Just how cold and wet can I go with….

just a lil bit. The answer is "some people can hike around in subzero temps barefoot and some people can't hike in AZ in the summer without expedition weight socks". Or something like that. Search is helpful…

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Thanks Ozzy! I've read a lot on here but haven't seen some of these. Sorry for the additional beating.

Everything freezes. Remember that. Tread carefully.

I don't like boots, but I have a bad foot (currently post-surgery as we speak.) I found a happy medium in Salomon Cosmic GTX's- they're much lighter than most boots, allow plenty of room for your toes to wiggle around, and they're waterproof, so ice doesn't become trip-ending.

ESPECIALLY in high elevations, an early-day river crossing can never dry out because there's not enough heat to promote evaporation. You end up freezing everything and then you're in trouble.

Check out the Inov-8 lightweight boots (Roclite GTX?). La Sportiva also makes some Fastpacker GTX boots.

My thoughts:

Bread bags are good for short river crossings. Alternately, remove socks, replace shoes(!) and cross. Yes, you get cold feet in the water, but it is very brief. A fast dry and change on the far bank followed by enthusiastic walking. We do this with snow melt in the snow.

The real secret, imho, is to have warm legs. That definitely means no shorts, and gaiters are recommended. That way, the blood going into your feet is still nicely warm. Your feet will warm up fast.

Works for us.

Cheers

I've been walking around in a pair of light-weight desert boots (Bates Zero Mass), with medium-weight wool socks in -20'C, and have found them to work pretty darn well. While you can feel the ventilation working, the boots and feet stay dry, which seems to help a lot.

So if you can keep dry, you should be OK. Down booties sound like a very good idea for rests, though.

Dale, the answer is of course it depends. Only one way to find out, unfortunately. Gaiters will help, both to keep your legs warm and to reduce the flushing within the shoe. Less breathable shoes will also be warmer, all other things equal.

What seems to trip a lot of folks up is that you need to be generating body heat for this system to work at all well. It is not a system for the leisurely walker.