Aside from the ice climbers, mountaineers, and Charles Albert, every climber needs a pair of reliable climbing shoes.

Elite climbers wearing such shoes on hard routes often wear them when climbing recreational grades, probably out of habit. At a recreational level, it’s clear that there are a wide variety of climbing ...

Even though the sport climbers and boulderers don't like it, sometimes getting to the crag requires a bit of hiking.

Modern climbers have the opposite problem. Go to any outdoor recreation store and prepare to be overwhelmed by shelves of cutting-edge climbing shoes and marketing gibberish. That’s how I felt ...