Best shoes for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse

An additional reason I prefer light trail shoes over heavier boots is that over a long day, the work done in lifting ones feet is much lower in light shoes. Over the GT, the difference is stark.

Suppose boots are a mere 200g heavier than trail shoes (they may well be more). And suppose you walk 250km in the course of the GT. If you compare a person wearing boots with a person wearing trail shoes, then the person wearing boots would have lifted 100000 kg more. That is 100 tons. It is a considerable additional effort.

I also find that boots make one less attentive about foot placement. Lighter shoes definitely need to land on a good spot. The extra mental effort required of lighter shoes will need more concentration but is less physically tiring. I find that walking in boots leads to less concentration on placement and more wasted physical effort in kicking things or in taking steps that are not as fluid.

Subjectively put, I feel light and fast in trail shoes and heavy and slow in boots.

Viking wrote: (I have also never had an Almond based hiking diet either)

An almond based diet - now where have I heard that mentioned before

@everyone who wasn't on either GT with me or hasn't heard my story of my food on GT in 2012 - I carried about 1kg of almonds on the GT and had about 500g of them left at the other end. For about a year afterwards I didn't eat almonds

One guy in our group had a similar experience with provitas and marmite - for the last few days of the GT we traded almonds for provitas and marmite...

I've used both. My first Berg hike was the Bell Traverse in full grain leather Hi-Tec's, and I won't do that again. They were big, heavy, and unwieldy on the narrow cliff path, and the soles are way too hard and slippery. Those kinds of trips I now do in Salomon trail runners.

My Salomon Cosmic 4D Gore-tex boots are fantastic for a traverse. They stay relatively dry through the marshlands and have proper ankle support, so they don't give me blisters on the downhills. They have grippy rubber soles, and don't wear out as quickly under heavy loads - The midsoles of some trail runners tend to compress quickly.

The reasons for Salomon are firstly that they are great shoes, but also that Cape Union Mart sell them at half price every now and then But after a couple of Berg hikes you'll be able to make up your own mind.

All in all everything said here is relevant, and indicates a number of things:
- It probably depends on your physique quite a bit here. Again if ankle stability is an issue, best to go with boots.
- I have seen a number of posts stating that specific boots worked for them, and others not.

The same goes for trail runners.

- I would personally recommend Asics Trail Sensors, I currently use a set and they are easily the best shoe I have used. Will buy them again when this pair is done (its lasting quite a while already).
- The Solomon brand is offcourse superb, I always find them too stiff and hard for me, but it is exactly these attributes that will probably make them ideal for a GT distance with a heavy pack.

The upper range New Balance shoes, like the 900-series, are superb, lighter than my favourite Asics, but they don't last long. Soles are good, but the inner back of the shoe wears out quickly (an issue most NB's have).

I will however steer very very well clear of Hitec trial runners. I used one set on a 4-day hike over Mafadi, and their soles did not even last the four days. Comfortable yes, light yes, but poor grip, poor stability over steep terrain, and as short lasting as anything. Be aware, the CUM sales guys love recommending these....

Pack weight: Yes, I would say that if your carrying a heavy pack (fully packed for 12 days), then I would look for footwear that offers a little more ankle support. If it's a shorter hike with a lighter pack then trail shoes are good. Don't forget boots typically offer better water resistance - so when walking in the early mornings trail shoes protect your feet from getting wet (unless you have good waterproof trail shoes)

Double socks: I typically use thicker socks with my trail running shoes when hiking. (as opposed to running in my trail running shoes). Have you tried buying a thicker insole for your trail running shoes?

Cheers.

relevitt wrote: Questions for people advocating trail runners:

- Is rucksack weight a consideration?

- Can you (and do you) use double socks with trail runners?