Recently we were selected as one of Evolv’s ‘Performance Specialists’, and have just added two of their brand new range of shoes to our shop. This includes the great new Geshido SC (as a side-note, we're reliably informed that Geshido is short for Get S**t Done) and a reinvented classic, the Bandit SC (and as a less interesting side note, SC stands for ‘speed closure’, meaning Velcro)

After doing a few fittings, we found that although these shoes are both from Evolv, both Velcro-up, and not a million miles apart in terms of technical capability, they both have a very different fit and suit totally different foot shapes. Which got us thinking about the dark art of climbing shoe fitting.

There are many variables involved in getting a great climbing shoe fit, so we put together this guide to try and ease the process.

First things first

First of all, you can narrow down your options quite a bit by thinking about the type of climbing you do. If you’re just starting out and want a pair of shoes that you can put on at the start of your session and wear all day at the crag or the wall, then you should immediately discount technical, downturned shoes such as the Evolv Talon, or the La Sportiva Miura VS. You would definitely be more suited to a pair of flatter and more comfort based shoes, like the Boreal Joker Plus or Red Chili Spirit. These can still be used to climb to a good degree of difficulty, but will not cripple your feet in the periods in between climbs. If, on the other hand, you’re a mean machine boulderer, who needs a shoe to get the power down on some matchstick edges and then slip back into your flipflops once the project is done, you will be looking for something downturned and asymmetric to make the most of the power in your feet.There are of course intermediates in this scale. Shoes like the Evolv Bandit are a great mix of technical and comfortable, as are the new Geshido and Red Chili Corona.

As you can see here, a technical shoe like and Evolv Talon has a very downturned sole when compared to something comfort based like an Evolv Royale. It also features a more technically shaped toe, which is great for steep and technical climbing, but not as comfortable.

Velcro Vs. Lace

“So which is better?” is a question we hear quite frequently while doing shoe fittings, and the answer is never that simple, it is just down to personal preference and the fit of each individual shoe. Both have their merits: Velcro is simple, quick and means you can whip your shoes on and off in an instant. Laces can give a more precise fit, and are generally better for an all day shoe or a narrow foot. This really comes down to comfort and preference, don’t write off a pair of shoes just based on their closure type.

Foot Shape

Foot shape is one of the most important factors to consider when buying climbing shoes. A poorly fitting pair of climbing shoes can totally ruin your day/week/climbing career. It can be make-or-break for new climbers; if their first pair of shoes is badly fitted and uncomfortable, it will put them off heading to the wall or crag, and obviously less climbing means less progression, which leads to frustration and giving up altogether. Here we’ll try to give you some understanding of foot shapes, and give you some examples of climbing shoes that fit these shapes.

Volume

The volume of a foot is essentially how deep it is. This diagram shows the difference between the two. If you have a low volume foot, a high volume shoe will give you a baggy fit, a lot of dead-space above your toes and bad power-transfer from your foot to the wall. Wearing a low volume shoe with high volume feet will cause discomfort, (especially with a technical fit, where the knuckle of your toe will be pushed too hard into the ‘roof’ of the shoe), and foot cramping.

This diagram shows the profile of a Bandit next to a Geshido. Notice how much 'deeper' the Bandit is.

Width

Width is a more commonly understood variable, and a good width-wise fit is more obvious when trying shoes on. Too narrow, and your toes will be pushed into uncomfortable and ineffective positions, too wide and the shoe will roll around your foot. The most obvious place to feel whether the width of a shoe suits you is obviously around the widest part of your foot, at the first knuckle of your toes. If it is too tight here and causes immediate discomfort, you probably need something wider and conversely if there’s any space here you need a narrower shoe.

Heel Depth

The heel is probably the trickiest part to get right when choosing new shoes. If the heel is too baggy then the shoe may be inclined to slide off your foot when pressure is applied to the toe. That said, it is very rare to find a perfectly fitting heel, so don’t be put off an otherwise perfect shoe by a small amount of space under your heel.

Hopefully, this will give you some understanding of the ins and outs of climbing shoe fitting, but this is by no means an in-depth guide. If you have any questions on the subject, feel free to get in touch and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Based on the things we covered above, here's some examples:

Downturned & Technical; Evolv Talon, La Sportiva Solution, Evolv Shaman

Flat & Comfy; Evolv Royale, Boreal Joker Plus

High Volume; Evolv Bandit, Evolv Pontas

Low Volume; Evolv Geshido, Evolv Elektra

Wide; Boreal Joker Plus Velcro

Narrow; Red Chili Corona VCR

It’s probably a common theme before anyone goes ice climbing and this trip was no different. In the run up to my little week away, I was as usual bombarded by the [ahem] “ice” age old questions; “Why do you do it?” “Do you thrive on the adrenaline of taking risks?”.

