Been hiking in my Asolo boots for over a year. Never a blister. However, here in Midwest (Illinois) not a lot of ups & downs. Recently, in my hike in the Smokys, same boots, bad blisters on the ankles. ?? Leaving for my Thru-Hike next week. Should I be concerned with these boots, or have I seen the worst of ankle blisters?
Ficade
Where on your ankles do the blisters occur? Ankle blisters are usually caused by tying the uppers to tight. You can apply duct to the hot spot before you start hiking in the morning to prevent the boot from rubbing. It realy sounds like the upper is not broke in yet. Which Asolo are you hiking in?
Darth Pacman
I did apply some duct tape when they got “hot”. Both ankles by the way. I hike in Asolo FSN 95 Gore Tex. Size 11. I wear a 10 1/2. I’m more concerned if they will break again, once they blister the first time and heal. But I will take your tying the uppers to tight advise. Thanks.
Ficade
I hiked last year in Asolo 535s. Have gone through several pairs of these without a problem. However, day 1 I developed a hot spot and after a couple of days had a huge blister on one foot that took me more than a month to totally shed (pictures available at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ecbuck). Never had a problem with the other foot and didn’t have another problem the rest of the hike (except when I changed to a larger size - swapping back to new boots in my original size worked fine).
I think sometimes the stars align to give you a foot problem. If, however you have used these boots for more than a year with similar distances and loads, I don’t think you will be any better off changing versus sticking with what you got.
steamboat
You may want to consider going to lows. I used to have very bad ankles and went to an Othopedic Doctor. He told me high boots give you a false sense of security, that if you can break your ankle with a high tops, what good are they. What holds up your ankles, knees and back is your ankles, knees and back. Ankle covers or braces are counter productive. Think about it what exercise does your ankle get, walking and running do little. Hiking or aerobics will strengthen them, they did with me.
Blue Jay
I use a preachers knot on my boots so I can tighten the lower half for the down hills and keep the collar loose. Ask any good boot outfitter how to and they will show you the method. It worked perfect for me. I did not get a single blister the entire hike last year and changed boots 3 times. One pair only lasted 4 days.
Papa Smurf
Where in Illinois are you from? I’m in Decatur if you need any local help. I’d be glad to help anyway possible. Email me and we could go hike Starved Rock this weekend. I used the preachers knot on a pair of fire boots that gave me ankle problems and the knot worked wonders, you might want to try that if you get problems. I had a pair of Montrails that never gave me problems, until the AT. The ankle cup seemed to be to deep. If this is the issue then you might need another boot. Speaking of Montrail, the website had a good diagram of the specialty knots.
Good luck,
TB (scott)
TurkeyBacon
Get some of those campheed patches from J&J at the Rite Aid. Or slap on some duct tape and keep gettin up.
Virginian