Cirque Pro Editorial Review

Climbing Shoes…other than “Climbing Shoes” - A review of La Sportiva’s Cirque Pro
by holdplease2

When doing technical approaches or on bigwalls, one often needs to “make a few moves” that mimick crack, face, or slab climbing. Additionally, shoes designed to handle the specific wear and tear associated with climbing may perform better in the long run.

We took a look at several of La Sportiva’s shoes and how they performed on approaches, easy leads, and in the bigwall environement. First, though, here are some my thoughts on what makes a good approach shoe and a good wall shoe, YMMV.

Technical Approach Shoe:

• Technical Capability: move capability (Shape of toe, rubber)
• Weight: Weight is particularly important if you plan on carrying the shoes up a climb
• Protection: For folks who deal with thorny plants in the desert, a leather or thick canvas upper won’t breath as well as mesh, but it will provide more protection
• Lacing System: If you expect a shoe to edge well, keep your feet blister free, etc. you’re going to want a precise fit. Having a shoe which is easy to adjust can help. Think of lace-up climbing shoes vs. standard street lace-ups. The climbing shoes have more eyelets per side and the eyelets extend further toward the toe of the shoe.
• Eyelets: Shoes with standard eyelets, or those where the shoe enters the back of the upper and pokes out through the top can result in excessive wear on the laces when the sides of the shoe rub on aiders or are jammed into cracks between boulders. Eyelets which consist of loops of abrasion resistant nylon through which the laces thread reduce wear and tear on laces meaning fewer blowouts.

Wall Shoe:

• Support: When you are spending hours on lead standing tall in your aiders and bounce testing hard, your feet take a lot of abuse. Even in the burliest of aiders (Yates Ladders with 1.5 inch steps) foot fatigue can take its toll on your good time. While a shoe with a more supportive sole may seem bigger and clunkier than your standard approach shoe, you won’t regret going for the extra support. Folks who decide to climb walls in free climbing shoes often end up hating life. At the very least, if you choose this path, use some supportive inserts.
• Toe Durability: Shoes worn on a big wall receive a lot of wear and tear on a very small area- the inside edge of the big toe. Every time you stand in your aiders, bounce test gear, jug the line, or haul, the inside of your shoe is pressed and rubs against the stone. With this in mind, examine the construction of the toe-box for any shoe that you expect to last on a big wall. Shoes with exposed foam mid-sole are likely to deteriorate quickly, resulting in “flapper sole.” Further still, shoes without a toe rand will likely wear through the shoe upper after a few walls.
• Balance of Rubber Stickiness vs. Durability: Balancing the need for sticky rubber needed for “busting out some free” vs. durability to ensure that the shoe stays in tact for more than one wall.

La Sportiva's Cirque Pro Approach Shoe courtesy La Sportiva La Sportiva's Cirque Pro Approach Shoe. Photo courtesy La Sportiva.

La Sportiva Cirque Pro:

La Sportiva provided us with a pair of these shoes for testing. (Thank you, La Sportiva!) From the time I took them out of the box, these were my favorite shoes in the closet. Not only did they go on every climbing adventure for five months, I wore them every day, Period!

These shoes have excellent fit and finish and showed hardly any wear, thanks to their burly leather construction and outstanding attention to detail. The rubber on the bottom is specially formulated to provide not only extra “stick” in approach situations, but also enough durability to last even when worn pounding the pavement every day.

This is, frankly, the best all-around shoe that I have ever owned AND it proved to me that an approach shoe can give you extra confidence during dicey Joshua Tree walk-offs.

Though La Sportiva did ask us not to test these on walls, we have seen many a valley wall climber traveling up and down El Cap in these shoes, busting the free moves along the way. However, the toe area of the shoes did show excessive wear.

In summary, thank you, La Sportiva, for developing a great approach shoe that provides extra confidence on the approach, the descent …or even on the sharp end!

Full Disclosure: The manufacturer of these products provided them to rockclimbing.com free of charge. Rockclimbing.com then provided these products to the reviewer as compensation for their review. This manufacturer does not currently advertise on rockclimbing.com. March 12, 2007.

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