“How can you live with the risk?” “Do you actually enjoy flirting with death?”

 Whatever form it takes, the question is pretty much the same but, in my humble opinion, founded on the ill conceived principle that risk equals danger or something worse!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are those out there that actively enjoy flirting with danger and thrive on throwing the dice with their own lives in the balance. I am certainly not one of these and on leaving a rather rainy Bristol on an Easyjet flight to Innsbruck had every intention of returning one week thus.

With my ambitions of using my return ticket understood, what was it that separated my ice climbing trip from sharing an ice cream with Hannibal Lecter?

Calculated risk; understanding the very clear distinction between risk and danger. Understanding there are ways to approach tasks in such a way that the risk is reduced to an acceptable level. Without even realising it we do this in our everyday lives and in almost all instances knowledge that enables us to mitigate hazards or evaluate the objective hazards to an acceptable level happens in a heartbeat. I drive to work most days; my driving skills and experience keep me from crashing or running someone over, knowledge that my vehicle is serviced within its recommend period ensure I’m not in control of a death trap and the highway code ensures there is order as I move through the environment. These factors combine to reduce the dangers of travelling surrounded in metal at 70mph to an acceptable level of risk.

What I find interesting about human behaviour is that we very frequently fail to translate our everyday experiences in dealing with risk to unfamiliar experiences. I think it is this lack of familiarity and knowledge that prompts so many questions of why I should be flirting with disaster cavorting off on an ice climbing holiday. Before taking off from Bristol I was prepared for the forthcoming dangers. I was educated in the techniques required to ice climb, fit enough (Christmas felt like a distant memory), was in possession of the appropriate equipment to help me climb and to afford me protection from the environment, I knew how to use and maintain all these items and arguably, most important of all, I had a climbing partner. In short I was prepared to mitigate and reduce the risks to an acceptable level. With these 4 “things” I was prepared; training, tools, fitness and a partner.

With all these things stacked in my favour I could probably argue my trip was no more dangerous than the average cyclists commute to work. Which can leave us asking only one question; what’s the fun in doing such a safe sport?

We've just recieved our first copy of this new bouldering guide "Boulder Britain" and I have to say I'm really impressed. This is a really high quality guide covering most of the best bouldering in the whole of the UK. It's detailed, well laid out and easy to follow with great maps and photo topo's. This must have taken a lot of work to produce.

There's even a small section on the bouldering right here in South Wales! There are detailed photo topo's of Dinas Rock as well as the bouldering at Ogmore, both venues well worth a visit if you haven't made the trip yet.

This is a must have guide for any climber who likes to travel in the UK. If you have an afternoon free after spending time with family or some time to kill while travelling with work you will always be able to find a boulder problem near by with a grade to suit you. The photo's alone are inspirational. Get your copy here: http://www.bouldersuk.co.uk/boulder-britain

In just a few days now Rob is going to stop working for once and swap his office for the mountains of Austria for an action packed week-and-a-bit of ice climbing.

Austria is home to so world class winter climbing, and Europe is having a pretty good winter (and by 'good', I mean cold!), so he should be set for some great adventures in the mountains. 

He's getting very excited, and wont take off his big B3 mountaineering boots for love nor money ("wearing them in", apparently!), and took delivery of some awesome new Mountain Equipment salopettes yesterday.

This is just a quick post, but Rob is under strict instructions to come back with lots of photo's and exciting stories to tell us all, so watch this space! Good luck Rob, have an awesome time!

We've all been very excited here at Boulders HQ lately, because our mates over at Evolv and Black Diamond have sorted us out with some great kit and deals.

For starters we've just got in an awesome range of Black Diamond clothing. We rate this gear so much we'd happily have kept it all for ourselves, but apparently that's not allowed! Check out the ranges of T-shirts, hoodies and trousers, which are all look great whether you're hitting the crag or the pub.

We've got limited stock of most lines, so get in there before someone else does!

Meanwhile, the lovely people at Beyond Hope (the UK's distributor of Evolv Shoes and much much more) have made us a 'Performance Shop', meaning that come early March, we're going to have some pretty exclusive new Evolv shoes for you to try and buy.

These include the awesome looking new Bandit VCR, and the limited edition 'Rasta Shamans'. We've got a boot demo on March 6th, so save that date if you're in the market for some new rock shoes. Only 100 pairs of Rasta Shamans hitting the shores of the UK, so if you fancy a pair you better come down to the shop and camp overnight, Harry Potter premier stylee.

28 Nov 2011

This weekend, Boulders was lucky enough to have local climbing legend Andy Sharp travel down to celebrate the opening of its’ new bouldering cave by cutting the ribbon... with a saw!

