I've got a pair of La Sportiva Latok boots. Now discontinued. But a great boot. The ones you are looking at are similar to the Latok, but a woman's model and in current production. These boots might be slightly beefier than the Latok, as they are crampon compatible, but both still have the same steel half shank, and are made out of similar material. Yes, overkill for some things, but the stuff that they would be overkill for just about any boot would be overkill for, and you'd want to do in tenis anyways. And La Sportiva build quality is really good - and you can never go wrong with full grain leather. But these are beefy boots. Wore mine this past weekend on Harris - held up quite nicely in the rain and mud and melting snow that currently is New Hampshire. Wow, this is a long comment, I should stop here. Send me a blitz if you want more info.

Very solid boots. Do I recommend them? Depends on your preferred footwear setup. I'd go for something lighter weight for backpacking. If you want to stay out west and get into mountaineering, these would be just the ticket. But if you're just doing backpacking, you'd be better off with something along the lines of these:

http://montrail.com/Product.aspx?prod=31&cat=240&top=2

Remember - a pound on the feet is worth 6 pounds on your back. If you're carrying less than 40-35 pounds on backpacking trips, you might as well go for a lighter weight boot. I like trail runners, but I seem to remember that someone likes to roll her ankles... High tops are better on knees, too.