Climbing Shoes

NEW FROM SCARPA THIS SPRING are the Instinct and Instinct S, two edging shoes that make slabs out of gently overhanging terrain.

I've worn various climbing shoes and wished that they were better at this or that -- heel hooks, dime edges, smearing and so on. But I've never donned a shoe and thought, I wish these shoes would outside edge better.

If you dipped your barefeet into a bucket of liquid rubber (yes, this has been tried) then went climbing you'd get roughly the same sensation as you would wearing La Sportiva's new slipper the Speedster -- the softest shoe I've ever worn.

A little over a year ago Tommy Caldwell and Justen Sjong established the most sustained free route on El Cap when they romped up Magic Mushroom, left of the Nose.

The Feroce is one of the best sport-climbing shoes I've ever worn.