[sarbar]

That is very true-You can actually make crampons fit on many types of shoes-though I wear my walking crampons only on my heaviest boots-the others are too flexible and the crampons never fit right.

[Newt]

Mens Montrail Torre GTX. Comfort right out of the box. Before that, NB 901's NN

[#19]

Interesting 'back and forth" between allison and sarbar. Having been around quite a few girl soccer and softball players, and having to buy "boys" shoes for my girls because that is all we could find - I'd have to agree with allison. Feet are feet. And sarbar maybe right about "woman's" boots being made narrower. But I think feet come in all sizes on both genders. Me I gots lots a boots cuz I like 'em. Guess that's my feminie side showing. Raichle, Koflach, Asolo, Lowa

[Femme fatale]

At least you have a femme side. Allison's feet don't. Make sure you can fit tampons on your boots, that is a key feature.

[zola budd]

Whatever happened to hiking barefoot?

[MooseAndSquirrel]

Hey that South African barefoot temptress forced poor All American Girl Mary Decker Slaney to fall down and go boom in that infamous Olympic race. Mary showed her class by whining about it endlessly and pointing to her scrapes and bruises while lying on the track infield- boohoohoopoormesob. I think that performance was topped by a wide margin later, though, by our own lovable Tonya "Hubcap" Harding when she broke a skating boot shoelace during a comeback performance and bawled & begged for the judges to allow her a retry.

[Larry]

I'm looking at my boots now. They are Asolo something-or-others. Just says Asolo on the side in little plastic yellow letters. Sure are comfy though.

[hikerjo]

[Allison]

Dude, you are so not old enough to remember Zola Budd! Mary Decker was my roll modle! An amazing athlete, and even if you think ZB didn't elbow her out of the race (SHE DID) she don' be worthy of comparison to Tonya. I'm going to avoid commenting on Mountaineers fiddling with crampons.

[salish]

I've been hiking in Sundowners for about three years now, and I'll have to resole them soon. They are at Dave Page's shop being stretched right now (my feet keep getting wider). This past December I bought a classic pair of those old heavy lugged Raichle boots off this site from a private party, and they are just too big for me and I can't get them to fit. I'll probably be selling them soon on Ebay. I still really like those classic Norwegian welted boots. These would have been strictly for rough, steep, off trail hiking, by the way. In the meantime I bought a pair of Vasque Apex mountaineering boots off Ebay, and I can't believe how easy they were to fit, although I did have to get Dave Page to stretch the right boot. These are brand new boots and I got them for $80. I put them on and hiked into work on Monday (five miles) and I had nary a blister. These are the full shank Apex models without the goretex, I think. So, if these work out they will be my off trail, climbing boot. I was really surprised to be able to walk so comfortably in a full shank boot. The Sundowners are fine for on trail and light off trail, but not in the ruff stuff.

[The Guy From Bend]

For a number of years, when I was young and foolish, I wore Converse Chuck Taylor hightop sneakers. (I have strong ankles.) Did the Buck Cr. Pass - Image Lake - Lyman Lake - Spider Meadow loop in them. I remember crossing Spider Pass and running into a couple of old school mountaineer types with ropes, climbing gear, etc. Boy did they look at me like I was nuts! (Rightly so, I suppose.) Nowadays, I just wear a pair of Columbia Sportswear lightweight boots. I could never properly break in leather boots. I always got blisters no matter what precautions I took.

[Steve]

After a few years of use of the disappointing One Sport Moraines I now use Scarpa SL's. It's not a great boot, despite the high ratings it gets, but it's good enough for most of what I do. I also have an ancient pair of Asolo plastic boots for the glacier ascents.

[Dante]

I like my Asolo's--the one's that were a Backpacker Editor's Choice (and more importantly on sale ) a couple years ago. They are super boots for their weight BUT after only two years of occasional hiking there is not much sole left on them I'm thinking about trying GI desert boots for summer trail hikes. I wore out my jungle boots after I got out of the Army. The price was right and they worked fine but were HEAVY due to the spike protection. The desert boots are lighter and should be cheap.

[Stefan]

I have a pair of Asolo MTF 700s. Bought them in Canada. For some reason they are not available in the US. Awesome boots so far. I wanted something with more than 3/4 shank but less than a full shank. These are the boots baby! These are heavy duty backpacking boots which are stiff enough for off trail but not too stiff for the trail. My boots kick your arse!

[MooseAndSquirrel]