Beginner In Need of Gear Advice

Hey everybody,

I recently developed interests in bouldering and climbing this last two months, but I've yet to acquired any gear of my own and have been climbing on torture devices (rental shoes).

Anyways, I was wondering if a pair of Mad Rock Hooker Lace size 8 for $65 will it fit, and if so is it worth it?
I wear 8.5 (half an inch loose) down to 7.5 in my street shoes. And I think I have low volume feet.

Also is there any particular carabiners/chalkbag/harness that I should get, there's just so many.

Thank you and I appreciate any help you give me.

P.S I climb in gyms. And a poor college student.

The best bet is to try on those shoes in the store if you can. If you can't, then depending on the shoe, buying a half a size, to a full size down should work for you. Speaking from my personal preference i wear 8.5-9 street shoe, and i wear a 40.5 (8) in La Sportiva's.

If you are just starting off, the cheaper the better, until you figure out what works best for you. Some people like aggressive down turned shoes for bouldering, some like shoes that edge better. All a matter of personal preference. My first pair of shoes were $60 La Sportivas at my street shoe size and they are still some of the best shoes i own.

I like Black Diamond harnesses, but any name brand harness will work (cheap and comfy).

My 2 cents.

Have fun!

In terms of harnesses you really can't go wrong with anything that is carried by your local gyms or climbing shops. Pick whichever Petzl, Metolius, Black Diamond, Mad Rock, Arc'Teryx, Mammut, etc. feels the most comfortable in your price range. Features like adjustable leg loops can be nice if you are going to be wearing it over heavier winter clothes or if you're going to need to share it with a friend at the gym or crag, but don't obsess over getting the most high-tech lightweight one out there.

Shoes are a very personal choice. Try on as many pairs as you can and see which brands and models fit your feet the best. A cheap pair of Mad Rocks will probably suit you just fine right now, but keep in mind that your taste in shoes and how they fit will likely change considerably as you become more experienced.

muttonface wrote:If I were you, I'd get the cheapest and most comfortable pair of shoes you can find. Climbing shoes at first, no matter what type you get will feel a little uncomfortable if you get them to fit snugly, not tight, as you should. You're going to wear your first pair out quickly until you learn decent footwork - which is why I say go cheap for your first pair.

+1

Dom wrote: +1

While I generally agree with this advice, I would just add that first time shoe buyers should look for an all around shoe rather than an aggressive shoe. An all around beginner shoe will give you a snugger fit without forcing your feet into an aggressive climbing position. This will be more comfortable in the long run. Aggressive shoes like the hookers, are asymetric by design and feel more uncomfortable than an all around beginner shoe like the spires, cliffs, phoenix.

just my opinion

Any new harness will do the job, they are all about equal in terms of strength and reliability. As you gain experience and income you can start getting picky about things like padding, gear loops, etc. The Black Diamond Alpine Bod is as cheap as they get, and works just fine.
rei.com/product/699550/blac…

Carabiners: auto locking carabiners are nice, but screwgates are cheaper and do the job just as well. The better quality/more expensive locking carabiners tend to function more smoothly, both in opening and closing the gate and locking/unlocking the biner.

Belay devices: for a long time the Black Diamond ATC belay device was the standard, and they still work quite well. The ATC Guide has a few advantages for multi-pitch climbing or certain toprope applications, if you want to spend a little more.

Shoes: The higher priced shoes can be resoled a few more times than the cheap ones, which will help offset the initial high price. As a beginner you might be a little hard on your shoes until your footwork develops, so this is worth considering.

Thanks for the advice guys, I didn't get a chance to go try on any gears today due to the snow and ice, no one really is really used to driving on the snow over here so I didn't want to risk it.

So you guys think I should get something else other than Hooker Lace? I mostly do bouldering. Also I don't really mind the pain as long as it breaks in.

Also for resoling what price should I expect and what rubber is good?

Beginner shoes are straight and flat right?

Xin Yeung wrote:Thanks for the advice guys, I didn't get a chance to go try on any gears today due to the snow and ice, no one really is really used to driving on the snow over here so I didn't want to risk it. So you guys think I should get something else other than Hooker Lace? I mostly do bouldering. Also I don't really mind the pain as long as it breaks in. Also for resoling what price should I expect and what rubber is good? Beginner shoes are straight and flat right?

