Climbing Magazine

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The Necessary Equipment

Climbing Equipment The Necessary Equipment: Climbing shoes. Arguably the most important part of any climber’s gear repertoire, and that’s only arguable because once you get beyond bouldering, you could make a pretty good case for your rope. However, at ClimbNakedShoes.com, we firmly believe that your shoes are really the only piece of equipment you need to find nirvana on the rocks.

When you’re scoping out climbing shoes, the most important issue to consider is the fit. You’ll want a shoe that fits snugly around your foot. Wiggle room, in climbing shoes, is not usually a good thing, because mostly it will just give you room to wiggle off a toe hold, or wiggle out of your shoes if you’re using a foot cam maneuver. Either way, not so much a good thing. Pick a shoe that’ll fit you tight, but remember that if you’re constricting blood flow to your toes, they probably won’t be as dexterous as you’d like.

To help you pick the right size, ClimbNakedShoes.com is devoted to providing as much information as possible about sizing before you purchase your shoes. Pay close attention to the descriptions of the shoes, where you’ll find specific notes regarding the fit, and keep an eye out for our soon-to-be-revealed online fitting room, with sizing guides broken down by manufacturer and any other way we can figure out to break it down for you. Unfortunately, there’s no industry standard for the sizing, so it varies by company. Some shoe manufacturers downsize the shoes for you; others won’t, but either way, ClimbNakedShoes.com will let you know.
Basically, climbing shoes are broken down into three groups: lace-ups, Velcro™, and slippers.

Lace-up shoes provide great stability and precision for all climbing skill levels, but you will have to know how to tie your own shoes. Unless, of course, your boyfriend is completely whipped. They can take a few minutes to put on or take off, and be careful about shoes that lace all the way to the tip of the shoe, because they’ll only give you additional support and control if the toe box doesn’t stretch out irreversibly after you’ve broken the shoes in. Generally, lace-ups are useful for trad-climbing, where foot support can be a key strength-saving strategy, and for beginners or anyone else who wants to scramble, not slip.

Velcro™ shoes save time and effort before and after your climb, and they do allow for a certain variability of fit, but not quite with the precision of lace-ups. You’ll mostly see Velcro™ shoes in bouldering caves and sport-climbing destinations, or anywhere where retro-chic is cool.

Slippers, which you pull on and don’t tighten, generally provide the most flexible fit, with less foot support, and are best used for crack climbing, bouldering and steep routes. Beginners probably won’t like slippers, because their feet need more support while they develop their muscular, sinewy, climbing monkey feet.

Ladies, a few words for you: climbing is one of the few sports where a “women’s line” means nothing close to a “wussy line”. Women-specific shoes usually are more narrow, with higher arches – refreshing support after forty hours a week in high heels, right? They also may be lighter, and prettier to boot.

Climbing shoes come in a variety of stiffness, generally qualified as soft flex, medium flex, or stiff. Soft flex shoes work best for bouldering, crack climbing, or other situations where you might be needing to contort your foot excessively to grip a hold. Medium flex shoes will allow for slightly less impressive contortions, but will also allow you to stand more solidly on a narrow foothold. Stiff shoes will do more to maintain the original bone structure in your feet, providing a platform to push from while climbing longer, more challenging routes.

The material your shoes are made of is also important: leather shoes will stretch out more over time than will shoes made with synthetic materials, and shoes that are lined won’t stretch as much as unlined. Leather shoes, especially if they’re unlined, will form more to your feet as you break them in.

Rock Climbing Shoes Last, but not least: Last. Climb Naked Shoes with asymmetrical last feature a boomerang shape, but unlike a boomerang, asymmetrical last shoes will not usually come back to you if you throw them away. These shoes are designed to channel your chi though your big toe, giving you an edge for sport-climbing or bouldering, but they will not be very comfortable if you keep them on while belaying your pals. Straight last shoes are generally the most comfortable, and best applied to crack-climbing, as well as any climbing where you’ll be standing around a lot. Shoes with toe-down last are generally the least comfortable, but will help you master steeper climbing routes, where you’ll naturally be standing tippy-toed most of the time anyway.

If you’re planning on doing more than bouldering in your climbing shoes, you’ll probably need some additional gear. While we do encourage you to Climb Naked, you should be aware that there are a few things that tend to happen when you are Climbing Naked, and we want you to be prepared. Be smart, be safe, right? Well, unless you’re climbing the fabled “Nudy Beach Scramble” route at Red Rocks, you’ll probably want some loose-fitting clothing, preferably of the sort that won’t promote hypothermia if you get wet or sweaty. Read: not cotton.

A crash pad is an excellent addition to any climber’s gear closet: bouldering is a great way to improve your moves, and a crash pad will give you a little cushion to fall on while you’re pushing the limits of gravity and human power. Pads vary in shapes and sizes, but most have about 12 square feet of surface area when unfolded and are around three inches thick. The thicker the pad, the heavier it will be, but it’s just more cushion for the pushin’, right?

While we’re on the subject of safety, you might also want to consider investing in a helmet. A brain bucket can protect you from noogies, falling rocks while you belay your partner, and during falls if you happen to get flipped. When buying a helmet, consider the following: the helmet’s weight, sunglasses/headlamp compatibility, helmet hair arrangements, and the potential for an object as small as a penny to do serious damage to your skull, if it falls from high enough up.

You’ll probably also want a rope and harness. Both of these pieces of equipment are absolutely essential if you want to live to climb another day, and both should be guarded carefully against the sun’s harmful rope-fraying rays; oils, dirt or anything else that can weaken the fibers; and, of course, conniving interns or beginner climbers who “just want to borrow it.”

Most standard ropes are 50 to 60 meters long. For those of you who can’t handle the metric system, that’s 165 to 198 feet. They’ll vary in diameter from 7.8 to 10.5 millimeters, with the thinner, lighter ropes lending themselves well to longer trad climbs, and fatter, heavier ropes tending to be less likely to snap mid-climb and fit better in most belay devices. Don’t worry, ladies, these days ropes come in all sorts of creative patterns and colors so you can coordinate your tank, shoes, and rope while you’re dangling above the crowd of boys on belay duty.

The climbing harness (and a good knot) attaches the rope to your body. Essentially every climbing harness will have a waist loop connected to two leg loops, with a great deal of extra loops available in luxury editions. Gear loops and haul loops are the most common. Make sure you get a harness that fits well, because you’ll be spending a lot of time in it, and take care of it like it takes care of you.

You’ll also want a bag of chalk. Not for drawing hieroglyphs or pictographs on the walls you climb, but to minimize sweaty-hand situations. Remember middle school? The moment that cute girl from math class placed her hand in yours and you closed your clammy, wet fingers around it, she slipped right back out again. Don’t let that happen with your hand holds: buy a chalk bag, and stock it with chalk.

And now: the expensive part, the hardware. The ubiquity of hardware makes it the most expensive addition to your climbing repertoire, especially for those of you with compulsive personalities. Sure, all you really need is a belay device, a few carabiners, and, if you’re into trad-climbing, some nuts and bolts to affix yourself to the rock. But check out any climbing gear retail store or website, and you’ll be met with a glittering array of multi-colored nuts and cams in shapes and sizes you can’t even imagine. The realm of climbing gear is a collector’s paradise: when it comes to collecting the gear that might be saving your life in a fall, it’s better to have more options than fewer, right? The only downside to the multitude of climbing hardware is that you get to carry every gram of it up the rock with you, and back down.

A truly obsessed climber may also want to invest in gear for overnight climbs, but by the time you’re ready to attempt one of these, you’re going to need a lot more help than we could ever give you here at ClimbNakedShoes.com.