Start off your day of hiking on the right foot

« Mountains are like the world: they belong to those who get up early! »

It is true that nature often reserves its most lenient conditions and its most beautiful lights to hikers who leave at dawn. Yet it is not natural to wake up, whilst on holiday, at a time earlier than any other working day of the year. Especially when you know that the quality of your sleep will condition the pleasure experienced throughout the day of hiking that is about to begin. Here is the ideal morning routine that will allow the hiker to be efficient on waking and optimize these few moments that separate getting out of bed to departure on the trails.

OUR TWO EARLY BIRDS:

Brice Sarti, guide and founder of A Piuma, has been accompanying groups on the GR20 for almost ten years. With over sixty treks across his Île de Beauté, he describes himself as a ‘mountain artisan’.

Clément Scalliet is a physiotherapist and osteopath based in Lyon. He works with all who are passionate about sport: athletes with Olympic ambitions to Sunday runners. He therefore knows well all the reactions of a moving body.

05:00 => The alarm clock

The morning routine begins at the precise moment when a small noise pulls you brutally out of the arms of Morpheus. Brice Sarti explains the reasoning that pushes him to shorten his night: “The starting time of a hike is determined by the road map of the day. Knowing that it is necessary to ideally travel two thirds of the way planned before lunch. It is therefore necessary to subtract 60 minutes from the start time to calculate your waking time.” Between the moment you open your eyes and your legs go into action, an hour will pass. Here's how to occupy it.

05:02 => Switch on one's headlamp

After quickly silencing the alarm clock of your watch, “which avoids the presence of the phone in the sleeping bag,” our Corsican guide recommends directly taking “the headlamp deposited nearby, using its small red light, specially made not to disturb the walkers who are still asleep”.

05:10 => Prepare your feet

Once dressed, comes the crucial moment of preparing the most important instrument of any hiker: their feet. It is necessary to protect and relieve these feet often traumatized by the previous days’ kilometres.

To do so, simply open the care kit we have developed for this purpose:

• From the kit, first apply the anti-friction cream to limit chafing and irritation associated with long hours of walking.
• This cream is a perfect complement to the cold recovery gel with which you will have massaged your feet the night before.
• Next, place the Foot Protector or Cap Protector on your feet and toes to prevent the worsening or emergence of blisters. The silicone composition of these protections, their light and imperceptible construction as well as their durability make them a faithful ally of the hiker.

Clément Scalliet adds: “For optimal regeneration, it is necessary to leave feet in the air during the night, so that wounds or any blisters can dry and begin their healing process. Then, in the morning, you have to protect them again. In a logic of healing, but also prevention.”

05:15 => Put on your insoles and your shoes

Properly protected for the rough day ahead, feet often reluctantly rejoin these shoes they left behind the night before. Brice informs: “Putting on your shoes may seem trivial but it is a very important moment. I really take my time.”

First, carefully reinstall the insoles in the shoes. When you arrived at the shelter, you had removed the insoles from the shoes to insert a shoe dryer. Then, “carry out a very precise lacing, stretching all the laces well, since it is when the foot moves around in the shoe that friction occurs”.

05:20 => A bit of careful hygiene and minor nursing

With your shoes on, you can now clean yourself up, ensuring an impeccable presence on the roads. “Now smear on the sunscreen, which is not a luxury, even early in the morning.”

05:25 => Fill up with water

“A mistake made by 99% of hikers: filling the water reserves just before departure, even though the bag is already sealed. Since they usually have a Camelback or bulky water bottles, they are forced to reopen their bag, undo it, and thus change the settings ...” And as for the minimum volume of water to start your day? “1.5 L. Even if you plan to cross springs, they may be dried out. Better to play it safe!”

05:30 => Sealing the bag

The crucial step. The one that concludes the start. The mountain artisan warns: “The bag is the hiker's nerve centre. You have to pay meticulous attention and tidy it strategically. Arrange it according to the priorities of the day: what won’t be needed until the evening goes at the bottom, the midday picnic in the middle, and frequently used items or those needed in an emergency (raincoat, energy bars, water, first-aid kit) on top, easily accessible.”

05:35 => Breakfast

Nutritionists agree: breakfast is essential to start your day of hiking, especially if you want to avoid overwhelming hypoglycaemia promised a few miles ahead. Clément Scalliet mentions that “in the mountains, breakfast is often the classic bread, butter and jam”. Therefore, it is important to supplement it with energy bars and dried fruits. As for drinks, Brice's preference is tea for “its unrivalled hydration virtues”.

05:50 => Wake your body up and warm up

Now dressed, equipped, and full, you have ten minutes left before you go. A brief moment of digestion that can be used to “warm up by stimulating the muscles or joints sore from previous days with dynamic stretching.”

05:58 => Adjust your bag

Brice again insists on the need to readjust your bag before starting off: “After reaching the shelter, hikers have the annoying habit of carrying their bag by the shoulder straps, instead of the upper handle. This disrupts the settings, even by a few millimetres. So, readjusting the bag should become a reflex before each departure.”

05:59 => A last glance

Just before leaving the shelter, once everything is packed up, take a brief look around to make sure nothing has been forgotten.

06:00 => The departure

You are now ready! Just in time. Ready to start a beautiful day of hiking, setting off on the right foot.