Usually light weight and durable are mutually exclusive, especially for hiking boots. But, I did go hiking with a guy who's been using the same leather boots since the mid 70's, over 30 years from one pair of boots! He has gone through quite a few resoles, but the boot themselves actually looked in decent shape.

I've gone through quite a few boots too, and the sole is almost always the first thing to go. If you're looking for something to keep for a while, make sure it can be resoled, a lot of the new lightweight boots can NOT due to their construction. Other than that, definitely look for a leather boot, and specifically a one piece leather boot. Fabric wears out much faster than leather, and seams will deteriorate over time even if the leather leather holds up. Somthing like this would be good, but don't make very many lightweight all leather hiking boots anymore. I just finished with a pair of Lowa's, they are really good light hikers, but again the sole and stitching didn't hold up very well. I don't think you'd want to be wearing the same boots after 10 years anyway, they'd start to smell pretty bad. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />