How to Care for Your Feet while Hiking

Video Transcript

Hi this is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I am here to talk to you about feet safety in the Appalachian Mountains. Now when you are in the mountains your feet are very, very important because they are your only method of transportation. If you hurt your feet you are going to have a very hard time going anywhere and if you are stuck way up on top of the mountain you are going to have a lot of trouble. So there are several things that you can do to make sure your feet are safe. The first thing you can do is to make sure that you have good boots, you need good boots to keep your feet sturdy when you are hiking, to keep you safe from water and to keep you safe from blisters. Another thing you can do is keep a close eye on where you are walking. You never know when you are going to walk on a rock that looks like it is solid but is actually loose and if you step on a loose rock you can really hurt yourself. You should also be careful with cracks in rocks because it is possible to get your foot stuck in the crack of a rock and to not be able to get it out. Hikers who have been hiking by themselves have on occasion actually gotten stuck in rocks, been unable to find help and then have died because of exposure. So it is very, very important to keep a very close eye on where you are stepping and do not put your feet in areas that look iffy. If you see a little crevice in the rocks do not even think about stepping there, step away from it. It is also important when you are hiking down hill to have a different method for walking. Remember as you are going down you are gaining momentum. Do not help out gravity and go too fast because then you can have a slip, fall face-forward and then you are in a lot of trouble. Keep a very close eye on loose rocks when you are going down hill. And from time to time you may actually want to slide down on a rock rather then climbing down. If you are in a very steep area you really should consider leaning back, supporting yourself with your arms and then letting your legs slowly slide down, rather than trying to walk and flipping over.

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