Ben and M-Cheezy Hiking Upstate New York in KSO Vibram Five Fingers

By Justin Owings on Oct 6, 2009 | In user stories | Leave a comment »

Ta-da! Ben and M-Cheezy make it to the top of one of the seven peaks at Harriman Highlands in their fivefinger KSOs!

Ben in the woods of Harriman Highlands, New York.

M-Cheezy perches atop a bouldered hillside in her VFF KSO-so rocky!

Ben emailed me about a post he did on his recent 8.6 mile hike up and down seven peaks at Harriman Highlands, which is "upstate-ish" New York. The above photos were taken from that hike, in which Ben and his friend "M-Cheezy" are showing off their FiveFinger KSOs (in black and grey, respectively).

Ben has a solid write-up about it over at his blog, which details a few VFF hiking mishaps as Ben tries to keep up with an ex-orienteering four-month pregnant guide! Here's an excerpt:

I got a bunch of comments from the fellow hikers about my shoes, but I had my friend M-Cheezy with me, who also rocked her gray and green KSO's. Some of the others thought I was going to hurt myself or roll my ankles since the shoes provide no support, but I informed them that I have greater balance and flexibility with these than traditional rigid hiking boots. Sure I'd be able to feel the rocks beneath my feet, but that's just superficial pain, nothing serious.

The lead guide was a four-months pregnant Australian woman who just absolutely tore up the trail at an incredible pace. This was no walk in the park. She had a background in orienteering, which is basically racing around with a map and compass, trying to get to checkpoints along the way. If you're not able to form your own opinion of it, it's badass. For the first half of the day before we broke for lunch I was able to stay to the front of the group and was having a great time avoiding sharp rocks and scrambling up steep passages in the mountain. Climbing up these steep areas with both hands and feet is called "rock scrambling", which turns hikes into full body workouts. My shoes handled the climbing just fine.

Things turned for the worse after our lunch break.

How's that for leaving you hanging? Go check out Ben's blog to read the rest!

Previously from Ben, a half-marathon in VFF KSOs.

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 710 articles and 258 comments.