+ 1 VBL. I've used grocery store bags on winter trips before. I had a friend that complained how cold his feet were in his snowboarding boots, I gave him some grocery bags, he said his feet were never cold again until we got back to the car the next day.
I don't like stiff soles (and I have two pair o mountaineering boots) except for kick stepping or crampon stuff. I think smearing generally works well, in fact looking at the old soles of my 5.10's they look like they were smeared a lot. A lot can be said for technique. I've seen folks descend a combination of scree and hard pan in 8 or 10 minutes, that others will only come down on their butt and take an hour in doing (and tumble 50 rocks along the way). One of the reasons , I prefer no ankle support 95% of the time is you can use more technique. I find sometimes, it's plunge stepping, sometimes it finding the one solid rock buried in the gravel, and being very light on your feet, sometimes, it edging and so on. I find full on boots harder to control technique, thus they will never grip the same regardless of rubber.