Beginner shoes are the straight and flat shoes. Just go try on some different styles of shoes from different makers. Try on: 1: Begginer shoes. (spires, cliffs, phoenixs) 2. Aggressive sport shoes (Anasazi velco, muira, flash blah blah) 3. slipper style shoes. You'll figure out for yourself which fits you the best and what you can can afford. For beginner climbing, there is no reason to be walking around in pain praying for your shoes to break in. Resoling will cost less than 50 a pair including shipping. Everyone has a personal preference for rubber, but rest assured an inability to onsite V2 won't be because of the rubber ;)

good luck

To add a bit about materials:

While all shoes have rubber soles, the uppers can be leather or synthetic. Leather will stretch to mold to your foot, which is nice, but if you buy too large, they might get loose eventually. Depending on the shoe and your foot size differences, stretching one size or a half-size. Synthetics won't stretch as much, if at all.

If you get a pair of shoes and they still hurt after a month, get a different pair, don't destroy your toes, treat them as good as your fingers.

A good harness has been showing up here ( steepandcheap.com ) for cheap the past few days. You have to keep checking it, but you could get a sweet deal.

In my experience Mad Rock shoes fit very true to size so I would recommend getting mad rocks in the same size as your street shoe. They also have a pretty sweet belay device that is just like an ATC guide that I would recommend. My first pair of shoes were the 5.10 coyotes and I still love them because they are super comfortable.

muttonface wrote:If I were you, I'd get the cheapest and most comfortable pair of shoes you can find. Climbing shoes at first, no matter what type you get will feel a little uncomfortable if you get them to fit snugly, not tight, as you should. You're going to wear your first pair out quickly until you learn decent footwork - which is why I say go cheap for your first pair.

+1 Until you develop good footwork you won't notice any difference in performance between a $70 pair Phoenix from Mad Rock, or a $180 high end model from La Sportiva.

dannl wrote:To add a bit about materials: While all shoes have rubber soles, the uppers can be leather or synthetic. Leather will stretch to mold to your foot, which is nice, but if you buy too large, they might get loose eventually. Depending on the shoe and your foot size differences, stretching one size or a half-size. Synthetics won't stretch as much, if at all. If you get a pair of shoes and they still hurt after a month, get a different pair, don't destroy your toes, treat them as good as your fingers.

+1 here as well. I always recommend people buy leather shoes for their first pair. Get them tight, but not painful, and they will stretch to conform to your feet during the first several sessions wearing them. Of course, this is just my preference.

Hey guys, I have come back after some testing on my preferences.

I mostly just boulder nowadays cause my gym has a lot of boulderers. I prefer overhang routes or slanted ones more than verticals.
And also I climb better barefoot than with rentals on (I slip off with rentals), but it's painful. (Not a masochist.)
Since I just boulder I can spend more money on shoes instead of buying harness and etc.

Anyways, I decided to fore-go the Hooker Lace due it being nonreturnable and I have been looking at La Sportiva Miura and Katana Lace since they have numerous reviews and it seems everyone favors them. What do you guys think? And also how do they size? I wear size 8 in street and 7 in tennis. (Reason being I want to wear something I can absolutely trust, not that I'm not taking your advice to buy something cheap and easy to learn in.)

(My gym carries a small variety that doesn't consist of Sportivas and no store near here carries climbing shoes, so I'll not be able to try them on before purchasing.)

Thank you for everyone's response, and I apologize for not being able to reply. (post limit)

I really like my Miuras. I'd say buy them from an online retailer that has them on sale and has a good return policy (think REI or Backcountry.com) Then buy them break em in and see what you think. I wear a 42.5 in Miuras and in street shoes I wear a 10.5. Mine are a little tighter than I bet you would want so if we had the same size foot I'd say go with the 43's. It's really going to be personal preference like the others have said. I used to wear 5.10 shoes until I found out that they really don't fit my foot well (when I started wearing Sportivas) and I also used to size them down a full size cause i wanted to be bad ass. Then I bought a pair for an all day outside shoe on bigger walls and found out I don't climb any harder when my shoes are hella tight. Go figure.

