Tower GTX

The only piece of gear I bought that superseded my expectations! I bought them for light winter trekking use and now I find they antagonize my plastics. Actually they have replaced them in everything but multiday winter camping.

They are very comfortable, warm and climb well on rock. They take mixed crampons (one more reason to by the Grivel G-14 Newmatic I had my eyes on).

Only worry is I heard from another user the rubber rand peeled off his boots. Mine are still ok after one year of use but I see some small cracks on the rubber. If they are still small next year I'll give them five stars!!

EDIT: I replaced the insoles with Sorbothane insoles and they feel great!

A great all-around shoe that can climb and hike. The shoe seems to have enough rigid sole for some alpine ice-stuff (that is under WI 3) with New-matic type on crampons, though haven't had the chance yet to test them.

Have hiked a lot on them since a bought them in early summer and the main con with these boots the the insole, which is basically rubish. So get some better insoles and the boot hikes a lot better.

As for climbing performance I did a couple of easy 5.7 or 5.8 in these and didn't have any probs (and I only lead around 5.10 with real rock shoes). The sticky rubber rand and the sole smears really well, though I mostly used microedging.

After quite a lot of abuse there are some small cracks at the rubber rand, but none have cracked the whole rand (ie only surface scrapes).

I haven't used other boots, but I really like these Garmonts for all around outdoor use. They are really comfortable on extended hikes, although the Garmont insoles do need to be quickly replaced with better ones (thanks for the advice HeMa). I had to shave a bit off the outside of the lugs near the heel so that they sit solid in my Sabretooth crampons, but now hold them great, very solid. I think they may flex a bit on steep snow...I guess I'll find out on Lost Rat coulier later this month.
OVERALL a good, comfortable, capable boot - I've even worn 'em to work and school a few times.

wow great boot. I loved them...but they fit kinda narrow I WISH THEY WOULD FIT MY FOOT as I liked them better than the la sportiva trango s. great all around light mountain boot. and can climb rock well to. well built.

UPDATE:
I just got a pair of the new ones in red black and yellow and they fit my feet great!!! I just sold my trango s boots......and am keeping these...just some small hikes in them and pure comfort. much more flexible of a sole than the trango s boots. these are my 90% of the time boots. If it is very cold or I am doing hard core ice I wear my kayland super ice boots...but for spring and summer mountaineering these are my new boots of choice. very very comfortable and worth checking out. the black ones I had were made in Italy and the new red ones I have were made in Rumania. I am not sure what they changed but they fit my feet now!!!