Choosing climbing shoes

Climbing shoes function to hug the foot, provide support for the sole, squeeze all the toes together, and allow the toes to push off strongly against a foothold to launch the body upwards. Shoes with soft rubbers provide sensitivity, allowing the climber to feel the texture of tiny footholds wherever the toe part of the foot is placed. Stiffer shoes do not allow the foot to feel the shape of footholds, but they provide support for the foot overall, so one can stand on tiny edges on the wall. Advanced climbers prefer soft, downturned, asymmetrical, tight-fitting shoes, which crunch the toes, pull them towards the big toe, and turn a climber's feet into a claw-like structure that can stand on tiny edges even when upside down in a overhang ceiling structure. For intermediate climbers whose feet are not yet used to modern foot binding, a stiffer climbing shoe which support the feet may be a better option. For beginner climbers who are not used to shoes fitting like a glove, a less tight fitting shoe with a stiff but not too stiff, somewhat sticky, flat sole could work. 

I had no clue I would be owning so many pairs of climbing shoes when I started climbing. The problem is, I have what is known as "Greek feet", meaning that the second toe is longer than the big toe. I also have bunions, where the big toe pushes into the other center, and the base of the big toe pokes out as a big bump on the inner side of my foot. Therefore, the front part of my foot  is quite wide and the toes themselves are long. This just seems like a bad combination for climbing overall. I mean, if the toes can function like fingers and grab tree branches/foot holds, then my climbing would be great. But since I am a human being rather than an ape, the hand-like functions of the toes are not longer valid. So the length of the toes just serve as a weakness.

My first pair of shoes (La Sportiva Tarantulace) had a stiff rubber sole, did not hug the feet much, and was the least uncomfortable out of all the climbing shoes I tried on. After I got to 6A/6A+ level, I wondered if an intermediate shoe would help me climb better. So I purchased a pair of Scarpa Vapors, since the internet reviews all claimed that this was the most comfortable intermediate shoes available. The fit of the shoes were fine, and seemed more comfortable than other intermediate/advanced shoes I tried on. However, when I climbed in them, they hurt my feet at the big toes from the beginning, and never really got better. The plus side was that Vapors use XS Edge rubber, which are much stickier than Tarantulace's FriXion rubber. The toe box was also pointier, which allowed me to be more precise with my footwork, and my feet slipped off the footholds less frequently. This helped me advance through 6A+ to 6B. In the mean time, I also learned to have better footwork in my Tarantulace shoes (need to push harder into the wall/footholds).

Having experienced a lot of pain in the Vapors, I decided to find another pair of more comfortable intermediate shoes. I landed on La Sportiva Finale (with XS Edge rubber), which are touted to be not completely beginner shoes, but are supposed to be quite comfortable. Unfortunately, they did not perform as well as the Vapors (hug/support my feet as well) AND they hurt my toes. 

Finally, I turned to La Sportiva Mythos, which are supposed to be the most comfortable climbing shoes. Now that I got used to Vapor, which hugs the feet much more than the Tarantulace, the Mythos felt much more comfortable than when I first tried them on. Mythos have XS Grip2 rubber as the sole, which are sticky, but less stiff than XS Edge. People with fantastic footwork should be able to climb up to 7A with them. But with my problematic feet and toes, I would feel quite insecure climbing 6A+ and harder with the Mythos. So I would switch to Vapor when I climb a new 6A+ or 6B route.

Since there are no shoes more comfortable than the Mythos, I decided to go for an advanced shoe -- the Scarpa Instinct, which are more downturned, but better made than the Vapors, so they hug/fit the foot much better and provide even more precision. They felt totally fine at the shop, but -- you guessed it -- they hurt like hell when I stand on my toes on the wall. I am still in the process of breaking them in, so I can climb about 1-2 routes with them each time I use them before my toes scream "NO MORE CLIMBING FOR TODAY". The good news is that, comparatively, the Vapors don't feel as painful any more!

You might be thinking what a waste of money! Not quite. Climbing shoe rubbers get used up within 3-9 months anyways. You can either resole them (change the piece of rubber at the toe box), or they would need to be replaced (due to a hole forming at the toe part of the shoes). So far I have resoled my Vapor and my Tarantulace. I will be alternating between all of my shoes for the next few years until they are not resolable any more. I use my Mythos for warm up and then switch to the Vapor for hard routes. I think the Finale and the Tarantulace can be used for outdoor climbing, as well as when the Mythos need to be resoled eventually (takes 4-6 weeks before I get them back). I am hoping my feet will eventually get used to the Instinct VS lace, which is supposed to be a "comfortable" super performance shoe. I now understand that when climbers say "comfortable", they mean that the shoe doesn't cause permanent bruise marks in various spots in the foot. Since climbers often size their shoes down 1-4 sizes compared to their street shoes, by sizing down my shoes only 1/2 a size, by climbers' standards, I might as well be climbing in a pair of Crocs. In the mean time, I will keep toughening up my toes until they get stronger or got completely numb!!