My thoughts on sportivas katana/miura since you asked about those specifically:

I'm relatively new myself and have/had 4 pairs of shoes already.
All have had good advice about getting inexpensive comfortable ones at first, as you're pretty much guaranteed to not end up w/ exactly what you want the first time around.
Out of katana lace/velcro and miura velcro, my favorite is the katana lace, though this is almost as much a function of better sizing as anything else. My katana lace/velcro ones are both the same # size, but fit/feel very differently, so I'de suggest at least trying on any shoes in person before setting on something. I think I would like my miura vs as much if not more than the katana lace if they were sized a bit better.

Xin,

1) How into climbing are you / do you anticipate you will become? I'm in school too, so I understand where you're coming from about price, but good gear is worth it if you are going to get a lot of use out of it.

Here is how I typically justify buying new gear to myself: A day of climbing is pretty cheap because you pretty much just pay for the gas to drive somewhere (split with your buddies) and food (which you would have to eat anyway and a packed lunch is cheaper than going out.) Really the cost of a climbing trip is in the gear that you use. If you divide the cost of the gear by the number of times that you use the gear it seems cheaper.

2) If gear is not a "life-line" (harness, beaner, rope, belay device, anchor... anything where you/buddies may die or get hurt if it fails), you can probably make one for free or really cheap. An example would be a chalk bag. I put my chalk in a sock (made a hole for a keychain beaner to clip to a belt loop/harness) my whole freshman year.

3) As for shoes, there are different types of shoes for different types of rock / formations. If you mainly climb in a gym, then it doesn't matter as much what type of shoe you get. If you are going bouldering outside, shoe type is more important. Figure out the type of rock at the places you will frequent (slab, crack....). Unless you're planning to do super crazy awesome difficult moves, you don't need excessively tight shoes and will appreciate a little more space (~ 1/2 size larger than the smallest you can fit in? just a guess)

Shameless promotion of steepandcheap.com They have been putting harnesses on there almost every day for 50 or more percent off. There was a black diamond one on there for like 25 bucks the other day

Wow! I guess I like my muiras tight. I wear a 10.5 street shoe and buy size 40 muiras. This has been my shoe of choice for the past six years. I also think my foot is low volume with a flat arch. I also like the Scarpa Instinct shoe, slipper or lace-up. I have heard a lot of positive feedback on them.

Sorry I haven't respond in a while, just been getting myself to the gym every other day and enjoying the break. Finish a V3, V2 and a V1 today so I'm doing better. Working on another two V1s that I can't seem to get also.

I ordered a pair of 39 Katana lace for a snug fit since I wear street size 8. I'll report back to you guys on how it is this Thursday. If anything I'll also try out the Miura if it turns out badly.

@Nate Reno and thecornyman, I was going to get the Miura but REI sale went out, so I thought I'll try on the shoes first via Zappos (Free shipping and free return.) Between Miura/Katana which do you guys think is good for bouldering? (I'm forever alone!)

@DanielS, I still don't know whether climbing is simply an infatuation or a long time hobby that I will develop and honestly I can't tell within this short period of time I have spent climbing. But what I do know is that climbing makes me happy, and I'll continue to do it until the day that I am no longer happy. I'll tell you a definite answer in five months!

Also I have gotten a chalk bag and a chalk ball with some loose chalk at the bottom, and I'll be waiting for my climbing shoes. I'll hold off on carabiners/harness/helmets/belay device for now because I don't have anyone to climb with yet.

@Fat Cow, I'll check it out, thanks!

@JJNS, is your toe knuckle straight in them? o___o;;

Thanks everyone for the continued advice.

Xin Yeung wrote: Between Miura/Katana which do you guys think is good for bouldering? (I'm forever alone!)

Keep in mind that the Katana and Miura lace vs velcro are completely different shoes. In the case of the Katana, I don't even know why they call it the same name, they are so completely different.

From least to most aggressive:
Katana Velcro (original Katana)
Miura Lace (original Miura)
Miura VS (new, more aggressive velcro version of the miura)
Katana Lace (new, very aggressive compared to original)

I climbed in Katanas for years and they are still the shoe I use in the gym because they are very comfortable. I now use the Miura VS outside for sport climbing, and they are a bit more aggressive, edge better, and have a bit better fit for my heal. They are, however, not quite as comfortable as the katana velcros.

Katana Lace shoes are pretty aggressive for bouldering v1-v3... they will certainly work, but personally, I don't like my feet to be in that much pain when it isn't needed.