Climbing

These light, fleet, precise shoes mark one of the Spanish brand’s few forays into softer boots, and their innovation has paid off—the shoes crushed on steep boulders, sport, and the gym. “I dug the soft overall feel contrasted with the stiff, precision toebox,” said our tester. When he brought them on a tech-nasty offset 5.13 granite layback, the shoes locked right into the edging, scumming, and hooking.go to full review

Built for all-day comfort with a bit of downturn, these shoes forced our tester to stand hard on small holds, working well to toe down on steep Yosemite problems. While initially distracting, the two-tone rubber soon added emphasis and made him think about his heel placement and movement more: “From the MoonBoard to the boulders behind Camp 4, these shoes pointed my toes precisely onto holds."go to full review

The Chimera is a cutting-edge redpoint and bouldering shoe with a hypersensitive toe and soft, grippy feel. They were grabbing machines on the steeps, digging into the tiniest of holds with lock-on precision (they force you onto the point of your big toe, which takes some adjustment for edging). Outsized, perforated toe-hooking patch was a dream on boulders and heel cup was bomber.go to full review

The Voltage, which comes in a high-volume and low-volume version, nails precise and aggressive while being comfortable—i.e., minimal on/off. Think of these as a friendlier addition to your redpoint options. The shoes direct power into the big toe, so you do get some wear there. Said our tester, “I used them in the gym for hard, powerful bouldering, and they blew away other shoes in my quiver."go to full review

“If you’re projecting steep climbing that requires you to pull hard with the toes or technical heels, this is your shoe,” said our HV tester, who used them in the gym and on local sandstone. Our LV tester echoed this, saying, “Love the precision for overhanging foot placement and heel hooking. I really trusted the sturdy heel.” She also got lots of compliments on the shoe's colors and looks.go to full review

Lowa puts as much care into their climbing shoes as they do their famous boots, and this sock-like, rubber-heavy shoe performs similarly well. The rounded toebox made frontpointing a little tricky, but the vacuum fit and XS Grip rubber made these shoes edging machines. The soft fit, single Velcro closure, and big pull tabs on the rear of the shoe meant easy on-off between climbs.go to full review

This innovative shoe has a distinct look—the “flowery,” ridged toe-hooking rand/patch and spray-on 3-D rubber graphic—that translates into wicked performance for toe-hooking, drags, scums, etc. It was a beast in heel hooks and heel-toes, thanks to the snug, stiff-ish fit and molded heel cup—testers noted “zero slippage.” The Narsha was a great, precise shoe on steep sport, especially edginggo to full review

A fluent, versatile, hard-wearing low-top trad shoe with great foot protection and a rounded toe best for cracks. The Aspects tend toward stiff and take break-in for smearing, but are reliable edging monsters—on a Boulder Canyon thin-face 5.11+, one tester felt like he could “stand for hours,” then segued into a second-pitch 5.11 layback crack with no problem.go to full review

Soft and sensitive are the two words that echoed through our testers’ review notes on the new Instinct VSR. Built almost exactly the same as the outstanding Instinct VS—a favorite around here—shoe designers put Vibram Grip 2 rubber on the shoe, which is a softer and more supple compound. The other major change was making the upper fit even closer, so testers said, “I wore it like a sticky-rubber sock; my toes could actually feel even quarter-inch bumps.” The VSR stood out impressively for..." go to full review

The Mega Jul Sport is a tube-style device that relies on its shape to catch the rope in the event of a fall, so it has no moving parts. The belay technique is similar to any other tube-style device, but when feeding slack, the belayer must hold the thumb loop so the rope will run through the device without locking up. The technique felt natural after a few pitches. The Mega Jul Sport takes double ropes, making it more versatile for rappelling and belaying with half or twin ropes. The..." go to full review