Rock climbing in Vibram Fivefingers

Quick clip climbing in KSO Fivefingers. Working an 11b on the DC Memorial Wall at Summersville Lake WV. 4th of July 2009.

The shoes work surpringly well for overhanging routes. I fit my right foot nicely into a horizontal crack and it held. The rubber bottoms are good so long as they're not used on crimpy vertical foot holds.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Vibram
• Five
• Fingers
• Rock
• Climbing
• Summersville
• Lake
• West
• Virginia
• DC
• Memorial
• Wall
• New
• River
• Gorge

[4726052]

you'd need crazy strong toes to climb in these wouldnt you? isn't the whole point of a climbing shoe is to jam your toes into a point allowing you to put more pressure on them? I doubt my pinky toe could hold me up in these like it can in a climbing shoe... mind you i havent seen vibrams for climbing yet. so yea. i'm probably wrong

[bobewing]

@4726052 No, you're correct. We shot this clip two years ago right after I got my first pair of VFFs and wanted to try them. The Vibrams are not good for climbing. Climbing shoes are awesome for climbing. That said, if the route is very overhanging -- where your feet aren't supporting much of your bodyweight -- you can do some stuff in your VFFs. Say you're on a trail run and come across a bouldering problem you've been working, perhaps the VFFs would work.

[bobewing]

Kinda, I guess. My hands are taped for cracks and jamming. Most people cut off the tape and throw it away at the end of the day, but I save and reuse. Been doing that for over a year, so they've kinda turned into climbing gloves.

[Jallenbah]

@skinnytallnsmart They are the closest thing to barefoot, and guess what, we've been climbing barefoot for millions of years.

So why do we need "climbing shoes"?

[toby099]

@dyeguy6

calm down ya dumb bitch

[MrGlacierNova]

@Jallenbah we need climbing shoes to climb hard stuff duh

[aussiearu]

@Jallenbah grip?

[Fearsome0ne]

@jallenbah theoretically humans have existed for 100,000 years unless you mean all lifeforms.....

[Fearsome0ne]

@Jallenbah millions of years X[)

[scstrickland]

Love my Five Fingers for running but they are absolutely worthless for climbing.



[gianboy2001]

@Jallenbah because it's cold???

[jindapee]

although i see many benefits to running in VFFs, i see absolutely no benefit to wearing them climbing. i see this all the time at my local climbing gym and it's the worst thing you can do for your feet when climbing. VFFs allow your foot to splay and spread while running, which is the exact opposite thing you want from your toes when climbing. this is a FAIL if you ask me.

[pengald]

I got some of these, KSOs. Theyre coming in the mail tomorrow and i cant wait!! By the way i think the shoes are really cool looking, i dont see how they could ever look ugly.