Month: November 2011

The Market for Unusable Rock Climbing Shoes

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

If you read my most recent entry, you know I got the Bandits from Evolv and was really excited about them. But then I wore them in the hotel for just a little longer than both times that I tried them on in the store. My toes were feeling a little cramped and it wasn’t good.

What I thought was tolerable was suddenly painful. I was then stuck with figuring out what do I do now.

You see, whenever you buy climbing gear today, retailers refuse to accept returns or make exchanges for fear that the product might be damaged or altered in some way. My receipt from Erehwon said so very clearly. If they resold the returned or exchanged item that may have been changed in some way, if it fails to perform the shop doesn’t want to be held liable in any way. This concerned me because my size 11.5 Evolvs were not going to be climbed in very much by me.

So what do you do in this situation? First you try to avoid it by trying on as many rock climbing shoes as possible and you do your homework, reading reviews and such. Then you base your experience by the rental shoes you wore at the gym. I did all this but I think my shortcoming was that I hadn’t climbed in about ten years.

I also read a lot of advice, but I worried that the only way to get a better sized pair of Evolv Bandits was to do what a lot of folks have been forced to do: Sell them for a marginal loss (I hope it’s only marginal!) on EBay or some other exchange.

Since I was on the road, and had more time to obsess about this at night than I would when I’m at home with the family, I surfed the Internet at length for a solution. So I compared the prices of new rock climbing shoes on Ebay to their retail price. The possibility of breaking even seemed within reach, but I’d have to include shipping and there still wasn’t any guarantee. More than likely, I’d take a 20 percent hit.

With the shoes still on cramping my feet, I took them off. Then I put them back on lacing them a bit differently, hoping it would make a difference.

I eventually went to Evolv’s website and Hallelujah, my prayers were answered! Evolv allows customers to exchange new, unused shoes not worn outside the home, within 30 days of purchase. I’ll just have to fill out a form and mail them to Evolv.

Not bad, but my sizing miscue ruined my plan of packing neatly and lightly on my flight home however. I had hoped to ditch the shoe box and squeeze the shoes between my toiletries and my ties. Instead, my shopping bag from Erehwon with the shoe box holding the shoes would be my “personal item” to take onto the airline, in addition to my carryon. Oh well.

Thanks for coming by again. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter. Happy reading and carpe climb ’em!

Finally Got ‘Em: Rock Climbing Shoes

/ Andrew Szalay / 1 Comment

 

Well, a little while back I finally made the big purchase. I was stoked. I even thought about buying a rope and scaling the Sears Tower — the midwest’s “high point” — before coming home.

During a recent business trip on an off-duty evening, I made a point to drop into Erehwon Outfitters to spend some time trying on and choosing a pair of rock climbing shoes.

Fueled by a grande pumpkin spiced latte I plunged past the guidebooks, camping accessories and Yakima car cases and into the corner counter with the climbing gear. It was refreshing to see ice climbing gear in stock; you don’t see that in Peaklessburg. That was very distracting for me, but that’s not why I was there.

There were about ten shoes in stock and two models were on sale for $45 US. I started there but only tiny sizes were available; typical. Narrowing in on the men’s shoes, I had them pull down the shoes priced under $100 US in my size — or close to it; they didn’t have anything larger than 11.5 US / 45 EU. So I had two to try, if they fit.

I started with the Evolv Defy. It was comfortable, just as everyone that had reviewed them online had said. The tongue is padded more than the majority of climbing shoes. I compared them to another pair from Evolv, the Bandit, a lace-up model. I didn’t know anything about them but one of the sales peopled climbed in a pair just like these three times a week and strongly recommended them. My smartphone checked the reviews; others were extremely happy with them too. I wondered why these were never on my radar.

The Bandits felt good. I swapped shoes again to compare. The Defy felt roomier in the sides, perhaps because of the Velcro closure. Length-wise and in the toe box they felt the same. But the Bandits felt surer whenever I stood on the edge of the chair to simulate smearing as best I could. The Defys did well too, but the Bandits were doing very well. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but I sensed a subtly noticeable difference.

I wanted the Evolv Bandits. I could have saved a bit of money and probably could have done fine with the Defys but the Bandits felt like a shoe for a long term commitment, like I was looking for. When I went to check out, I realized why these shoes weren’t on the sonar: They were priced over my budget by about $10 US, though they were labeled $99. I did the cost benefit analysis and my excitement won out.

