I've never been a big fan of gaiters. I've always thought they were annoying and somewhat goofy looking. I never really liked the way pants bunch up over the top of them when on the move, and on multi-day routes the velcro inevitably gets loaded with chunks of snow and is generally really annoying. Then they look silly, or at least the bright red ones I used to rock do, observe:
Looking goofy on the 2nd ascent of Pineapple Express, Northwest Face of Mt. Snoqualmie, WA. Marcus Donaldson photo
I also never liked tucking the gaiters under my pant legs, because if I was going to wear the damn things they might as well protect my expensive pants from my sloppy crampon work.
I haven't worn gaiters in a really long time and now I exclusively use the bungee cord method pictured below. All of our pants come equipped with grommets that allow the user to run the bungee cord under the boot heel and be gaiter free. There may be some scenarios where gaiters are still useful, but I think you'll probably find them few and far between once you deploy this method.
