What's your most favourite shoe/socks systems for the different altitudes?
I'm not well experienced and have been brainstorming which shoes/socks work the best for me. I have Meindl Bhutan (B1 with Monte Rosa crampon. Use them all year around) and THF Verto S6k Extreme. Both are 2 sizes up and seem to be the most comfortable for my foot. If I get a size up, I get heel lift and the current size have some limitations - The Bhutan are stiff and can't really fit a thicker sock. The S6k have an extremely low toe box, not much wiggle room and still have some heel lift. I wear them with thin sock and without insoles. The result is-with the Bhutan I feel warmer and are absolutely fine up to 5000m/ -20C but with the S6k I feel cold in similar situations. Now I'm thinking of switching to Scarpa 6k (other boots don't fit me well apart from LaSportiva climbing shoes...go figure...) and maybe just get trail running shoes that I can also use as approach shoes and a pair of 8k boots instead of 6k. In this way I can use the approach shoes +/or Bhutan for up to 5k meters and approach shoes + 8k boots for anything above or colder than -20C.
Also, I can't fit expedition or thicker type socks and I'm still 2 sizes larger than normal shoe. Do you choose your boot size to fit the thickest socks or do you just wear liners?
I've got a feeling that at some point I'll get hooked up into ice climbing as well and will officially have more shoes than the missus...lol