Climbing is basically a sport to practice being scared

On the weekend, I climbed a UIAA 7 / French grade 6B route on an arête (outside corner), on a set of triangular / trapezoidal holds with bumps on them for the thumb and fingers to secure on them. The footholds are always angled, so that the climber would feel very insecure standing on them. I found that I had enough grip strength to hang on to the holds. The route is more about balancing and being able to use the holds securely without requiring too much force. However, since this style of handholds and footholds are brand new to me. I constantly felt insecure, whenever I had to shift positions to do the next move. As someone who hating falling, I would basically clip super high (way over my head, as soon as my finger tip could reach a quickdraw), and would hang after every move. Basically, because I felt so insecure on the route, I would grab the holds much harder than necessary to stay on the wall, and that would tire me out super fast. Also, I had difficulty seeing the next badly angled foothold when reaching from one side wall to the other corner side wall. Near the top, I was ready to give up and go down, but I managed to talk to myself and say I can do it, which I could, because I had enough strength left to finish it. 

Early on when I was climbing, the fear was always there, but my limiting factor was mainly that I had no muscle strength left to do the next moves. Now I am happy I am at a point of my "climbing career" where my endurance is better, so I am mainly fighting with my head psychology. The desire to cut climbing short now is completely about my brain being tired of being scared/feeling insecure, and wanting to be in a more secure feeling place (the ground). 

Right after this fear/sweat inducing climb, I went to a UIAA 6+/7- / French grade 6A/6A+ green route that, on Friday, I had felt quite insecure doing it, due to the reachiness of the route. However, after the extreme insecurity-inducing blue 6B route, this route now felt like a cake walk. The footholds were flat. My feet did not need to stand on some funny angle. The handholds also felt amazingly secure. The anxiety was way down and both P and I could rush through the route with feeling almost no insecurity. This was kind of an eye-opening experience. It's as if, to prepare for a public speaking event with 200 audience in attendance, the solution to stress reduction would be to do a public speaking event with 2000 fake audience members in advance. The heart rates, nervous shakes and all literally calm way down.

For my last climb on a overhang 5C though, I did feel my core tiring out near the end and had to take a hang break. So far I haven't figured out if I could tough that out too or if it's better to let my more naturally build endurance. I do feel though that my current shallow breathing patterns limit my endurance. If I could learn to improving my breathing, my endurance would improve too.  

July climbing progress

Although I don't feel I am getting much stronger, I feel more comfortable on hard routes now (7- /7s). My muscle endurance have improved. I can calm down and try a few different things, whereas previously if I encountered a route where I didn't know how to approach the next move, I would panic and pause for hanging right away.

Climbing is all about fighting discomfort/fear. The list of fears include:

- Discomfort about feeling out of balanced 

• I feel I'm not in control

- Discomfort about lack of body tension 

• Lots of core strength and stabilization muscles needed to hold oneself in mid air in odd positions 

- Discomfort of such strong exertion on the hands, shoulders, and back normally not experienced in every day life 

• Some days I am not even able to exert as much power as needed to do a move. Other days when I can, I feel powerful, amazed, ecstatic, gratified, and unsure how long I can maintain it. I still don't know where power is generated. Is it from the mind, or is it this Qi/energy flow, which theoretically originates from the abdomen and from the breaths

- Fear of heights

• I would try the next hard move if I were close to the ground, but not so far up the wall, or on an overhang route

- Fear for the next daunting next move 

• a dyno, Gaston, tiny crimp, unsure where to place one foot after the move, etc

- Fear of falling

• Uncertain if I can catch the next hand hold and keep myself on the wall
• Uncertain if I am strong enough to stick the next move
• Uncertain even if I succeed in the move, if I have the endurance to hang on for some seconds
• Uncertain if my foot would slip when I try to push myself up to grab the next hand hold

- Fear of letting go of a hand to clip the rope

• Again, need to learn to have body balance/body control/trust the feet won't slip/fingers are strong enough etc.

A lot of times I pre-rest in anticipation that my hand won't be able to hang on for long enough for me to clip a quick draw, but usually, when I just hang on and fight, I am able to hang on despite tired hands and slow clipping. It's all a matter of getting used to the stimulus and the environment.

A friend has a completely different approach to climbing. She talks a lot about goals, but she progresses extremely slowly. She is very lean (which is a good body type for climbing), but seems unable to build muscles. I suspects she needs to 1) climb harder, 3) work on horizontal traverses and body weight transfer footwork 3) eat more protein/fat, 4) lift some weights, 5) perhaps some body weight exercises like sit ups, leg lifts and push ups.  Not everyone is willing to put in that much efforts though. I personally get very antsy about not making any kind of progress, but maybe other people just want to have fun and not do supplemental work out just to improve in climbing.  

I hope there isn't another lockdown for us. I'm really hoping to become comfortable with lead climbing 7s by the end of 2020. Right now I can only top rope a few 7s, and I never feel fully comfortable on the routes. If there is indeed another lockdown, I will push myself do to more fingerboard hanging, elastic theraband exercises, and core strengthening exercises.