26 April > Prisms

Chris > Prisims: My initiation to the climbing season was spent down at Mackenzie Pond. Its a boulder field in the forest near Lake Placid (for those of you who don't know, Lake Placid hosted the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics) and I had the chance to try out the Prisms on some real rock. So the granite boulders at Mackenzie Pond are littered with crimps and small edges, not much in the jug variety and you need to trust your feet when climbing there. I'll have to admit that I'm still using my old shoes from time to time, especially when it come to bouldering on steeper terrain. When I was in Ottawa for the last leg of the Tour de Bloc, the gym there was geared towards bouldering and most of their walls are steep and I found myself using my old shoes. Mackenzie Pond is another story. With all those crimps and tiny non existent foot holds, the Prisms made it more comfortable to climb the problems. I'm getting used to the thicker, stiffer rand and it helps when climbing on featureless vertical rock. It gives you the support and confidence to keep on going. There were some problems where the foot holds were so small that it took me some time to find which one to use but once on them I had no doubts that my shoes would hold.

So we don't live in a perfect world, and the same goes for the shoes. I'm still finding it difficult to smear, I find that if I put too much power into the smear my shoes won't stick to the wall. I find this happens a lot at the gym. Granted an indoor wall won't give you the same friction as real rock but still the shoes just don't want to stick. I don't think it has to do with the rubber but more to do with the design. I've owned many of Five Tens shoes and I've compared them side by side. The Prisms just don't smear as well as other shoes I've owned. I also have a gap between my heel and the inside of the heel cup. I've experience this with other shoes, mainly the old Anasazis, and it only becomes a real issue if I need to heel hook. I've owned a couple of Anasazis and I was delighted to see that Five Ten redesigned the shoe with a new heel cup. The Prisms look very similar to the re designed Anasazis and the heel cup is more comfortable than the old design.