Climbing Gear Reviews UK
The Booster is a technical and precise shoe that works best on steep, technical terrain. Great for bouldering and sport climbing as well as the ever blossoming indoor climbing market, I’d recommend the Booster for climbers who want a precise, aggressive and sensitive shoe with a lot of toe power. The twin velcro straps, DTS rand and PAF system give a secure and powerful feel to the shoe and the light, thin materials and general lightness of the shoe, offers incredible levels of feel on steep..." go to full review
Most of this winter season I climbed with Black Diamond Fuel Hammers. These super burly tools have an indestructible feel, particularly mixed climbing and dry tooling and whilst they’re great on steep ice, they’re not fully optimised for this, being a little heavy for my liking and not swinging quite as naturally, particularly when getting sticks on less steep ground.go to full review
With the pandemic the vast majority of my climbing time with the Voltage Lace has been outside which is no bad thing! As I alluded to earlier there has been little in the way of multi pitch climbing bar a few two pitch Lakes HVS classics. However the Voltage Lace has been thoroughly tested on Yorkshire limestone up to 7a and on the local Gritstone boulders. Bouldering the increased heel precision and security was noticeable when heel hooking and the slightly stiffer forefoot was a double..." go to full review
They are light, precise, nimble and durable. They climb ice and mixed ground like a dream, feel like trainers (almost!) when walking and they are super comfortable. I really hope they never stop making these! Perfect boots for Scottish winter, technical alpinism, Mont Blanc and technical ice and mixed.go to full review
In short it is difficult to imagine anyone not being happy with the Sendero, excepting perhaps the extreme sport climbing fraternity. It excels as Trad/Alpine/Winter harness and is perfectly usable for sport climbing. There is a a female specific version the Autana as well as a lighter weight fixed leg loop version the Sirana so Edelrid have pretty much covered all the bases.go to full review
Gill found the harness to be ‘really comfortable’ for climbing, belaying and even falling. He also found that ‘it doesn’t get in the way of anything’ whilst climbing and moving about. However he did note a downside in that it needed ‘more (gear) loops to hold gear on’. With two gear loops the Finn has adequete racking for most sport climbing routes but if like Gill you do more trad climbs and/or your dad places lots of gear then you may find that a makeshift bandolier becomes neccessary...." go to full review
The Scarpa Velocity has benefitted from a complete overhaul. They are a thoroughly modern shoe for the modern climbing era. As sustainable as they can be, super comfortable and precise enough for harder climbs if you want to use them for that. If you want comfort I would suggest your normal approach shoe size and if you want performance drop a size down.go to full review
First off they fitted brilliantly well to both my Scarpa Mont Blanc Pros (original version) and my Phantom 6000s, the slightly wider front piece putting the inside points in a very good position for ‘edging’. Packing them into my sac required a little re-arrangement compared to my usual system but no real issues although as I stated earlier a crampon bag of some for is nigh on mandatory. An ascent of Scabbard Chimney in SCNL gave a good introduction to thin slabby ice a great test for a..." go to full review
The well tested toe rand is similar to the Drago and Furia and offers plenty of surface area for toe hooking and even the occasional crack. It has also kept the shoe profile as it should be without any stretch.There is also a grey power band (the PAF system) that encased the arch of your foot to help keep the shoe tensioned and offer some performance enhancement by giving the Veloce a slight down turn to help push the toe into the toe box. How tensioned the heel is is shown by how many holes..." go to full review
Overall the Fusion is a great allrounder. It makes for a fantastic multi-pitch shoe especially if you have wide feet. There is a lack of ‘power’ at the toe and the heel is not as secure as you might wish for radical heel hooking but this is probably not the shoe you’d buy if those were your aims – the Voltage or similar would be a better fit there.go to full review