La Sportiva Solution Review

UPDATE 1 (11/13/2010): I attempted to blog from my droid. It failed. I'm fixing everything now
UPDATE 2 (11/14/2010): Fixed, lesson learned.

I picked my pair of solutions in January. My project at the time had a bat-hang-toe-hook-hand-match-thing as the crux, and had been shutting me down hard. I blamed my flailing on worn out shoes and convinced myself a pair of these babies would change everything. I was completely wrong, but they turned out to be a good investment: Ive seen the light. Now, on to the review.

 HOW THEY CLIMB

These shoes are kick ass, definitely the best all around shoe I have ever worn. I have put my pair through slabs, overhangs, technical faces, and caves, and have yet to find a glaring weakness. When the sun is setting and I only have one burn left in me, these were shoes I reached for. Except for multi-pitching... mine are way too downsized for that crap.

SIZING/FIT

La Sportiva Solutions have one of the more peculiar fits I have encountered. The heel is super deep and snug, moving into a tight midfoot, before opening up to a surprisingly large toe box. Because of this, these shoes love to be downsized. Get the smallest size you can cram your foot into: I have a size 12 foot (euro 46) and bought 43's (usa 10.5-ish). In fact, I couldn't even get my foot into them at the store. I had previously worn a friend's well broken in size 42.5 solutions; I knew they *would* fit and bought them on faith. Sure enough, after 30 minutes of struggling at the gym, they were on. They do stretch a good bit, mainly around the opening and midfoot. Because the heel and toe box are almost completely covered in rubber, do not expect much stretching in these areas, they just form to the shape of your foot. Essentially, the shoes become easier to put on without sacrificing fit in the toes or heel. Perfect.

THE RUBBER

These babies are covered in Vibram XS Grip rubber. This jank is extremely sticky and never left me wanting for more, although it should be noted that (as with any high end climbing shoe) the rubber will wear our quickly if your footwork is crap.

DURABILITY

If there is a weak point to solutions, the Velcro strap might be it. If you crank on them, they WILL break eventually. I started noticing wear after 3 months of outdoor use. 5 months later, one of my straps broke. It should be noted that I stopped tightening the Velcro during those 5 months, I simply pulled until there was a slight resistance and then I would leave it that way. One other area of note is the black perforated "sock liner" (?) on top of the foot. You will wear holes in this if you do any kind of jamming or get your foot caught in a particularly nasty toe hook.

Caleb

Rope Swings are Awesome

They are.

Trust me, especially when getting back up to the rope requires bouldering back up to the top.

Me likey.

I managed to spend a fair bit of my summer at either the rope swing/dam on Issaqueena Lake or the rock quarry on Lake Hartwell. Both are pretty sweet. If you are around Clemson and want to cheat death, the Issaqueena Lake is the go to... jumping off that dam is pretty cool. I love that "oh shit" feeling once you leave solid ground and hope to high heavens that you cleared the leg breaking concrete wall at the bottom. The rock quarry is a slightly different ballgame. It's much more friendly to a case of beer and and group of rednecks than than Issaqueena Lake. You never know what you're gonna get there...

Either way, I miss swimming for no reason.

Caleb

Here We Go, Version 2.0

Hey.

We're gonna try this again...

Some of you (read: my friends that read this to flattering me) will notice some changes over the next few days as I revamp and reinvent this blog. For new readers, this blog will be centrally based around climbing and my climbing adventures, but there is no telling whatever else might end up finding its way on here.

The plan right now is to get some content up quickly (over the next week or so) recapping some of the more interesting things that have happened over the summer, and an update on what I've been up to. Climbing wise, I have a long term review of my La Sportiva Solutions in the pipeline as well as a first look at their replacements.

As of right now, I'm off to set for a climbing competition this weekend: Clemson Climbing Club's fall 2010 Master of Plastic. If you're gonna be around Clemson this weekend, you need to check it out.

Caleb

goings on as of late...

Yo. Sorry for the lack of updates, but with the rain and what not, there really has been nothing worth mentioning.

Here's what's up anyway:

1. My job at Bosch Rexroth is what's up.
2. Turns out a month of rope climbing will vastly improve your endurance...
3. ...It also sends your bouldering strength downhill. Who would have thought?

My hangboard is finally mounted in my apartment. Currently I'm doing the Metolius Simulator workout, but plan to add a few of my own things to it once I get acclimated.

More updates to come when something interesting happens.

Float the Boat 2010

I know, it's been a while. It always seems to be a while. Fact is, I spend a lot more time than I plan on every single time I post something on here. I'll work on it in the future.

This past Saturday (Jan 23th), Float the Boat finally went down. After being snowed out, then subsequently rained out, it turns out third time's the charm. The weather turned out good enough, with cool temps, a little cross wind, and drizzle that disappeared right before the comp started at 10.

Besides being my first outdoor bouldering comp, this was also my first trip to Boat Rock. The type of climbing there is very similar to most climbing in NC and SC - that is it say, slabby. Really slabby, with hard-as-balls top outs. Not my style, to say the least. Despite this, I managed to have a pretty good day, sending some classics such as Yellow Arete, Firewoman Sit, and Lost Digits. I even surprised myself and sent some slabs!