It had always been spoken about in hushed tones, but over the past month to smell of burnt wood and Polish expletives, the beast became a reality. The monster of a flat-roofed cave stretches almost 5m by 5m and is probably one of the best facilities for those wishing to train specifically for horizontal climbing in the UK.

The main part of the roof has been designed to be just over adult head height and sits 2m above the mats – perfect for making sure you avoid foot dabs when cutting loose. On the lip of the cave, one side pulls round into a 35 degree overhang and the other side into a flat wall, giving a massive 9m potential straight line route length. The back wall of the cave is split into two further mini caves and a couple of smaller features exist to give the roof character.

Not only was this weekend a chance to showcase the cave and discover first-hand the length of the routes, it was also a great opportunity to catch up with Andy. Over a coffee, he retold stories of putting up routes of grades that most of us can only dream of. Numerous routes in the 8s dotted around the South West belong to Andy and were put up at a time when anything in the 8s was pretty much the limit of human endeavours in climbing.

We did however, manage to bring Andy back into the realms of mortality and got some great beta on Mick’s Little Viper (VS) in Trebanog, one of his favourite local routes: “One of the best medium graded traditional routes on sandstone, good rock and good gear make this a must for those interested in the traditional art! South Wales is synonymous with sheep for some reason and whilst soloing the Viper some years ago, I was quite surprised to see two of them (sheep) jump over the top of the route that were closely followed by a rather large dog. On landing the sheep just got up, had a quick shake and walked away. The dog, however, lay at the bottom for some time before limping off into the nearby estate!”

20 September 2011

British mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick and author of the award-winning Psychovertical will be giving a series of talks this Autumn on the subject of his new book, Cold Wars.

Boulders is delighted to be hosting Andy's latest talk here at the centre on Saturday 12th November, which promises to be a gripping account of modern adventure from the UK’s only “stand-up” mountaineer. Andy has a reputation for seeking out climbing routes where the danger is real and the return is questionable, pushing himself on some of the hardest walls and faces in the Alps and beyond. He was born and raised on a council estate in Hull, one of the flattest cities in the UK and suffered from severe dyslexia, which went undiagnosed until he was 19.

Thriving on this apparent adversity, Andy transformed himself into one of the world’s most driven and accomplished climbers and an award-winning writer. Here's what Andy's publisher has to say about his latest tour;

“Following his successful Psychovertical, When Hell Freezes Over and Off the Wall UK theatre tours, the multi-faceted, internationally acclaimed mountaineer and comedian Andy Kirkpatrick is hitting the road again!”

This time Andy takes a slightly different tack, talking about his new book Cold Wars, a year in the writing and the follow up to his best-selling book Psychovertical. Telling stories behind the climbs, as well as reading from the book and showing images and film, these smaller, more intimate talks, retain the same level of humour, but also are perhaps a more honest window into the world of extreme climbing. Cold Wars charts a period of his career where he became drawn into increasingly high-risk climbs. Tales include many cold climbs, such as his 15-day winter ascent of the Lafaille Route on the Petit Dru, a 1000m pillar in the Alps considered to be one of the most difficult climbs in Europe, and the first winter ascent of the East face of Mermoz, Patagonia.

Andy is quite simply hilarious and appeals to climbers and non- climbers alike. He is not to be missed, so get your tickets whilst they are still available.

23 August 2011

The Crucible Winter Final took place last April and we saw lots of talent amongst the competition finalists. Alessio Tate took first place and won the most sought after prize at the competition, the Performance Coaching trip to Fontainebleau from our generous sponsors Make the Next Move. Alessio was mega pleased to have won the title and the fantastic prize, but unfortunately was not able to make the trip... He left us to head back home to Italy!

So what happened to the ticket?... The lucky person next in line to be the holder of the ticket was Morgan Jenkins who grabbed a mean 2nd place in the Elite Men’s Final. Alessio really wanted Morgan to have the prize and thought that it should rightfully go to the chap that challenged him to 1st place in the Final.

Boulders was really pleased with this decision. Morgan has been a keen boulderer and had never been to Font before, he was delighted to be able to take up the opportunity to go. Morgan has recently come back from his trip, and we thought we'd catch up with him and let you in on the fun times, the deck outs and the pictures...

The man in question is only 17 years old and has been climbing for the past 3 years, since Boulders opened. He's your 'stereotypical' teenager and wasn't completely sure where he had been all together but knew he'd had a great time. We also got in touch with Paul from Make the Next Move to fill in some gaps and give you his thoughts on the experience as well. Here's the bit you've been waiting for... a little Q and A session with Morgan:

Q: What date did you go on the trip?

