Edge Where You Want with Scarpa’s Vapor Lace, Field Tested

First, about my testing: I used these shoes for two steady months of mainly granite crack and face climbing, with a couple days of techy limestone, quartzite, and gneiss thrown in to round things out. Throughout this time I also tested the new Katana Lace, a fantastic edging shoe itself, and I often climbed the same pitch twice wearing both pairs. The Katana Lace is stiff, downturned, and, most importantly, has a very pointed and low-profile toe. In Squamish, where I primarily climbed, many of the crags and multi-pitches are vertical or less, which means there are a lot of fun, “hard” routes that have thin, tips-crack cruxes. This is where I began to pick sides in my shoe testing, as, compared to the Katana Lace, the Vapor Lace has a noticeably taller toe profile, which I struggled to slip into 0.2–0.4-sized cracks.