A few years ago we were on our week-long scout camp at Grand Daddy Lake in the high Uinta Mountain Range with the troop. You have to backpack 4 miles up the mountain from the trail-head to get to the campsite. One of our leaders, within the first mile, noticed that there was a noticeable “hot spot” on the back of his foot towards his heal. He was a little confused on how or why this was happening as his boots were very well broken in and it was such a short period of time into the hike. He found a stump on the side of the trail and started to dress the now forming blister with some mole skin. Slipping his boot back on he started back onto the trail. A few more miles in and we noticed that he was having trouble walking. The pain was getting worse and worse. As we got to our campsite, he instantly took off his boot to discover the largest blister any of us has ever witnessed. It was the size of golf ball and had “deroofed”. Come to find out, the insert within his boots was causing just enough friction with each step that would make the week miserable for him.

One of the first indicators that your getting a blister is the “hot spot”. When you rub your hands together for a short period of time you can feel your hands getting warmer… right? It’s the friction of your boot or sock that is causing that “hot spot”. The same goes for your hands. Guaranteed, if I rake up leafs without gloves on I end up getting a blister on the palm of my hand.

One way to treat a blister, like our fellow scout leader above, is to use moleskin or a doughnut bandage. In his case the blister was too large for the piece of moleskin that was used and continued to grow and burst with each step.

If your blister’s roof has not torn, do not poke it with a pin. That will invite infection to get in. Use mole skin around the blister. Or if you do not have mole skin, simply use a bandage or tape that will not slip.

If the blister’s roof is torn or deroofed, apply ointment and cover with a bandage.

Average time for a blister to disapear is three to seven days. In the case of our scout leader, his deroofed wound took about 2 weeks to heal.

A little backpacking hack that I have is duct tape. I will wrap about 20 feet onto my can of mosquito spray to have for an emergency. I will use a square of duct tape to place on the “hot spot” if I feel one coming on during my hike. I will remove the duct tape Immediately after I’m done hiking for the day to allow my skin to breath and health itself. Do not use the duct tape on your deroofed blister, unless it’s a last resort.