beginners - goretex

This is a backpacker's best friend. Not only can it help prevent blisters, it can also provide on-trail relief for blisters. First of all some people ask what is moleskin? No those tiny rodents did not volunteer their backs for the sake of medicine. Rather it is a tough, soft cloth-like material on one side and an adhesive pad on the other side. There are two types you might hear of, moleskin and molefoam. The only difference in the two is the thickness, molefoam is thicker than moleskin.

For moleskin to do it's job, it must be used properly. For the basic blister, cut a square of moleskin slightly larger than the blister. Now comes the tricky part, you must cut a hole the size of the blister in the square. One way to do this easier is to fold the square in half and cut along the fold, like making a paper snowflake. Pull the white covering from the adhesive side and place the moleskin over the blister with the blister in the hole. The adhesive usually doesn't hold very well, so you might want to add some athletic tape to help hold it in place.

Prevention is the second function of moleskin. If you feel a hotspot (a place on your foot that is being rubbed by your boot) you can cover it with moleskin. This reduces the irritation that your boot causes when it rubs this spot. The physics behind moleskin is very simple. A blister occurs from your boot rubbing against your skin. When you place moleskin around the blister, you are making the area around the blister to be the same height as the blister. This reduces the rubbing on the blister. If the blister is taller than the moleskin, you can place multiple layers of moleskin on to attain the desired height.

Blisters are one of hikers worst nightmares. Once blisters form on trail, they are very hard to heal, so take care of them so they don't get infected.