Hiking Socks. Yawn-a-rama!
Secondary to hiking boots or shoes, socks are theeeee most important item to seriously consider when prepping for your hike.
Firstly dip deep into that wallet and buy Merino wool socks. They’re more breathable – avoiding the sweaty ick of cotton socks – more odour resistant, feel softer and last longer than your bog standard £3.99 polyester walking socks.
In fact Darn Tough offers a lifetime guarantee – your old socks wear out, get a new pair for free!
The catch is they’re expensive. The bonus, you don’t need lots of pairs. I’m a gear-a-holic so I bought 7 different types to try out and find my unicorn hiking sock!
Lets check out Smartwool – an American company that produces a range of merino wool products.
They range in thickness from Zero, Light, Full, Extra and Maximum. They have a decent sock finder section on their website.
The first pair I tried was the Smartwool PhD Outdoor Medium crew which is 65% Merino wool. PhD stands for ‘Performance of The Highest Degree’ – meaning it’s a more technical sock than the bog standard Smartwool sock: it’s has INDUSTRUCTAWOOL! Technology which improves durability at key points like the heel and foot pad, gender specific fit, mesh zones to increase breathability and 4 way stretch to fully support your foot.
This one cost a whopping £19.99 from Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports. And bigger fool me because the Smartwool PhD has actually been upgraded to a newer improved version called the Smartwool Hike. The improvements are reduced piling, better mesh zones and even better fit!
Side by side, they look and feel a bit lighter and softer and seemed to have piled less, post 10 day hike. I picked up 3 pairs of Smartwool Hike Full Cushions – in black, chestnut and light gray – for £16.67 each from Wiggle as part of a multi buy deal, which is actually cheaper than the older version I bought. Dammit!
For comparison I also added the Smartwool Hike Light Cushion in Military Olive – £19.16 from Ellis Brigham – and to be honest I found the less-cushioned sock a bit more breathable, a bit like a less clingy girlfriend – and found myself diving into my pack each morning to put those on. I ended up using the Full cushioned to keep the tootsies warm in my sleeping bag at night. An expensive toe warmer for sure.
To complete the collection I went old-stool with the Smartwool Classic Hike Light in taupe – for a mere £12.00 from Ellis Brigham. These don’t have all the bells and whistles of the Hike and let’s face it, don’t have the looks or features of the Hike sock. But having swapped out the Hike and Classic on a week long trek, it actually barely notice the difference. The Hike did fit better than the classic but is it worth an extra £8…probably not.
So I kinda went overboard with my Smartwool shopping buying only one Darn Tough sock, the Darn Tough Spur Lightweight. This actually is most comparable to the Smartwool Hike Light cushion and actually feels very similar on the foot section but thinner, lighter and more breathable up the leg. It hasn’t piled as much as the Smartwool and comes with that sweet lifetime guarantee. These cost £21.99 from ultralightoutdoorgear.com.
I read a lot online about blister avoidance and one thing that was being recommended constantly was a liner sock, which frankly I’d never heard of before. So I picked up the Injinji Nuwool Lightweight liner – £12.35 from Feetus.co.uk and – of course – the Smartwool Hike Liner £9.33 from Ellis Brigham.
The great news is that after using both liners, I was blister free! Now caveat, I had broken in my hiking boots over a few big hikes with a single pair of socks and my feet were destroyed by huge blisters! Using the liners coincidened with my boots being all good and broken in. However, with just one pair of socks I did develop tiny blisters on the side of my big toe and heel after this so I credit the liners with saving me from this tiny integument terror!
The Injinji toe socks are just that, each individual toe in it’s own snuggle pocket. I found them a bit awkward to get on but actually using them on multiway hikes, they were awesome! They felt really snug and comfortable and low and behold – no blisters at the end of the day. Although I was mercilessly bullied by my friends when out to dinner miid-hike – apparently they’re not a good look!
I swapped the Injinji’s out for the cheaper Smartwool liners – but alas these seemed loose and my feet seemed like a bunch of sweaty grubs during the day so much so that I only wore them twice in 10 days and reached for my Injinji’s for the rest.
So the winning combo for my multiday spring hike was Injinji Nuwool toe-sock liner with the Smartwool Hike Light, Classic Light or Darn Tough Spur sock.
I found the Smartwool liners too sweaty and loose and the full cushions socks too thick – maybe these are more suitable for the autumn and winter or as an expensive way to warm your feet at the end of the day.
