I find that a pair of ordinary boots are sufficient, even for very arduous and steep hiking, provided you wear two pairs of socks. A thin inner pair, and thick cushion socks. The boots I have at the moment cost one fifth the price of a pair of Scarpa boots. They do become wetter inside, when it rains, but I find that boots which let in the rain also let out foot perspiration. In an earlier post I mentioned that stuffing a viscose towel inside a wet boot dries it sufficiently well overnight to be used again next morning.