Although this was a comp, I knew it would be a while before I made it back again, and projected accordingly. By accordingly, I mean I threw myself at stuff I had no real chance of climbing in less-than-ideal conditions. I wasted about 2 hours not climbing Paint Can, Lost Boys Throw, Venom, and Anti-venom. Because of this, I ended up with two V2's still on my scorecard. Not exactly ideal, and I ended up middle of the pack in the Men's Intermediate class, 9th out of 19 climbers.

The rest of our group did much better. George won the beginners class, Brad faired better than I, and Brian (one of Brad's friends I met Saturday) got third in the beginner's. Big props to all of those guys. George climbed his ass off.

Overall, Float the Boat 2010 was awesome. I got to explore somewhere new, meet and climb with several cool people (most of which I called by the wrong name), and in general have a kickass time.

 Best of all, I got to take home a new water bottle and block of chalk. WOOP!

Are you a SC climber?

If you are a climber that lives in SC the following email might be of interest:



Like many SC Climbers, I was recently sent this e-mail from Stephen Scoff. If it is at all possible for you to make this meeting, please do so...and you can get a sweet day of bouldering in at the Bald too. Together we can all unify our voices to help solidify access to SC's incredible climbing and bouldering opportunities. Please contact Stephen on the CCC website, if you are a member or use the messageboard, or directly by e-mail at SCOFFS@mailbox.sc.edu Many thanks to Stephen for your previous and upcoming hard work to help make all of this happen!The Carolina Climbers Coalition is holding their Spring Meeting on Saturday, February 27 at Lake Lure (exact location has yet to be determined). The meeting will be a “public” one open to CCC members and non-members alike.This is a great opportunity for us to not only to impress upon the CCC the “SC contingent”; but also assist us in banning together for the sake of SC climbing and bouldering resources.It’s hard to beat Rumbling Bald in February so there should be no better excuse to save this weekend for there.SO, please rally your partners, fellow gym rats, spouses, spotters, subs, belay slaves, girl friends, boy friends, acquaintances, frienemies, etc. Numbers count—let’s make our mark.Please let me know if you plan on attending. Please pass this info on and do your best to encourage others to attend.I’ll keep everyone up to speed on responses. I just hope I get a confirmation back from YOU!

Thanks
Stephen Scoff
SC RepCarolina Climbers’ Coalition
http://carolinaclimbers.org/
SCOFFS@mailbox.sc.edu



 Thanks to my buddy George for the tip off.

Caleb

rumbling bald trip report - 1/9/10

Last weekend, Adam and myself drove out to Rumbling Bald to meet up with George and his roommate. It was a little on the cold side, but the only time it truly felt like 30 degrees was in the shade. The sunny side of things were pretty comfortable. Adam took a bunch of pics but there was some kind of error and only a few survived, the best of which I'll give you here in a sec.


Adam and I warmed up near the washing machine boulder, and then quickly went to work on a problem called Contact. After sorting his beta, Adam sent in a couple of tries. Unfortunately I was not as lucky, and only managed to sort through the first half of the problem and fall off the crux. Maybe next time...


After leaving the washing machine boulder, we stopped by Lost Cause. This is a super classic line that I have worked a little bit before, so I wanted to get on it again.

Lost Cause.

The problem has some really cool movement, and is really fun to climb. The "move" is a weird dyno up and left to a jug that's angled about 30 degrees away from you. Holding in the swing after the throw is the hard part. Too hard for me on the day, so I worked the top out a little and we moved on.

The pit boulder, in the middle east, was our next destination. This is by far one of my favorite boulders in the entire area, and is full of must-do climbs.

One of my many unsuccessful attempts on Pit BBQ

Pit BBQ is one of my all time favorite climbs at Rumbling. It's tall, overhanging, and is very sustained. After working it for a little bit, we met up with George and Brent. They had been in the east all day, and hiked up to where we were at. Shortly thereafter Adam got his send on and bagged the repeat. I was not so lucky, falling off the last move three times in a row. This is the breakdown of the following 30 minutes:

0 mins: 3 falls, missing the crash pad each time. Frustration ensued. Pep talks began.

5 mins: Luay, another Clemson climber, and Martha, his girlfriend, showed up.

10 mins: More frustration and increasingly worse pep talks.

15 mins: Adam did the Grease Pit dyno in his tennis shoes, and then sent the whole problem on his first attempt with climbing shoes.

20 mins: I switched from Pit BBQ to Grease Pit and managed to send the problem in three attempts.

25 mins: Luay asked if he could try Grease Pit. He sent as well. SEND TRAIN!!!!!

30 mins: We left the pit.

After getting lost and bushwacking down a hill, we finished up at the slave driver area. Adam, George, and Brent were smart; they climbed some really cool V1 highballs.George got extremely close to sending another really cool V2, but the name of which escapes me. In the mean time, I was not smart. I fruitlessly worked another hard problem called Master of Torque.

Long story short, they finish on a good note, I do not, we leave and Adam and I enjoy some Bojangle's.

The End.