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General Climbing Discussion

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Climbing Shoe Recommendations? 17-Dec-2002 At 1:30:46 PM oweng

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Im not sure there is any definition for a trad climbing shoe, any more so than there is a definition for "trad" climbing itself. All I can say if that my definition of a trad climbing shoe is one that is comfortable enough to wear all day on multipitch climbs, and that you can stuff repeatedly into cracks without it feeling like your crushing your foot (i.e. a stiff sole). I was genuinly supprised when I went around the shops looking for something that filled that criteria, and found that its pretty hard these days to find a shoe that doesnt have crazy curved lasts or pretty flexible soles. It was interesting that the only two shoes I found that were what I was after were pretty much the cheapest (by a fair margin). I suspect that it really doesnt cost that much more to produce a shoe with a thinner sole, or a curved last, or pretty colours. This leads me to conclude that these shoes may cost a bit more because they have a fashion element built into their appeal.

I agree that shoe type doesnt really make a great difference to performance, at least in my experience, and at the grades I climb. I used to climb everthing from granite slabs to Ben Lomond cracklines to Grampians routes in the old Aces, when i started using the softer 5.10 diamonds I didnt notice any change in performance. It'll be interesting to see how it feels going back to the stiffer shoe....