Numb toes after long Slab?

We had the pleasure of climbing at Darrington yesterday. Awesome granite slabs! We climbed a 7 pitch route on the 3ocklock rock. My big toe went numb about the 3rd pitch, stayed numb all day. Woke up this morning and all my toes are numb on that foot. I figured I'd regain feeling after running around here at work, but No, there is still no feeling in my toes, mostly just the tips. Weird.

Anyone else have this happen? Is this normal when climbing hard slab all day? It was one of the best days ever and totaly worth the sun burn and numb toes, I just have no idea what is causing it?

Yep, normal for me if I end up on a multipitch in shoes that are sized down. Feeling was lost in my big toes for about 4-5 months on my worst occasion and my big toe nails have never recovered :( It's kinda nice though, finger cracks just became easier for me to deal with.

i've had my toes go numb on a very scary pitch that turned into a very long lead. about an hour and change. Was wearing shoes that where too tight. Feeling came back after the climb. Basically you need shoes that allow more blood flow and arent as tight, or take them off in between pitches.

I had a similar thing happen from wearing my boots too tight when i was ice climbing, took like 3 months before my foot felt normal again. my big toe was always a little numb and cold. When i would do yoga sometimes my whole foot would go numb. It finally feels normal now. Sometimes my toes go numb in the middle of a pitch if my shoes are tight. I try to undo my laces almost always at the end of a pitch. The problems are worse if it is a cold day.

One of my big toes was numb for the first year I climbed. I tried all sorts of stuff to help but couldn't get the feeling back. I was afraid to ask a doctor about it thinking he'd tell me not to climb so just ignored it. Feeling came back over the winter sometime but it still comes and goes during climbing season. It doesn't seem to matter which shoes I wear either though it is worse after crack climbs and multi pitch stuff.

Oh good, I'm not the only one! haha, thanks for the reply's! I've had these shoes for the last year and climb in them all the time, first time this has happened. Maybe walking up slab with my toes bent back for 2-3 hrs was more than they could handle. Sounds like it may take awhile for feeling to return, bummer and sorta funny.

If the climbing is easy (<= 5.8) you might try just climbing in approach shoes. On a slab climb earlier this year, my shoes were too tight and I ended up losing both big toenails.

I am just recovering from a similar problem. My left big toe tip was numb, I assume after a week climbing multipitch in Red Rocks (I'm fairly new to multipitch). It drove me crazy for a while, just a tiny area on the very tip was numb. Finally after a few months it is completely back to normal. I did plenty of massage on it and some heat, not sure if that helped.

I hope yours gets better. Next time I will take off my shoes for belays if possible and if risk of dropping is low (i.e. on a nice ledge).

Joseph Stover wrote:Next time I will take off my shoes for belays if possible and if risk of dropping is low (i.e. on a nice ledge).

Bring your flip flops or approach shoes to change into after you finish a pitch. You don't leave your shoes on all day when you're a a sport crag do you?