A: The trip took place on the 23-30th of July (well, he's not doing bad so far eh!).

Q: Where did you go on your trip (also name any towns, beaches etc you may have visited)?

A: I’ve got to be honest and say that I’m not entirely sure of the address or town we were staying in, nor can I really remember the specific areas we went to – a stereotypical teenager I guess. Aside from a short morning trip into the town of Fontainebleau (aimed to be a rest day) we only travelled to areas for climbing.

Q: What was your favourite part about the trip?

A: Obviously the best part had to be the climbing, Fontainebleau is quite simply indescribable. No matter how much time you spend there, you can’t even cover a fraction of the climbs or areas. When you get used to the UK, which is really not that great in my opinion, you’re just overwhelmed by the amount of climbs and also the quality of the climbs that Fontainebleau possesses.

Q: What did you learn (if anything) or improve upon?

A: I think climbing in Fontainebleau really taught me a lot, it didn’t necessarily improve my climbing, but it certainly illuminated the areas in which I need to improve on. The best way to describe Fontainebleau climbing would be to say it’s the antithesis of indoor climbing. Whereas indoors is all about how hard you can pull, how small a hold you can hold, Fontainebleau is the opposite, it can be finding the correct body position, discovering the footholds or even working out what you’re meant to hold. What I discovered, sadly, is that there are many things (shown through climbing there) that you simply cannot learn or train indoors. Fontainebleau really puts into perspective what a 'bad foothold' actually is. Overall the lesson is that strength simply isn’t enough.

Q: Did anything funny happen?

A: There were certainly quite a few funny falls

Q: Would you recommend a performance coaching trip with Make the Next Move to others?

A: Certainly, the arranged accommodation was perfect and the week thoroughly enjoyable, there’s nothing I could really criticise.

So now you've heard it from the winners mouth... here's what Paul Walters from Make the Next Move had to say: 'The week was a great success, we visited most of the more famous bouldering areas such as Roche Aux Sabots, Elephant, and Bas Cuvier, climbing as many of the classics as our skin could handle! Morgan did very well considering he’s not spent much time on rock, sending a collection of font 7a’s (which is V6 to most people). Rob Turner was definitely the most entertaining of the group, with his un-orthodox ‘belly-flop’ top-outs and a particularly funny fall, and one not so funny! Chris Davies definitely pulled on to the rock the most, and his bleeding finger tips on day 5 were testament to that. All in all, we climbed around 50 problems at a variety of venues. The weather didn’t affect as at all and we all have a few more problems to add to our tick list for next time.'

07 July 2011

The Adult Academy changes its focus each academic term and the Summer Term means “trad” climbing.

The idea of doing your first trad climb is quite a scary thought, especially if you’ve only ever sport climbed before, but that was the position most members of the Academy found themselves in at the start of May 2011.

However, with a bit of regular coaching from Boulders we were soon ready to tackle the sea cliffs of Pembroke. Here are the highlights from an amazing weekend, where we were lucky enough to enjoy a break without the rain!

To get involved with any of the Academies (ages: 7-10, 11-14, 15-17 and Adult) check out the academy pages and come along to the next selections, starting 26th September 2011.

Its no “Spielberg” production but hopefully a bit of fun nonetheless....Enjoy & Climb More!

17 June 2011

Meanwhile the lucky few left behind in Cardiff keep receiving his regular photo updates. Keep an eye on facebook over the next few days and we’ll keep you up to date with his attempt to climb the Old Man of Hoy. Good Luck Ollie, we’re following your progress!!

For those of you not familiar with the ‘Old Man’ as it is affectionately known amongst some climbers here’s some blurb we found on Wiki: ‘The Old Man is probably less than 400 years old and may not get much older, as there are indications that it may soon collapse (lets hope not whilst Ollie is on it!).

On maps drawn between 1600 and 1750 the area appears as a headland with no sea stack. William Daniell, a landscape painter, sketched the sea stack in 1817 as a wider column with a smaller top section and an arch at the base, from which it derived its name. A print of this drawing is still available in local museums. Sometime in the early 19th century, a storm washed away one of the legs leaving it much as it is today although erosion continues.

The stack was first climbed in 1966 by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey over a period of three days. On 8-9 July 1967 an ascent was featured in a live BBC outside broadcast, which had around 15 million viewers over the three-night period of the broadcast. This featured three pairs of climbers: Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, whilst two new lines were climbed - by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis; and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston. The stack now has a number of climbing routes (one route being at the British grade of E6), but the vast majority of ascents, of which there are 20–50 in an average year, are by the original route at E1 5b. A small RAF log book in a Tupperware container is buried in a cairn on the summit and serves as an ascensionists' record.’