Hello

At what temperature do you start to go for non-gtx shoes and just let your feet get wet?

I usually have a problem hiking with wet feet when it gets down into the mid 20's or I have to walk through snow. Sometimes all you need is more insulation. Good, extra thick wool socks will keep you warm while wet in some surprisingly cold conditions while liner socks won't do much for you.

Yeah- snow no prob. I haven't been to 20 but in the 30s for sure. Sometimes in wet snow I get a bit wet, but usually my feet don't really feel wet or cold.

I can run in the mid-20's on compacted snow in unlined shoes with a wool sock and a toe sock liner but I don't produce enough heat/energy to walk that cold.
Next time I'm in the alps I will try snowshoeing (spelling?) in unlined boots or shoes and see how that goes but I will be quite nervous if it's below freezing.

I think it is not worth bothering with GTX in footwear unless it's an actual boot with enough height for the waterproofing to be useful.

I hate wet feet and I never wear gtx shoes. Last weekend I was out overnight snowshoeing in my Inov8 trailroc ultralight running shoes using vb liners and a plastic bag over my wool socks. My feet did great! 26-33 degees.

Long distance backpackers commonly wear non-gtx shoes in lots of snow; I've done so on three trips, most recently walking through a whole lot of snow covered parts of Montana in June 2011.

Making this work is in part about hiking "style" (keep moving, steady metabolic heat generation), in part about the magic of wool socks. VBL socks are a good backup; bread bags make a low-durability backup option that's very light, plus are very nice to use in camp to wear dry socks inside of wet shoes.

Really, I think some cold-weather scenarios are BETTER handled by non-gtx shoes: walking in lots of snow during spring thaw in particular. You can find yourself walking a great deal in lots of water, just no way to keep any footwear dry. And if your wet footwear does freeze at night, it's easier to crack shoes open to get feet into in the morning than frozen boots, and less thermal mass to warm up at the start of the day.

I wouldn't want to do any serious mountain climbing this way, nor be tied to the schedule and hiking style of others who go about things differently, but for solo hiking or hiking with folks who are similarly shod (and experienced), I like non-gtx shoes for most if not all conditions found in 3-season backpacking.

for feedback guys.

FYI i hike mostly in temperatures from just a little below freezing to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

I've hike in sandals in snow, and i was surprised that i was OK as long as i kept moving.

I think i need to start experimenting in the rain at different temperatures (in high activity) with these setups:

-unlined trail-runner + thin wool sock
-unlined trail-runner + thin wool sock + plastic bag
-unlined trail-runner + thick wool sock + plastic bag
-unlined trail-runner + thin wool sock + plastic bag + thick wool sock + plastic bag

and some of the same setups in camp-situations, so i have some more DATA!

:-)

Cheers, Peter