Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Carrying Your Approach Shoes Up A Multi-Pitch 15-Mar-2006 At 8:24:03 PM The Keeper

Message

Still a work in progress with this lad - I use Boreal Gold Ballet with a 5.10 Stealth rubber front end re-sole to climb in ( a good crack shoe with the protective ankle flap) and use 5.10 Mountain Masters for approachs - they have the loops at the back end which you can clip to and then onto the haul loop
on the harness. The Five Tennies are robust enough for the approach stuff and are a whole lot better then heavy hiking boots. They can handle the grim hoary approaches of Rocky mtn scree slopes and the rubber is deluxe for handling any approach climbing - in fact the "honed" lads can probably climb a majority of routes with them anyways - excepting maybe real thin edge , touchy, feely routes. Think of what the legends were wearing in their hey day - Royal Robbins, or for instance Hans Gmoser and his early routes on Yamnuska. We are climbing in the shoes of luxury! In a climbing course at Cougar Canyon near Banff - we were "running" up slabs blindfolded - as a tactic to teach us balance and footing. I thanked god many times over for my 5:10s that day. The downside of the shoe is that they can cook your feet in hot weather and the toe strip tends to detach with use - i have tried re-glueing the sucker but it hasn't worked - a poor design feature in an otherwise good model. I have a new pair of 5:10 Guides which I will be trying out - lighter and with the toe situation resolved. They are not as robust as the Mountain Masters so they may not be what is needed for long approaches albeit they may turn out to be better for actual climbing. For aiding - the Mountain Masters work well and distinctly more comfortable then climbing shoes proper. I usually carry a extremely small day pack for rain gear, some munchies, tape and some bandages for the usual wear and tear and mainly for WATER as this lads goes through a lot of it. At Araps, Hugh had a plastic container with a biner ducktaped to it and then clipped to harness - the downside is I hate heavy things other than cams etc banging around all over the place and especially in close quarters - it is bad enough to be trying to clean a tough placement in close quarters without getting hung up on rocks via uncooperative accessories! Context will be a big determinant in this - slabs versus vertical versus overhanging stuff versus cracks - what may be ideal in one context may not be good in another. Keep experimentin and share the results.