Approach Shoes?

What's everyone's experiences? Reviews tend to be both scarce and vague.

Looking for a shoe I can hike in, strap crampons to, and do some moderate climbing.

The Sportiva Boulder X feels stiff and reviews seem to give it solid reviews for climbing?

Scarpa Crux gives a nice, lightweight feel for hiking but I'm worried they won't climb well.

Thoughts?

La Sportiva Ganda's, they do it all.

If you want more ankle support go with the Ganda Guides and have them resoled with the ganda tread.

www.karstendelap.com

I have or have had in the last few years one or more pairs of each of the following: FiveTen Guide Tennies, Five Ten Camp Four, Five Ten Exum Guide, and La Sportiva Ganda.

Of these, the Gandas are far and away the best (and the most expensive by a wide margin). They are comfortable (if you adjust the laces to fit your foot) and they climb quite well. They are all I wear now.

The Tennies were good but lasted like wet tissue paper (I destroyed the covering of the ankle padding on my first day with a foray into a limestone talus slope).

The Camp Fours were comfortable, but didn't last as long as I thought they should have (particularly the second pair). They climbed fairly well, but nothing like the Gandas.

The Exum Guides were comfortable, climbed as well as the Camp Fours, but are a royal pain to get on and off (primarily because of the tight lace holes—they're high tops so you have to unlace them a bit).

I just picked up a pair of the La Sportiva Boulder X mid GTX and they're friggen sa-weeeeet

i love the fact that they're gore tex, and they climb pretty damn well in them (did a fun little 5.6 at seneca in them the other day without any problems whatsoever)

also...the price is not too terrible at all!

I like the scarpa crux except for the blisters. Hopefully this will go away as my feet and the shoes merge. It has been on 6 mile or more hikes that gave me blisters. The shoes are still relatively new to me but my next big hike ( i like to think) won't produce blisters.

Otherwise, they handle great on the trail and on the rock and i'm really happy with them. I don't know about crampons.

I bouldered a couple easy problems, they work.

mountainproject.com/v/would…

The Ganda's are great, especially on long, moderate alpine routes where you don't want to carry two pairs of shoes. I don't think anything else on the market comes close - in performance or price.

When I got the Ganda's, I also bought some light weight aluminum crampons. They fit well, but I did not get enough snow last year to really try out the combo.

I can tell you not to get 5.10 exum guides. The rounded back makes them very difficult to keep crampons from slipping off the back.

Boulder X climb fine, despite feeling a little clunky. Don't know about poons on them. +1 for the Gecko Guides - best approach shoe I ever used, but haven't tried points on them, again. The soles are a little thin, though, so barrel cactus needles will go all the way through.

I "like" my boulder x, but wow they get hot!!!! Not well ventilated at all. They do climb decent although clunky at said. Stiff shank which is good for a heavy pack and I've kicked steps in 1000 ft of snow with them as well. Good shoe when it's cooler out.

Scott McMahon wrote:I "like" my boulder x, but wow they get hot!!!! Not well ventilated at all. They do climb decent although clunky at said. Stiff shank which is good for a heavy pack and I've kicked steps in 1000 ft of snow with them as well. Good shoe when it's cooler out.

I have had good luck with the La Sportiva Xplorers so far for alpine rock (climbed the E Buttress of Whitney in them). They're an upgraded version of the old Exums Pros.

check out the Evolv Captain. Great on scree and easy slabs. Keep your feet pretty clean with a tongue gusset and fairly cool too. A better overall shoe than the Scarpa Exum Guide that I have.

I have some Sportiva Gandas and love them. I definitely didn't buy them for snow and I don't know how well a pair of cheap crampons would work. They are clearly not compatible with some sabertooths or whatever. There are those cheap crampons you can buy for like $40 at rei that look like chains with small spikes that might do.

I have bad knees and was tired of my feet slipping and sliding all over the damn place on approaches to/from the wall. They are expensive but you can get them resoled, I'm pretty sure there is a thread on here with the number for Rock and Resole that is still going pretty strong.

I went with a half size up from my normal 41 Sportiva shoes (Makalu and Crosslite). The soles are fairly sensitive so they are great for moderate climbing. I forgot my shoes at the crag the other day and was still able to climb cause I had the Gandas. Had I still been wearing my crap adidas shoes that would have been the day. A previous poster mentioned the Guide version which might be a good choice for your purposes if you can figure out the crampon situation.

Ganda`s are great. BUT.... if you're just going to hike to a climb then switch to your real climbing shoes, save you're money. That's what I found. I like climbing in my climbing shoes and I can switch from good trail runners to them in less than 3 minutes.

But, you're probably better than I am

I have found sportiva shoes great, and easy to get resoled with sticky rubber. Quite a few guides and climbers actually use them for climbing.

I've been wearing the Garmot Dragontail shoe. I choose it because it fit my wide foot, is fairly stiff with good support and climbs pretty good, but I'm sure not as good as boulder x or guides. A little bulky on the harness or in the pack.

it was a little tight in the toe at first, but now fits great. It seems to be holding up very well.

I have the Ganda's from lasportiva and agree with everyone else on the forum. They climb amazing and are comfy to climb in. They are wonderfull in cracks. I have climbed in the 5.10 range with them without issue. They also climb off-width well. you will not have the edging or smearing of a good rock shoe but they still edge and smear quite well, and the shoe has a great ammount of feel. Plus the padding and leather makes crack climbing comfortable and quite secure in larger cracks all the way down to everything but the smallest of finger cracks. I highly recomend them. I DONOT reccomend the price however.

I have the LS Crossleathers (slightly beefier version of the Crosslites

They're technically extreme trailrunners. Lightweight, wearing well (mine are leather-sided), scramble well too and are comfy (but very narrow). The massive lugs on the sole are great for loose approaches, they bite into everything even deep dirt and scree. And less than half the price of the Gandas (holy crap just looked them up - $250?!?!?!). I got mine at REI for ~$100.

A review of the Ganda:

Gear Review of the La Sportiva Ganda

Anyone used these?

http://www.salewa.us/product/tech-approach/ms-firetail-gtx

Here's a bit on Elevation Outdoors:

elevationoutdoors.com/blogs…

and a bit more on Colorado Mojo:
coloradomountainjournal.com…

Geckos and Gandas are both great shoes....

RC