Originally Posted By AdamWang
Thank you both.

Question: The hike I went on, it went up to 11,500 ft and at the top is looked like Everest. Completely covered in snow, places where you'd be knee high in snow. A bit lower, where the snow was melting, the trail was a stream of melting ice and water.

With my Saloman high-tops, I didn't twice about stepping right into anything wet, slushy, or cold.

If I get trailrunner's, I wouldn't be able to do this sort of hiking, right?

P.S.: What do you think about the Keen Targhee III ? I don't think it's a train runner,but it's supposed to be very roomy and comfortable.


There is a very small window of water depth where waterproof boots are helpful. If the water flow is below the grips, then it doesn't matter. If it is higher than a couple inches usually a little bit of the water will get up over the top of the boot and soak your foot. If you had mesh uppers your feet would dry pretty quickly. With waterproof boots it holds the moisture in and keeps your feet wet for the rest of the trip. I haven't found boots particularly helpful for knee high snow. Some of the snow always gets in over the top of the boot unless you have gaiters. You can use gaiters with trail runners too.

What I find is with boots you are always trying to hop around so you don't put your foot in water any more than toe deep and you get your feet wet anyway. With trail runners you know your feet are going to get wet so you just walk through it and in an hour or so your feet have dried off.

For roomy trail runners with a rock plate, I really like my New Balance Leadville's... but alas it looks like they stopped making them frown Of course what fits my foot may not fit your foot.