What is the lightest/best hiking boot or shoe?

What type of snow shoe or boot do you reccomend for hiking trails that are icy and rocky as well as snow covered?

• Answer:

  -Best thing is to go to a professional 'outdoor shop', as it really needs to be adviced by a professional. -Don't buy them multi-sales shops as you want get the advice you need. -You should go with boots as they protect the uncles from injuries when you walk over rocky and icy surface were you can slip quite easily. -Make sure the boots are waterproof or at least semi waterproof and can be waxed or sprayed to renew the waterproof layer. -They should have a sole which is frost and heat resistant at the same time (yes, they exist) and which you can use climbing iron with. -If you go on trips at least once a year-like the one you mention in your question-it is well worth spending a few hundred $ on the shoes as they will last forever when you look after them. (I have one pair which is a bit over 25 years old and which had been used at least once a year for a minimum of two weeks one daily basis in ice and snow and very warm lava rocks, and they still look like nearly new.) Berghaus and Timberland are the ones we have used in Iceland and Artica over the last 25 years but there are other good ones out there as well. (I still have one pair of Timberland's which had their second sole done and they still look like new-they are 25 years old now :). (We had another maker but turned out that they don't do shoes any longer.)