Approach Shoes?

"Approach shoe" is just a concept to market big wall shoes, insofar as I can tell. In that category, 5.10 guide tennie wins going away.

Perfect "Approach Shoe"? La Sportiva Exum Pro... but wait, they screwed the pooch on that one and replaced it with the shitty BoulderX and the shitty Xplorer. Goddamnit!!!! And now they're phasing out the Fireblades? WTF? Is Sportiva systematically elimating all their half decent products or what? Next it will be the Muira, and then the Mythos... tis a sad day. A sad day indeed.

I can't do it. For $250+, up yours Sportiva. You suck.

I have been happy so far with the Patagonia cragmaster. They were the only pair of shoes I brought on a recent trip up Whitney's east buttress, and I thought they handled the hiking and climbing quite well.

Also, I really don't like the Boulder X. I tore those up on a single grade V wall.

So I picked up a pair of hardly used Mad Rock Switchbacks for super cheap to maybe see if approach shoes are worth it. I also spent some time at REI trying on the Boulder X and Scarpa Crux. Here's my thoughts. The switchbacks climb and scramble better than a regular hiking shoe or trail runner, but they are very heavy. Walking out of a sport climbing area with a short approach and they felt like cinder blocks on my feet. Of course it was 100 degrees out, but they're still too heavy. The Boulder X was kinda bulky, not very comfortable, and didn't stick very well on that fake practice rock thing they have in the REI store. The Scarpas were more comfortable and seemed stickier. I have my doubts about how comfortable any of them would be on long approaches since shock absorption is important to me in a hiking shoe. I also don't think I would feel very secure being run out or unprotected in approach shoes. So I guess I' gonna stick with comfortable light weight hikers and TC Pros for climbing. It's too bad, it would really be cool to have one shoe that does both. But the Ganda's are a 250.00 dollar gamble. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.

I recently bought a pair of the Pataguchi Cragmasters, to be perfectly honest I bought them 100% because i liked the look of them. I have several pair of Guide Tennies and use them until they fall apart. I was not expecting anything out of these shoes aside from maybe they would be good for hiking and maybe some easy climbing.
Here are my general impressions after using them on Royal Arches two days ago. I can only compare them to Guide Tennies and the Ganda Guide.
The Cragmaster is much stiffer than the Guide Tennie (GT), and the sole is narrower. I was a bit concerned that the smaller surface area would cause smearing and frictioning ability to suffer, so far this has not seemed to be the case. Because the sole is narrower the edge is right under your big toe, just like a climbing shoe. Because the edge is under the toe and the sole is stiffer it shines at edging where the GT tends to roll off or you are forced to smear the edge. The Cragmaster laces right to the toe, even further than the GT, allowing you to really snug up the toe for edging. The padding on the CM is stiffer than the GT, this in my opinion is good and bad. Good because when i am standing in aiders for hours a day it is far less painful and less fatigue. Bad, at least to me because I prefer a soft cushy shoe to cradle my size 11 feet and cushion my bad back. This is a small sacrifice however for the performance you gain with a stiffer shoe.
While climbing Royal Arches I was faced with everything from fist, finger crack, off width and face and the CM performed flawlessly. Because the shoe has sticky rubber wrapped around the toe and heel it was a breeze to bridge with it in OW's and it stuck, maybe a little to good sometimes.
The Cragmaster will not totally replace my Guide Tennies but it will be my go to shoe for back country climbs up to 5.9 where I dont want to carry another pair of shoes. The Guide Tennie is in my opinion a better looking shoe and more comfortable to wear everyday but it just falls shy in climbing performance to the Cragmaster.