Lowa Falco Laces

A darkhorse of our shoe testing, this lace-up got tons of high-country use from Wyoming’s Wind Rivers to Colorado’s Front Range. Two testers also rocked these for 5.10 crack climbs in Indian Creek, In Search of Suds (5.10+) on Washer Woman Tower, Utah, and the Kor-Ingalls Route (5.9+) on Castleton Tower, near Moab, Utah, and both were impressed by the level of performance they got out of this slightly downturned stiffie. “The last pitch on Washer Woman is a balancing, edging, smearing scarefest, but I felt confident with my Falcos on,” one of them said. Lowa is using a proprietary rubber called LC SuperGrip that fared just as well on limestone, sandstone, and granite as other compounds. The interior boasts an anti-bacterial lining to mitigate stench. Consensus? Minimal odor after five months of use. Both testers were able to crank the laces all the way down for jamming at the Optimator Wall in the Creek, but loosen the shoes enough to wear with thin socks when temps dipped into the 30s