Boots and rain gear

What you need

• Boots that fit with the sock you actually wear, broken in before the trip
• Wool or synthetic socks, and a dry spare pair in a bag
• A hooded rain jacket with taped seams and pit zips
• Rain pants that go on over boots, with side zips if you can get them
• Gaiters for bog, snow and alders
• A pack liner or dry bags, because a pack cover fails in real rain

How

1. Fit boots at the end of the day when your feet are their biggest, with the sock you will wear.
2. Walk them in at home for a week before they see a trail.
3. Lace loose over the top of the foot going uphill and tight round the ankle going down.
4. Layer for rain the same way as for cold: wick, warm, wind and water. The shell goes on before you are wet, not after.
5. Vent early. Sweat under a shell soaks you as surely as the rain does.
6. Dry boots slowly, away from direct heat. Newspaper or dry moss inside overnight pulls the water out.
7. Reproof the shell when water stops beading. Wash it first, then treat it. Dirt is what kills the beading.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

Everything else in the pack can be improvised. Boots that fit cannot.

Rain gear is only waterproof while it is clean and looked after. Wash it, reproof it, and it lasts years.