Walking on hot coals: the story of my hiking boots on a hot day in Switzerland

The most important equipment for a successful hike are the boots. Boots must be comfortable, waterproof and stable; fashion is not important.
My boots are very comfortable and I have hiked a lot of kilometers in the alps and in some other places in my made-in-germany “Meindl” boots. But like cars, boots seem to have mileage restrictions.

Last week, I took a day off for a hike with my son to the “Bockmattli”, one of the 2000m summits in the beautiful “Wägital”. It was really hot that day (35 C in Pfäffikon) and we were hoping to get some cool air in the mountains.

Negative. No shadow, and still around 10 km to the top. It was so hot that the tarmac was melting in the sun!

After 3.5 hrs and 3l of water we finally reached the summit… and it was not cool there either.

No idea why I’m smiling…probably because the heat has melted my brain.

But the view was amazing

Great, so let’s go down and have some beer….

If you think going down is easier than going up, you’re wrong (#learningonthewaydown).

At around 2 km before we reached our car I had the feeling that I’m walking in slippers and I checked my boots: the sole of my left boot has detached and was left barely sticking to the front end of the boot. Okay, let’s go the last mile…I knew I had a pair of very comfortable Crocs in the trunk…

This is the final result when made it to the car and believe me, my feet were HOT:

Lesson learned: calculate the total mileage of your boots and check the condition of the sole and its attachment to the rest.
Comfortable shoes are only good when you make it UP and DOWN Kilimanjaro.

And by the way, my Crocs had melted in the car!