As a new blog project, every Sunday, I’m going to try to bring you the “Sunday Sesh”, which will, during this first project, be the discussion of some simple interviews with members of my local climbing community on their preference of climbing shoes. Pictured here are the feet of BH, who’s been climbing for 39 years. Here’s what you have to look forward to, young-uns!
Let’s discuss BH’s answers to my interview questions, shall we? Since he was gracious enough to offer to let me photograph his feet, we’ll start with him. His favorite climbing shoes are the La Sportiva Miura VS. His reasons for choosing this shoe are that they are a good fit for his feet, are stiffer, offer extra support (which he emphasized heavily), edge well, smear well, and are well-made shoes. BH has been known to have his Miura VS’s resoled up to three times. He really gets his money’s worth out of them! When asked how tight his shoes were, he rated them as Excruciatingly Tight, saying, “I’m old school. If they don’t hurt, they’re too big – they don’t fit.” His street shoe size is an 11 US Men’s and his climbing shoes are the equivalent of a US Men’s size 9 – two full US Men’s sizes smaller than his street shoes. This isn’t the last word on climbing shoes from BH. Don’t worry! I plan on consulting him for future interviews and questions.
My other interviewee today, ET, didn’t offer to let me photograph her feet, but did take the time to answer my questions, which I greatly appreciate. Her favorite climbing shoes are the La Sportiva Solutions. She likes them because, “They’re super downturned, have sticky rubber, and you’re not coming off!” She expressed that she had to have absolute confidence in her feet not popping off of holds in order to climb hard, and the Solutions help her to be able to trust her feet. She described the fit of her Solutions as Annoyingly Tight, and only sizes down one EU half-size from her street shoes for her climbing shoes. The reason for this is that she has a wide forefoot and she doesn’t like the sides of her feet getting crushed. She currently has a pair of the men’s version of the Solutions getting resoled and is using the women’s version of the shoe sparingly in the meantime.
I found these interviews to be fun and enlightening, and I hope you do, too. Drop a comment and/or a Like and let me know what you think! I’ll be continuing my daily hodgepodge of posts, but like I said, I’ll try to bring you something special in the “Sunday Sesh” every week!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 