by nick70 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:26 pm
Apologies, I feel that I would have to disagree with previous 2 posters. It would definitely be boots all the way for me.
IMO there are many stretches that require stiff ankle support. You are not walking on fresh flat pavements. Almost all of the way it is a cobbled walk, to put it mildly at best. Even wearing boots I have went over on my ankle. I recently done WHW again (Mar/Apr this year) and my paths kept crossing with 3 very younger and fitter guys from Ardrossan. One of them had a section (crossing Rannoch Moor) where he thought trail shoes would be ok and he went badly over on his ankle.
The section north of Inversnaid is particularly brutal and tough and I personally, could not imagine crossing that in trail shoes.
There is also another section, just shy of Crianlarich crossroads, where you are literally just walking through (what seems like a never ending) a section of really bad mud/cow ****/horse ****. Again if you get your footing wrong here just wearing trail shoes then you will most likely suffer some form of ingress.
At end of day it is your decision but my personal preference would always be boots.
Enjoy walk when you do it, you will love it.