Far Out Son of Lung...

Daddy's got a new pair of shoes...

While in Austin with Rock Gal I picked up a new pair of climbing shoes. Searching for a last that fits my foot was a real pain in the ass, but I finally found something with a wide, short forefoot (shut up) and a narrow heel. My toes are not packed in as tightly as they could be but I do think they fit very well and I have found that they stick much better than my old Mad Rock Phoenix shoes. So, what are they?

A pair of $60, Montrail Gymbo's. They have a nice pointy toe that I think will allow me to attempt pocket routes, the Gryptonite rubber is nice and sticky on the slopey little holds I used to slip off of in the past, they smear nicely on the textures walls at Stoneworks, I wore them for an extended period of time and I had some major confidence on the "B" bouldering route on the front overhang route at Stoneworks! Normally I would not have climbed that well at the end of the night, with a sore tendon in my right arm and hands that were very ache, but I stuck more stuff because I had that little bit of confidence in my shoes where I knew that when I reached for X hold, I was not going to slip off the wall and put undue stress on my fingers before I was ready.

I also did a 3/4 lap of the bouldering route inside the back silo, something I could not do in my Mad Rocks. Same thing though, I had a little more traction and more confidence is the stick, so I could make some long, balance oriented moves and lots of foot switching to traverse the route. Great stuff, not real advanced, but inspiring and comforting.

posted by GreSam @ 12:42