My hiking footwear has been rather heavy ankle-supporting hiking boots with leather uppers and Vibram soles. My current Columbias are about to wear out.

I've been thinking about going with a lighter shoe, but having weak ankles for a long time, and a deathly fear of ankle roll, I still want some support there.

At the same time, I've thought I had finally weaned myself off that stupid Sportsman's Guide catalogue, and here in the mail comes another felled tree in the form of a full-color catalogue with this in it:

Montrail Namche hikers.

Anybody tried these? They seem to be a high-topped, yet a light shoe. Is it a good union or a bad marriage? At $44, that's 55 percent off.

The ad said it was voted "Blah blah" in Backpacker in 2007. I've kept the yearly gear issues from BP for the last decade, since I figure I'm buying two years late. And there in the '07 gear issue of BP was a nice review of this shoe. (Lord knows how one gets one of those.)

BTW, Namche is for a little town below Everest in Nepal where they have the Namche Bazaar every Saturday. Maybe Montrail should have called them Bazaars instead since that color -- CELERY <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />? -- looks day-glo nuclear and quite bizarre, but I stopped making outdoor fashion statements years ago.

Anyone with an opinion on these? Is it a possible logical step to a lighter step or not?