The newest addition to La Sportiva’s Trango line is the Trango Tower. A 3-season mountaineering boot that replaces the aging Trango S Evo, a long-time favorite of alpinists and mountaineers worldwide. This new generation boot improves on the Evo by shedding weight while providing better grip and water resistance. However, as it’s built on the same Trango last the fit is similar and should be … Continue reading Review: La Sportiva Trango Tower Boots
La Sportiva’s Trango lineup has undergone a progressive renewal over the past few years and at the time of this post includes the Trango Cube GTX, Ice Cube GTX (light ice climbing boot), Trek (hiking boot) and the new Tower GTX (basically an updated Evo). This lineup of boots is really focused on lightweight performance. Now the Trango Cube GTX fits squarely in the middle between the winter focused Ice Cube and … Continue reading Review: La Sportiva Trango Cube GTX
Easily the most surprising shoe I’ve reviewed, the Arc’teryx Acrux SL is an incredibly versatile technical approach shoe. While light enough to live up to the SL (super light) name it’s still burly enough to be a great shoe for longer approaches and scrambles. With sticky rubber, a great tread pattern and a comfortable fit it‘s become my go-to when I want a light shoe … Continue reading Review: Arc’teryx Acrux SL Approach Shoe
New to the climbing shoe scene, the Korean company Butora (BOO-TORE-AH) has come out with some great shoes and a unique fitting ideology that is sure to please climbers with hard-to-fit feet. While it would be fun to test the entire line-up we have to start somewhere and so chose the Butora Altura, a laced high-top like the TC Pro, to get us started. Features: High-top … Continue reading Review: Butora Altura Rock Shoe
Exceptionally light and compact, Evolv’s Cruzer Psyche is the way to go when you expect to spend most of the day with your approach shoes in the pack or clipped to your harness. This of course means that they excel on multi-pitch climbs that require a walk-off but they’re also good for the crag and I even as a hut bootie. So what’s the downside with these … Continue reading Review: Evolve Cruzer Psyche Approach Shoe
La Sportiva came out with a new line of technical approach shoes this past spring and the lightest of this new trio, the TX2, caught my eye and begged to be looked at in detail. This new shoe was designed to be lightweight and packable with a sticky sole. A great combination of features for a place like Squamish. When first testing them out I was blown … Continue reading La Sportiva TX2 Approach Shoe Review
The 2015 version of the Vapor V has been on the market since the spring giving me the opportunity to really put them to the test. The original Vapor V shoes were my go-to shoes for the gym and outdoor face climbing, both cragging and shorter multi-pitch climbs. They performed like the Muira but fit my foot much better. The only complaint that I had with the … Continue reading Review: Scarpa Vapor V
As a climber, I find that one of the hardest pieces of equipment to get right are my climbing shoes. They never feel the same in the atmosphere controlled environment of the local climbing shop after wearing them for a few minutes as they do wrapped around my fear sweat soaked feet a few pitches up a sun baked rock wall. Add to that the … Continue reading Comparison Review: Crack Shoes
