Re: Shoes for rock scrambling and via ferrata?

Garmont Vetta Plus may be of interest to you, Garmont makes three similar models: Tower, Pinnacle and Vetta Plus. I own the Tower, the heaviest of the three boots, and find it is far better on steep rock than a full-weight mountain boot, hikes fairly well, and yet is stiff enough for effective step kicking in hard snow. Crampon straps are distinctly less comfortable on a very light boot than on a traditional mountain boot, but they are certainly not unbearable. The Vetta presumably would climb rock better, and snow less well than the Tower and Pinnacle models. Sportiva makes a boot similar to the Tower that is somewhat more widely available. In the past couple of years several other manufacturers have produced comparable models. I've heard some complaints from hotshots about the durability of these boots compared with more traditional designs, but my mountaineering schedule hasn't been rigorous enough to evaluate this problem regarding the Tower.