What is the right footwear for spring hiking: winter hiking boots or trail runners? When can you switch between the two? There is a point where avoiding frostbite trumps lightweight footwear, and wearing insulated boots still makes sense.
Knowing when to choose between them requires understanding:
- Where is the snow on your intended route?
- How deep will it be?
- What is the snow consistency like?
- How long do you need to hike or snowshoe through it?
- What will the air temperature be (at elevation)?
How to Decide
Air Temperature: How warm or cold is the air temperature? Walking in ice water in warm sunny weather is a lot less taxing on your body than doing it in cold, wet weather. How serious is the hypothermia risk going to be?
Map the snow line: Start by mapping your route and looking at the elevation profile (tools like Caltopo.com are valuable for this). If you track weather forecasts, avalanche forecasts, and regional trip reports (including historical trip reports) over a 1-2 month window before your trip, you can develop a pretty good mental model of where the snow line is week-to-week and the elevation where you’re likely to hit snow. Higher elevations often retain snow longer in spring than valley elevations, so try to find out from a local source where the snow line is. This can influence the route you choose and whether to defer your trip.
Solar Heating: How much sunlight does your route receive? How much forest cover does it have? What other microclimate variables might limit the rate of snowmelt? For example, sun-sheltered areas like ravines or cols are more likely to retain snow longer.
Surface Conditions: How much hiking traffic has your route received over the winter? Popular routes often develop a monorail layer of ice that persists longer than surrounding areas, while less popular routes melt off quickly. Microspikes can provide sufficient traction to hike monorail until it turns the consistency of mashed potatoes. After that, there’s almost no way to avoid postholing, even when wearing snow shoes.
Spring Footwear Strategies
My spring hiking footwear can be grouped into three categories: winter footwear, three-season footwear, and hedges between the two. The hedges are helpful when you want to hike in three-season footwear through limited areas with winter conditions.
- Winter style boots, traction, and flotation
- Three-season footwear and traction
- Insulation Hedges between the two extremes
The hedges between the two extremes are the most interesting because they provide a lightweight way to extend the range of my trail runners so they can be worn when surface conditions are borderline winter.
- The oven-roasting bags are worn over my wool socks inside my trail runners. They work a lot like waterproof, insulated boots but with less insulation. You sweat a little in them (see vapor barrier socks) but cold water doesn’t repeatedly soak your socks and flush away all the retained heat. The advantages of this method are it’s light weight and that it doesn’t require a larger-sized shoe. But it only provides a moderate insulation benefit when wearing mesh trail runners.
- I’ve also had success using Sealskinz waterproof insulated socks, which also fit inside my trail shoes without requiring a larger-sized shoe. They’re worn over my feet like regular socks but lined with fleece inside a waterproof membrane. You sweat a bit in them, they require gentle washing, and they take a long time to dry. On the flip side, they’re an excellent hedge that makes it possible to hike in trail runners, even when extended post-holing is required. And they only weigh twice as much as an extra pair of socks.
What’s your hiking footwear strategy for “spring conditions.”
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