After a week or two of breaking-in, the Synergy’s seemed to overhaul my climbing style, benefitting my foot technique and improving my style considerably on modern, competition style climbs. Like any whirlwind romance, we’ve rapidly become comfortable with each other and are enjoying every moment we spend together. Respect to you Boreal, the Synergy is a true shoe of the new age of climbing; quirky, technical and a whole bag of fun!go to full review

I’m sure that the Maestros will see me through many more climbing trips, and that I’ll come to feel just as attached to them as I did to my Velocitys. Scarpa seem able to cater to a very wide variety of climbing needs, and I have to say that most of them seem to be satisfied by just this pair of shoes.go to full review

The Petzl Sitta is an excellent lightweight harness that performs well across all climbing disciplines. While I have some personal preferences that the Sitta doesn’t perfectly align with (primarily in the configuration of the gear loops), those do not detract from the comfort or the overall performance of the harness. But is the Sitta’s comfort, weight, and performance worth an extra $100 when compared to budget harnesses? That’s a question that you’ll need to answer by looking at your..." go to full review

The Black Diamond Shadow has a unique combination of traits that make it work best for a very particular group of people. For me, the combination of a poor fit (for my feet) and poor sensitivity negated the advantages that usually come with downturned and asymmetrical shoes. But if you climb in a place with severe overhangs and plentiful footholds and / or you have a low-volume heel and instep and medium-wide toes, the Shadow may, in fact, be the shoe that fits.go to full review

Edelrid’s Tommy Caldwell ProDryDT is an excellent all-round single rope offered both with and without Edelrid’s top-notch ProDry dry treatment. It handles well in a wide variety of belay devices and has proved to be very durable so far. The Mammut Infinity and Sterling Helix have a slightly softer hand if that’s your preference, but the TC ProDryDT isn’t cumbersome or stiff in by any means. This rope is a great option for those climbers who just want to pick up a single rope for all sorts of..." go to full review

The Boreo is an affordable, comfortable, durable, helmet that offers the additional piece of mind of passing Petzl’s side protection tests in addition to UIAA and CE testing standards. It’s not the lightest option out there, but if you’re looking for an everyday helmet that offers increased protection from side, front, and rear impacts, the Boreo is definitely worth a look.go to full review

The Black Diamond Vector is a very good, lightweight helmet that offers increased protection compared to some other lightweight EPS helmets like the Black Diamond Vapor and Mammut Rock Rider while still coming in significantly lighter than more traditional plastic options like the Half Dome and El Cap. This puts the Vector in a nice middle ground, and makes it a great choice for people who want a lightweight helmet but don’t want to skimp on coverage.go to full review

This is an area where the Agro deserves credit. The Agro is made with robust materials at the closure, is covered with rubber, and offers enough precision that scraping your foot across the wall is definitely your fault. All this combines to make the Agro super durable, something that I think is often under-appreciated in consumable goods like climbing shoes. After 25 days climbing in the Agro, I haven’t yet had to take it in for a resole, and if there’s any trouble with resoling it given..." go to full review

Well, I have to say that the first time I took the Smart 2.0 to the climbing wall and belayed a lead climber I did find it a little tricky. General paying out of the rope wasn’t a problem, but I found it hard to smoothly feed out rope when they wanted to quickly pull some through to clip protection - initially both my partner and I were getting a bit frustrated because they wanted rope quickly and I struggled to provide it. This isn’t a problem exclusive to the Smart device though and,..." go to full review

This new iteration of the Smart (the 2.0 hit shelves earlier this year, while the original debuted in 2009) has more ergonomic geometry than its predecessor. The device requires you to tilt the nose up or down with your brake hand depending on whether you’re letting out slack or not. The new shape of the device allows smoother braking and unlocking the device from the brake position is easier. Your brake hand’s thumb rests on the underside of the device, which has a new rubber insert to make..." go to full review