Reviews by User: climb on (3)

First off, it's not a bad size. It's a bit thick, maybe twice as thick as a featureless watch or 1.5x as thick as a fancy non-altimeter watch. And it looks pretty slick. But it does have some design flaws. It requires endless calibration to keep the compass, altimeter, barometer, and weather functions working. The dial on the face does feel a flimsy. The instructions warn that using the light (even though it's so dim) will drain the battery very quickly, yet you have to hold the light on for many seconds any time you want to calibrate any of the above, or even just to clear the stopwatch. I also think it could really use a timer, but that's just me.

I've been working these boots relatively lightly for about a month. Good on the basics: they've been supportive, stayed dry, good traction, only a smidge warm a couple of times. Something that I never would have thought would bother me, but bothers me now, is lace construction. The laces are as thin as angel hair, and the eyelets (tiny webbing loops, actually) are too thin to squeeze in anything beefier. They dig into my hands when I try to tighten the boots, and I'm just waiting for the laces or the eyelets to snap. Also, subtract a star if you have wide feet; these boots have a narrow/average bed and won't stretch AT ALL. I had to re-lace them to skip the second-to-bottom eyelets. Quite comfy afterwards, though.

I've only been climbing for five months and this is my first and only pair of climbing shoes, so I can't speak well on the relative stickiness of the rubber or "rock feel" or anything deep like that. But I can say I love 'em. I expected to have to take them off frequently, but the arch isn't extremely overstated nor are the toes overly pointed, so I can actually walk around in them a bit (though they're definitely not an all-day-comfort shoe). For sizing: I wear a 10 and have pretty wide feet, and I wear an extremely thin wicking sock when I climb (even though they're lined, I fear the potential for stink), and the size 10 fits me well. After five months of indoor and outdoor climbing at least once a week, there are some signs of wear on the sole, but no thin spots or signs of breaking. (Most of the wear came from one particular long climb on a rock face that had been baking in the scorching sun -- I think I literally meted my shoes on that.) I climb around 5.10's right now, which I consider a solid climb, so I consider this a solid shoe. Maybe the crazy 5.14-ers out there need the super-pointy, barely-there slippers, but for me, these work well.