Q&A Thruhiking Sweden: Shoes & Feet

Shoes & feet

• What shoes did you use and did they hold up the entire way?

  I used Altra Lone Peak 4.5 and Lone Peak 5. The first pair - Lone Peak 4.5 broke quite quickly for both Lukas and I, but we still wore them all the way to Grövelsjön (1432 km). I then changed to Lone Peak 5, and these I used for about 700 km. Then, my feet started hurting so I changed to a new pair and added a padded insole. These I used the remaining 500 km or so. Both of the Lone Peak 5 shoes are still fine, and I now continue to use them at home.

• How do the feet cope with walking so far?

  Honestly, I don’t think it was the distance that was the problem, rather the ground. While I was in the mountains it was quite fine. Sure, I was sore every day, but that’s something to expect from moving all day every day. As I said, I think the problem was that the ground got harder further south, and my shoes weren’t very padded. Basically South of Mora my feet started hurting more and more. I don’t know if it would have helped if I would have done anything differently, but I’ve always had a problem walking or standing for long, and especially on hard surfaces.

• How did your body cope and do you have any tips for keeping your feet in good form?

  See the above answer. The rest of the body was quite fine, I was just very stiff all the time when I took a break. I didn’t do any stretching, yoga or similar, and perhaps that would have helped. I just find it rather boring and have no motivation to do it, so I never really did. BUT, something that was very important for my feet was to clean, dry and lotion my feet every evening before going to bed. I used Calendula Salve, but something else might work for your feet. I found out that “regular” feet lotion didn’t work for my feet very well, and also smelled quite bad.