Plant foot when steep uphill?

eoperator

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When going uphill steep do you dig in toe keeping foot relatively level or flex ankle to plant entire foot? Any expert advice?
 

Marbles

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Depends on footwear and terrain. In mud/snow I will kick a step. On large rocks I normally want as much of my sole as possible in contact. In slick vegetation I tend to use the edges of the sole to cut in to it. Sometimes I will duck foot, at others I will pigeon toe. There is not really one methot, but rather a collection of methods that all suit different situations.

It is really whatever foot position keeps me from slipping with the least effort.

In mountaineering, the French technique is useful and it can be applied to more than just snow and ice. https://www.climbing.com/skills/french-technique/
 

*zap*

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very steep and correct footwear I kick a shelf in for the front of my foot and an ice axe can be very helpful.
 
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Trekking pole 1 in. Trekking pole 2 in. Then move the foot.

Foot placement varies for the terrain and conditions. Marbles is pretty much spot on. There’s times it just the toes on the rock (depending on how much climbing surface there is).
 

Poser

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I’ve spent hours thinking about this and my conclusion is that you should plant the entire foot until the terrain dictates that you cannot.

If you’re going up a sustained slope and wearing a pack, you’re in the muscular endurance zone (conversational pace -anything faster is not sustainable). Since you’re going slower than a normal walking pace and since you have the additional stress on the body of your pack weight, this puts you in a position to rest step, when need be, on your skeletal system while on placing minimal load on your muscles. Take longer strides, plant your feet, fully extend the downhill leg. There is technique involved much like skinning (skiing uphill) and it’s all based around efficiency and distribution of load. Front pointing on your toes is going to place additional stress on the muscular vs. the skeletal system and causes you to take an extra motion to rest step.
 
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daddie63

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I believe it was Bolen Lewis who had a quick video om how to hike uphill. It was a technique that allowed someone to slowly move uphill without having to take many breaks.
I think it was shot at a KUIU seminar but I cant seem to relocate it.
 

Poser

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I believe it was Bolen Lewis who had a quick video om how to hike uphill. It was a technique that allowed someone to slowly move uphill without having to take many breaks.
I think it was shot at a KUIU seminar but I cant seem to relocate it.

I saw that. It was the rest step. Commonly used by high altitude mountaineers.
 

daddie63

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Is that what it was? Haven’t tried it yet and couldn’t relocate the video. Thank you
 

BBob

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Is that what it was? Haven’t tried it yet and couldn’t relocate the video. Thank you
It's very useful if you have a long ways to go or find yourself out of shape and still need to get there. It'll slow you down though so plan accordingly.

 

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