we are curious, we usually aren’t judgmental. I’m not criticizing myself if I’m wondering why I had an experience; in other words, I’m not saying, “why did I mess up and have that negative experience.” Instead, I’m just saying to myself, “huh… I wonder what that was about?”

If we’re curious, we immediately have an in towards connecting with others. If I want to learn something about someone else’s experience, it is pretty likely that the other person will be open to sharing (not always, but usually).

If we’re curious we can show up with empathy when others have questions, having noted the times we have had questions.

If we’re curious, we are also humble… at least humble enough to admit that we don’t have all the answers despite how much expertise we might have around a certain subject.

So, being open to always learning not only gives us a chance to, obviously, gain new skills or information, but it also helps us build muscle memory around that super power of curiosity.

It was fun making this video because I started it without an end in mind. I had toe pain. I wanted to discover a solution to that problem. And along the way, I learned something.