>>2774283I've been fortunate to go on a dozen or so weeklong wilderness backpacking trips in about half as many years after getting into this activity a decade ago and I've been on/off of this board since before it completely went to shit. I started out with cheap & heavy milsurp and used old school gear and made peace with shedding it after lots of sweat and blood and frustration.
All this butthurt is unnecessary most of the time because people have different ways to enjoy the outdoors, but when you are tackling serious distance and elevation you genuinely feel every gram you are carrying, no one is telling you to buy UL shit to day hike in but pretending it doesn't have tremendous utility is just so absurd. I don't like the consumerist culture around it either but dismissing weight concerns as a factor is foolish.
>>2774295Best pair of boots I've ever used were Arcteryx Bora 2s that have the aforementioned removable liner, but I have had great experiences with Lowa and Kenetrek boots as well. I've even backpacked through arid marshland in wellies, and there isn't really anything dryer or faster to don/doff in existence than those, although for that trip I may have been better off doing what the thruhikers do and just wearing trail runners that dry immediately, muck boots are also good for the swamps in Michigan that are very wet until the freeze sets in.
>waterproof, don’t get hot, dry rapidly, and take seconds to take off and put back onMost modern high end boots of an appropriate insulation level for the climate you are in and that are treated with goretex do all of this trivially.