I hadn’t been this excited about gear since I shopped for my softball mitt. Like the shoes will be, the mitt was a “pricey” investment, took effort to break in, and has provided already a decade of service. I hope these Evolv climbing shoes can do that too.

By the way, Erehwon is nowhere spelled backwards, in case you were wondering where the name came from. I think that’s clever.

 

Unfortunately, my quest for new rock climbing shoes didn’t here, though. More to come in my next entry. So if you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter. Happy reading and carpe climb ’em!

 

 

 

The Remaining 8,000ers Winter Ascents

/ Andrew Szalay / 2 Comments

Halloween is done. The first snow has already fallen. So now I’m thinking about winter, including skiing, snowshoeing, snowball fights and winter climbing. Oh… and seasonal lagers too.

It also means we can start watching for news of high altitude alpinists going after the virgin winter ascents in the Himalayan 8,000-meter peaks. Four remain, as the Poles have succeeded in tackling Everest (1st highest), Kanchenjunga (3rd), Lhotse (4th), Makalu (5th), Cho Oyo (6th), Dhaulagiri (7th), Manaslu (8th), Annapurna (10th), and Shishapangma (14th).

Gasherbrum II, the world’s 13th highest mountain, is the only winter ascent that wasn’t climbed by the Poles and was the first in the Karakorum Range of the Himalayas. It was topped out on Groundhog Day (February 2, 2011) by an international team, including Simone Moro of Italy, Denis Urubko of Kazakhstan and Cory Richards of Canada.
So that leaves us four to track:

2. K2 (28,250 ft./8,611 m.)

9. Nanga Parbat (26,660 ft./8,125 m.)

11. Gashberbrum I (26,470 ft./8,068 m.)

12. Broad Peak (26,401 ft./8,047 m.)

The challenge of an ascent in winter in the Karakoram means generally colder temperatures, more frequent storms, shorter days with less sunlight. The ice can be brittle. Snow slopes can load and unload regularly as is the cycle of avalanches — which happen with greater frequency in winter storms.

While you don’t need to climb in the winter of these high altitude peaks to be the biggest, baddest climber, it sure helps your reputation. While I wouldn’t try it — and I’m not recommending that you make an attempt — I am going to watch with admiration anybody the tries this winter.

DECEMBER 10, 2011: Here’s an update on the teams heading to make attempts on three of the remaining peaks. .

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Mountain Books Authors and Publishers

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The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is underway! But unfortunately I’m not reporting from there. Instead I am in flat and un-glamorous Peaklessburg. That doesn’t stop me from getting in on the mountain book action though.

First off, I’m excited that the Banff Mountain Book Competition will be giving the grand prize to Bernadette McDonald for her book Freedom Climbers (Rocky Mountain Books, Canada , 2011.) McDonald will receive the $2,000 CA grand prize and read from her work at the presentation on Thursday evening. This is great — if for no other reason than because it celebrates the hardiness of mountaineering in the Polish tradition. As an American that had the Walia Christmas Eve traditions as an anchor to my Polish heritage, and something in common with all Catholic Poles, I’m always interested and take pride in what the Poles do in the hills anywhere. Plus, the stories of the Poles in the Himalayas always make those Polish jokes from when I was a school kid seem laughably naive. I have not read McDonald’s work yet, but I have to now!

Next off, there were a lot of other books nominated in this competition and only a handful became finalists. Even fewer, I’m sure, have you heard about. But if you enjoy this blog and mountaineering literature, you would probably enjoy many of them.

As you know, I am very supportive of mountain nonfiction, particularly stories of accomplishments in climbing, mountaineering history and climbing and hiking guidebooks. I also believe the authors need our support by buying the books new, reviewing them and recommending them whenever possible. This genre is a small corner among sports, travel and cultural writings. The authors rely on us as a loyal audience so they can climb and write again.

This is the idea behind the program
Suburban Mountaineers for Authors. What I’ll be doing for the next several months is promoting some less popular but no less valuable mountain nonfiction. To start out, I’ll be going through some of works from the larger publishing houses’ books and feature their authors.

After we go through some of the select works from possibly The Mountaineers Books, Sharp End Publishing and others, we’ll turn exclusively to individual works, regardless of publisher. If you want to contribute a review, I would love to post your work as a guest on The Suburban Mountaineer!

Thanks for coming by again. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter. Happy reading and carpe climb ’em!