These Salewa Snow Trainer GTX are really unique boots. They are very light weight, insulated and have a built in gaiter.
The gaiter is a key feature for me. It has a draw cord closure, but you don’t have to yank it so tight it cuts the blood flow off to your feet.
They also have a special Vibram soul that is supposed to provide extra grip on ice, I don’t think it actually makes much of a difference, but it can’t hurt.
The insulation is very impressive. While a small and lightweight boot it keeps your feet very warm.
They were specially designed for use with snowshoes, they have a small ledge on the back to keep your snowshoe heel strap from falling off.
A few things to note, the laces broke on one of the shoes, they are super soft and flexible and the lace hooks are soft. None of these things alone would keep me from buying the boot, but put all together they would make me look for them on sale.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a boot this warm and light elsewhere.
Salewa says: http://www.salewa.us/en/men-snow-trainer-ins-gtx-boots.html