Climbing shoe care and feeding.

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EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 18, 2017 - 06:08pm PT
Share your tips on how to get the best performance, durability, or whatever else, from your climbing shoes.
EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2017 - 06:15pm PT
Keep your shoes clean and dry.


Alternate pairs if you climb every day.
If you climb or boulder every day, and you sweat even moderately, the same pair of shoes will not completely dry, and will soon become a habitat for thing foul. If they already have spray lysol in there and leave them alone for a week.

Great edging performance with that new pair???, use a flat file to take off the square corner. The rubber out there is not supported from the side or "buttressed" so it will deflect when loaded, and you will blow off that dime.

EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2017 - 06:17pm PT
On hot days if you need to edge, keep the shoes out of direct sun. The rubber better retains it's shape at lower temperature.. so don't warm them up before you are on the stone.
Srbphoto

climber
Kennewick wa
Feb 18, 2017 - 06:28pm PT
don't step in poo
EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2017 - 06:32pm PT
OK i am laughing, here i am trying to put a bit of climbing back into this... and maybe raise the bar...

and you make this intellectual leap.
edit:
but point taken, keep the soles free of anything... and if the outer 1/32 is oxidized, file it off, or get toluene on a rag and scrub it off, you need sticky free rubber underfoot, not old hard old oxidized rubber with a layer of dust.
Ksolem

Trad climber
Monrovia, California
Feb 18, 2017 - 06:44pm PT
care and feeding...

I feed my climbing shoes toe cheese.
Cancer Boy

Trad climber
Freedonia
Feb 18, 2017 - 09:34pm PT
Don't leave your shoes in a hot car. The soles delaminate.
EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2017 - 08:32pm PT
if you have been slab padding too much, rills or humps of rubber may form.
The posterior or back side of these may form tear lines which accelerate wear.
If this occurs, use a large flat file to file across or perpendicular to the long axis of the shoe.
file until the surface is near level.

Wear and performance will improve.
Peater

Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
Feb 21, 2017 - 09:46pm PT
When my shoes work I don't mess with them. Only once do I remember after a resole that I took a file to the sole. Generally just let them wear in to my climbing and keep um clean.

Go figure that my worn out, seams busted, pos, old shoes could do my hardest problem but my new ones couldn't.

EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2017 - 10:20pm PT
Peater
you prove my point, you do not file off the corner of the sole, hence the rubber is not supported from the side, it deflects more easily.

So of course your worn shoe performs better at edging
Mark Force

Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
Feb 21, 2017 - 10:40pm PT
Go figure that my worn out, seams busted, pos, old shoes could do my hardest problem but my new ones couldn't.

Yeah. My best climbing has been in worn out EBs with my toes poking out.

Could probably just leave it with "my best climbing has been."

Or even, "has been"...
Peater

Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
Feb 21, 2017 - 10:51pm PT
Ed
You are correct but in my case (this case) I resoled with a boot resoleer so the soles were more like a boot edge. The file took some time but saved some money . Also sometimes trying to explain to a cobbler that you want him to cut off all this rubber that he's just stuck on your old boots can be problematic.

August West

Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
Feb 21, 2017 - 11:00pm PT
If you are run out on a long slab climb and start to slip, immediately tuck and roll.

This will prevent a long slide on the balls of your feet that can not only damage the rubber but may even wear through and damage the underlying leather.
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
Feb 21, 2017 - 11:03pm PT
Febreeze works to counter the smell, for awhile.

Leaving the shoes out to dry after a day of climbing is critical too.

A spritz of Lysol can't hurt either.




Laces!! Don't get me started on laces!!!

Can't hardly find Boreal Ballet replacement laces in the states.
Peater

Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
Feb 21, 2017 - 11:06pm PT
Mark Force :)

Perhaps routes should be rated 5.10 B EB. Loved my EB's but my PA's and Kronnies were the best. (until Fires).

I took care of my kronnies like they were my hiking shoes and used them as such. I did a 5.12 face route in them that I knew I couldn't have done with any of my other shoes.





Peater

Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
Feb 21, 2017 - 11:26pm PT
Ok
I forget who suggested this but I've got all my shoes boiling on the stove at low for 6 hours. In the morning I'll put them in the dryer for another 6.
Sweet, they'll be dry when I get off work. This works so much better than wearing wet shoes all day to dry them out and form them to your feet.

Peater

Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
Feb 22, 2017 - 12:00am PT
And back on topic a bit.

I don't know how well it works nowadays but getting your new shoes wet and letting them dry on your feet like torture.

donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Feb 22, 2017 - 03:04am PT
Feed your shoes a regular diet of multi pitch face climbing with a nice selection of splitter cracks for dessert.
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
Feb 22, 2017 - 08:45am PT
DO NOT store them in your hot garage in LA or leave them handy in your car if living in SoCal or Arizona. They dry up and fall apart. Been there, done that.
EdBannister

Mountain climber
13,000 feet
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2017 - 02:02pm PT
Peater has another what not to do to your shoes...

Climbing shoes are precisely fit, getting them co,pletely wet could cause them to shrink and be worthless.

You don't ask a resole service to file the corner off, you do it yourself!

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