Climbing without toenails?

I’m considering a permanent toenail removal for both of my big toes.

I get excruciating pain under the toenail unless I’m in the softest least precise shoe available. Sometimes even in the soft shoes. I can see the bruising under the toenail. It hurts. The right is a lot worse than the left but it’s getting there too.

Aging, accumulation of foot problems, thicker nails, and less natural padding are all the reasons.

At 21, I lost by big toenail and it was the best my shoes ever fit. Just a strip of athletic tape over the raw spot and i was good to go. I’m sure that it won’t negatively impact my climbing once healed. Too bad it grew back.

I do wonder about other activities . Hiking, skiing, running, are the obvious activities to be concerned about and I do all of those. The less obvious would be barefoot time, playing in the beach, floating a river with the kids, stuff like that. I’m not opposed to watershoes but I just want to know what I’m getting into.

Once they're gone there's no more raw spot. Good to go.

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/121758007/toenail-removal-recovery

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/117044872/permanent-toenail-removal-recovery-time

I have had both big toe nails and the middle toe nail on my right foot removed and had no problems wearing any kind of boot or shoe. No pinching, ingrown nails and no tenderness after a few weeks of healing. 

toenail removal is aid

Math Bert wrote:

toenail removal is aid

But a very comfortable form of aid.

Had it done, no problems. 

Ok I didn’t know this was common till recently. Both of my big toenails have been deeply bruised for years nonstop. They always hurt and if I tap my toe the slightest against anything I want to throw up. I don’t and haven’t worn anything close to a tight shoe in years and it doesn’t matter. Going to look into this thanks!

Very convincing here.

Once healed up, how is barefoot in the sand? As an aspiring foot model, I have to know.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote:

Very convincing here.

Once healed up, how is barefoot in the sand? As an aspiring foot model, I have to know.

You'll have to market yourself to the adaptive market, or do some weekly bondo filler

PWZ wrote:

You'll have to market yourself to the adaptive market, or do some weekly bondo filler

It’s the timing of the whole process that matters. Summer isn’t a big climbing season for me so if I can manage to get it done in late spring that would be ideal. Especially if I can time it for the day after a tour up a local volcano.

I would be spending significant amounts of time in/on lakes in the summer though. That would worry me a little bit.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote:

It’s the timing of the whole process that matters. Summer isn’t a big climbing season for me so if I can manage to get it done in late spring that would be ideal. Especially if I can time it for the day after a tour up a local volcano.

I would be spending significant amounts of time in/on lakes in the summer though. That would worry me a little bit.

I did get an infection one time after I had an ingrown toenail removed by swimming in a front range river because I did not let it heal enough. It is worth having it done and once they are removed they won't grow back if the doctors use the chemicals to kill the root of them. I had the first one done in the late 80's.

I had 8 permanently removed about 2 years ago....no more pain since then.

Definitely worth it.  Had to go about 6 weeks without climbing while they healed though 

Just let your nails grow out and go ski whatever is hard for you leaning back a lot and they’ll fall off all on their own. 

Tzilla Rapdrilla wrote:

Just let your nails grow out and go ski whatever is hard for you leaning back a lot and they’ll fall off all on their own. 

When I was 20 or 21, I’d go on a 20 mile run every weekend. Once I had a little boo-boo on my toe so I wrapped it in athletic tape and went for a run. This made it unable to flex normally and the toenail turned dark. A couple weeks later, I did an Ironman. A couple day later, I pulled the whole thing off with pliers.

Climbing felt great. Too bad they grow back.

I’ve lost smaller ones to running, backpacking, and once one just fell off after a trip to Tonsai. Never lost one to climbing, ice climbing, or skiing.

Hmm, that's a bit of a wrinkle.

X-rays are showing that I've grown a spike of bone from the top of the bone and it's directly under the toenail where it hurts.

The first step will be to remove about half the toenail to relieve pressure. If that works, that would be justification for removing the entire thing.

His suspicion is that it won't work and the next step will be to nip off the extra bone. Unfortunately, that'll probably cause me to miss 3 weeks of work and I'd rather keep my PTO for fun stuff.