I've happened upon a certificate for a free pair of Sportivas, and I'm considering either Testarossas or the Miura VS. I am a fanatic about the original Miura - they've been my hard climbing shoe for years (although I have recently used the Barracuda for hard, thin trad lines because of the thin toe profile). Does anybody have any experience with these shoes in comparison to one another? Love or hate any of em?

As far as the type of climbing, I pretty much do it all except for bouldering. I love hard trad, but like most folks spend plenty of time climbing sport (up to entry level 5.13).

dude whats up! long time no see. heard about horseshoe, the wasp, etc. congrats. pics on p&c are killer.

all of us in golden have been diggin the Testies. you dont have to get them too uncomfortably tight to get good performance either. will outperform the miuras on the really steep stuff. and better support for edging. thats all i have been climbing in rifle with.

but... the velcro miura is probably gonna be better all around for your hard trad objectives (crack jamming etc).

have you seen that they brought back the cobra!?! but take advantage of that booty-cert! Testies are like 165 retail now i think!

EDIT: thought more about it, Maurie. get em both!

Dude get the Miuras rather than the Testarossas. Testarossas are so freakin painful on your big toe. While using mine I received a broken toe and a number of stress fractures as well. I wish they didn't have that problem cause the rest of the shoe is like the most comfortable thing you'll ever try. I don't know...maybe I've got weird feet.

Get the Miura VS. They are a little more aggressive than the original, but not as much so as the Testarosa's. The new rubber on LaSportiva's has made me a believer. I used to only like my Katana's after I resoled them with 5.10 Stealth, but the newest rubber is better in my opinion. The new Miura's are good for just about any type of climbing from thin edges, steep overhangs, and crack climbing. I thought the Testarosa's were better as a steep climbing shoe rather than an all-arounder. When I sized the new Miuras I went 1/2 size bigger than my Katana's, because they hurt so bad. However within a few days they had stretched pretty good. Don't size them up at all.