So I have this nice big red bump that developed on my shin from my boots after doing about 12 miles, 4000 ft, this weekend. It took about 3 days to develop. It is painful to touch or have it rub, sort of like an ingrown hair feeling but much more spread out, maybe an inch across. Happened once before as well.

It is not a big deal right now as I am home, but if I was on a longer trip I could see it being a problem. Any advice or experience? I can't seem to find much relevant on Google or with the forum search.

Were you wearing plastic boots? If so, it's shin bang. I keep the uppers of my double plastic outer boots loose enough to keep my shins from banging on the front of the boots unless I absolutely need the support.

I was wearing Baruntse's, so leather. I have had shin bang before with different boots, but I did not notice anything while wearing them this time. Maybe a bit of very minor discomfort, but nothing like shin bang I have had in the past. The other thing is that when I have had shin bang before, it basically only improved after taking off the boots. This has gotten worse, only becoming painful a couple days after wearing the boots.

Still just shin bang?

Were you using a thin liner sock? That sometimes helps to reduce friction there.

Yeah, thin liners under mountaineering socks.

Oh well, guess i'll just chalk it up as one of those things.

I just wanted to follow up. I am pretty sure it is/was a very mild staph/MRSA thing caused by minor rubbing on hair follicles. I don't need to get graphic but I took care of it a few days ago and it is almost gone now.

Anyone else ever have an issue with them?

Your boots came with Staph infection? I wanted to like Baruntse when they first came out, but just couldn't get the fit to work right for me, so I stayed with my older Spantiks.

My buddy and I woke up one morning with bad hangovers and really sore shins.

We thought that maybe our plastic boots were causing the pain - and we were correct.

We remembered that, the night before, we got really drunk and were kicking each other in the shins with our plastic boots.