La Sportiva TC Pro II - Gwen Lancashire
If there’s anyone in the Blue Mountains who can give their opinion on anything crack or trad climbing, it’s Gwen. With local free ascents of Ozymandias and Fight Club, as well as international ascents of Salathe Wall on El Cap and Moonlight Buttress in Zion NP, she’s done the miles. If there’s one model of shoe that we see her in more often than not it’s the La Sportiva TC Pro. So, we asked her to give her thoughts on the matter…
If I’m ever asked what climbing shoe I recommend for crack climbing; I will always say TC pros. I’ve used various other shoes crack climbing but as soon as I tried a pair of TC Pros, my crack climbing experience was changed for the better!
Below are some of the features that make the TC pro such a good shoe for crack climbing:
- High ankle to protect them from gobies when jamming your feet deep in a crack.
- Wide toe box so that your toes can sit flat in the shoe, which is important when crack climbing, as scrunched up toes make for a painful experience when jammed in a crack.
- Rubber around the toe to help stick in jams.
- Stiff soles to help stand on jams and good for heel-toe jams when bridging wider cracks.
As well as being great for crack climbing, they are very good on edge climbing due to their stiffness. Once broken in a bit they are great for slab climbing also.
When deciding what size to get would probably depend on what you’re planning to do in them. The most important thing is you want to size them, so your toes are flat and not scrunched.
Personally, I have two pairs. A tighter pair for finger cracks, dihedrals or where there’s a lot of smearing and technical faces; then a pair a whole size bigger for easier or big days and wide cracks so I can wear socks. My toes are flat in both, the tighter pair is a size EU36 which is the same as my Skwama sport climbing shoes, which are snug but not mega tight. The bigger pair is EU37.
- Gwen Lancashire
