Had a win, wondered if others are using this system, and what you’ve learned about it, pointers and limitations, also suggestions for improvements since this was only tested to upper 20's with a nice layer of insulating snow, also what other people do for winter stream crossings, particularly if there are a lot so you might get tired of changing out of and back into your boots or long distance footwear.

Just got back from a four dayer in the Snowbird Wilderness Study area in North Carolina - a mix of precip and temps from the mid 20’s to the lower 30’s, and some wind on occasion.One trail had about a dozen wet-foot creek crossings - ankle to knee deep. I took my shoes off and used just NRS Hydroskin Socks XXL (I wear size 12 shoes) for the first six crossings, and changed back into my boots and dry socks. Then I got tired of changing back and forth and layered my hydro skin socks over my Darn Tough Merino Wool Hike/Trek socks in my boots and just planned on wet boots for the rest of the day. I was able to hike with pack for several miles wearing these layers - wool plus neoprene - comfortably, no blisters or hot spots and warm to not-too-cold.

It snowed about 6 inches during this time, although it was just around freezing. My boots are the new Altra GTX Hikers, so just gortexed and ankled up Altra Tims is what they told me at REI. Wet, but not a whole ton of thermal mass to keep you cold is how it felt.Anyway, this worked, under those conditions.

Suspect this is an outlier system - the two guys I packed with were pretty interested - so curious to hear from any one else using it, ideas to consider to improve the system for colder/windier conditions, and also what others do do if there are a lot of creek crossings in winter.

Thanks.

1/17 Update - Ordered Sealskinz mid length cold weather socks (not the extra thick, and not the ones with hydrostop) and 2" x 18" (I have small calves) elasticized, "grippy," cinch straps to cinch the tops of the socks for stream crossings. If the straps are a little heavy, I can at least probably use them to test the concept, and then look for lighter straps, maybe 1" wide. Liveslight also posted that he uses elastic exercise band to tie off the top of sealskinz.

I'm imagining that if the sealskinz plus straps work then that could open up options to non-gortex shoes (lighter trail runners, or a lighter boot with a vibram sole for durability but without the gortex which makes the shoe a little slower to dry and perhaps a bit heavier and sweatier...)

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1/19 Update - Just ordered6 mil Knot-a-Boots (found them on ebay -otherwise back ordered). Look forward to trying them with the strap .