If you've already built solid soles and foot musculature, then I'd go with something like VFFs. They are my shoe of choice when I have to wear one. I'm a southern boy, so I can't speak to heavy snow, ice and salt, but I can't imagine that any of those three things are good for bare feet. That said, I know some of our crazy - I mean, dedicated - yankees and midwesterners run BF in the snow. Sounds to me more like a good story to make up to tell your kids about how tough life was when we were younger ("this new fangled internet thing wasn't around when we were kids - we only had 3 channels on TV!"), but they do it. I'll let some more qualified and experienced northerners chime in here with their advice. But welcome to the crew - glad to have you with us. You will get some good ideas from the others here who are more experienced. You'll have to learn to weed out who's fully crazy, and who's only partly crazy but still gives workable advice. It won't take you long on your own, but I'm not naming any names here.