So i went up with my friends jason and john to stay at our friend daves house in Massachusetts. we drove up early saturday morning and chilled in a very cool new england town, watched "yes man" and rode bikes.
yesterday, (sunday) we drove east to lincoln woods state park in rhode island to boulder.
the park was beautiful. the trees were tall and extremely colorful. i couldnt have asked for a more perfect day. the temperature was in the low 60's, and the sun dried out the rock that was soaked the previous night.
most of our time, unfortunately was spent wandering around trying to find the boulders..in particular, the try again boulder.
one guy who was helping with crag clean-up led us to a boulder he said was ships prow, which actually turned out to be try-again, so we used that as a basis and walked around for 20 minutes lol.
there werent any locals on the boulder to help us with the problems, so we tried very few problems for the amount of time we had unfortunately,
but i got to send a pretty fun powerful problem called try again v5.
from there we headed to our cars and then drove to the other side to work on the iron-cross and cave-wall boulders.
i sent a really fun v4 traverse called iron cross. crimpy, big, powerful cross moves. i am usually not a fan of traversing, but the moves were pretty sweet.
we walked over to the cave wall boulder and i worked on a v7 called rump to jump. the opening moves were really cool, really shouldery moves on pinches. i got so close to linking the extension to the v4 problem neil's lunge. but i ran out of steam.
i got sick over the weekend, so i think that affected me a little bit, because i was sick- all i ate that day was a quarter bowl of cereal...lol. as well as the problems taking their toll on me little by little.
if i had another day, id definitely be able to send rump to jump. kinda bummed we had such limited time, but it was a good learning experience!
for some reason it feels like when im on real rock i forget to use technique, and once i remind myself, the problems go from being really hard to being alright/easy/fun. lol.
i really wish i could have checked out the pond cave. there lies the boulder problems "who needs hueco v8" and "leap frog v7". both looked really cool, they were the only video problems i could find on youtube when i looked up lincoln woods.
but...maybe next time, whenever i go back...gunks definitely felt more fun to me, and the access is so easy and so much closer lol.
i got to train more!
its been officially 9 months since i started climbing, since trips outdoors are limited, i dont have time to spend days in a row at a crag. i need to send harder stuff in a day.
i need to build strength, endurance, better problem reading skills, and more fluid/precise foot movement.
back to the gym for now!
The Fresh Smell of Rubber unlike commonly found in stinky shoes like Evolv. Perhaps it's possible to grip the crag without losing newly found friendships by the unbearable odor that leaks from your feet.
Ok, there's probably more to the new slippers that FIVE-TEN put out besides their smell. But it was definitely pleasing to open up the box and find exactly what I was looking for.
Hopefully this article will help you with common questions you had about the shoe, things you wondered in terms of fit, grip, softness, edgyness, whatever...As well as show you photos beyond the 1 side shot that seems to be soloing Froogle.com and Five-ten's website.
So most importantly, I must admit that my previous climbing shoes were mad rock conflicts, a newer downturned, sticky shoe that I've found to be stickier than most rubber I've tried out. I really enjoyed the shoe, although in my opinion, I would have liked it a half size bigger in order to prevent the following calluses from arising on my big toe and back of my heel:
So I wear Lacoste sneakers on a sunny day and vans slip-on's when it's not so nice out.
Both shoes I wear a size 12, Although, I COULD fit into an 11 1/2.
I bought the mad rock conflicts in a size 11, which seemed to be way beyond small for me.
The FIVE-TEN website recommends that you size the shoe to your street shoe size, which I was very skeptical to do at first, but I ordered a size 12.
The whole shoe fits my battered foot very comfortably, It feels like there is a nice sharp extra bit of rubber on the toe for edging. the whole shoe feels very stiff on the sides. walking is painful, but i dont know how a such a severly down-turned toe can be comfortable without sacrificing stiffness.
As you can see, theres a bit of fold near my heel, and it feels like i might be able to pry the shoe off with my hands if i try hard enough, but after testing it in the gym, it feels real solid.
In the gym it felt very very good for edging, I felt confident on the smallest of jibs, as well as had a very sensitive mid-sole for the overhanging rock.
Admittedly, it didn't feel as sticky as my mad rock science friction 2.2 rubber, but that may change after breaking it in. On actual rock these shoes would definitely be insane.
The fit didn't bother me at all, besides the initial pain from the down-turned toe, but I know no matter how big I get the shoe, it probably wouldn't change that.
the shoe was fairly easy to get on and off with the triple loop enclosure.
I found the single strap up top to be pretty useful too, even though it wasn't necessary to keep the shoe on my foot.
Toe hooks felt very solid with the same 3.5mm rubber up-top
Heel hooks felt solid
Edging was super solid
I am happy I bought this shoe. :)
So basically
If you're a boulderer looking for a serious edging, sensitive, down-turned toe for overhanging rock shoe...get it!
Just make sure you get the shoe according to your street size. or possibly even one half bigger.
I could probably fit comfortably in most 11 1/2 street shoes, but I like room in the 12's
I don't have a wide foot or nothing, my heel sticks out a bit so I need the heel for a rock shoe to have a inward curving rear unlike the evolv pontas.
Oh, and another plus, especially for previous mocassym users...
These won't turn your feet red. maybe that's why you should try them.
Hope this was insightful for you guys! If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer.
-Alan
Monday, October 12, 2009
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