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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

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Topic Date User

Can't buy board lasted shoes, next best thing? 29-Jul-2009 At 5:15:19 PM robbio

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Ok here's the thing...

My girlfriend (who is a pretty inexperienced climber) has recently developed a liking for slab climbing on granite. The issue is that she gets really sore foot muscles when slabbing in her red chili spirits (which is otherwise a comfortable shoe for her). I guess it doesn't help that they are a tad too big either... I was hoping to get some stiff board lasted shoes that would edge better, but most importantly provide her feet with more support, but this is proving to be harder than i thought.

She recently tried on some red chili sausalitos at rock hardware and they felt good, but Steve didn't have her size and is not getting any more in. I tried Wilderness shop and Bogong but they can't get this shoe in either. I know boreal sells a few board lasted models (the ace, zephyr and ballet) but i don't know any aussie retailer who stocks them for her to try on. To my knowledge there doesn't seem to be anyone else making board lasted shoes these days. It seems a pity that one cannot try on a pair of board lasted climbing shoes in Oz anymore...

So now that i have pretty much given up on my quest to find her a board lasted shoe, what slip lasted shoes do you people think would be the next best thing for edging on slabs?

Gotta be:
- good for edging
- supportive
- COMFORTABLE!

(remember she is pretty new to climbing, no technical, downtured, or uncomfortable nonsense!) I'm guessing that the following shoes could be a starting point (feel free to tell me otherwise)

- scarpa vantage
- la sportiva cliff
- red chili mescalito

We're both real keen to get to Buffalo (when it warms up) for some multipitch slab climbs, but this won't be very pleasant in her current shoes (unless her feet got stronger). But she doesn't (and probably never will) climb regularly enough to develop strong foot muscles.

Cheers,

robbio