Gear Review: Five Ten Anasazi Lace Climbing Shoes - AKA Pinks!
Value Rating: 8
Durability Rating: 9
Overall Rating: 9
Location of Test: Smith Rock, Broughton Bluff, Ozone, Beacon Rock
Duration of Test: 1.5 years
Product Name: Anasazi Lace Climbing Shoes (Pinks)
Product Brand: Five Ten
Best Use: Vertical sport and Trad climbing
The Full Review:
Over the past year and a half, the Anasazi Lace-Up from Five Ten (commonly referred to as the Pinks) have become my go-to climbing shoe for outdoor climbing around the Portland area. They are a stiff, flat lasted shoe that performs excellently on terrain ranging from slabby to slightly overhanging. These shoes fit great and perform even better!
Prior to this shoe, I was wearing a much more downturned shoe for the majority of my climbing. While that shoe worked well for me in most terrain, I found that switching over to the Pinks offered the same performance with a lot more comfort. I mostly climb around the Portland area at places like Broughton Bluff, Ozone, and Smith Rock, and that means a lot of vertical, fairly technical routes. In this kind of terrain, these shoes excel. At Smith Rock especially, I found them to work extremely well on the long vertical faces where you're standing on nothing but nubbins and edges for 100 feet, and really any route with techy, tiny feet. They also do great on the vertical faces at the Bat Wall at Broughton Bluff or more slabby, long multi-pitch routes at Beacon Rock. I have stood on some pretty iffy footholds in these shoes and stuck better than I ever could have hoped.
Serious boulderers or people doing the majority of their climbing on overhanging routes would probably do well to stick to something more downturned, as these shoes do face some problems climbing steep, overhung terrain, and the laces don't lend themselves to being easily taken on or off. But if you are a rope climber who enjoys not blowing feet on technical terrain, whether in the gym or outside, give the Anasazi Laces a try.
A quick note on sizing: I typically wear a size 11 street shoe and sized down to a 10.5 in these shoes. I found this fit to give me plenty of performance while still being comfortable enough to wear all day. Being a synthetic shoe, I didn't find that they stretched much at all.
The Full Review:
Over the past year and a half, the Anasazi Lace-Up from Five Ten (commonly referred to as the Pinks) have become my go-to climbing shoe for outdoor climbing around the Portland area. They are a stiff, flat lasted shoe that performs excellently on terrain ranging from slabby to slightly overhanging. These shoes fit great and perform even better!
Prior to this shoe, I was wearing a much more downturned shoe for the majority of my climbing. While that shoe worked well for me in most terrain, I found that switching over to the Pinks offered the same performance with a lot more comfort. I mostly climb around the Portland area at places like Broughton Bluff, Ozone, and Smith Rock, and that means a lot of vertical, fairly technical routes. In this kind of terrain, these shoes excel. At Smith Rock especially, I found them to work extremely well on the long vertical faces where you're standing on nothing but nubbins and edges for 100 feet, and really any route with techy, tiny feet. They also do great on the vertical faces at the Bat Wall at Broughton Bluff or more slabby, long multi-pitch routes at Beacon Rock. I have stood on some pretty iffy footholds in these shoes and stuck better than I ever could have hoped.
Serious boulderers or people doing the majority of their climbing on overhanging routes would probably do well to stick to something more downturned, as these shoes do face some problems climbing steep, overhung terrain, and the laces don't lend themselves to being easily taken on or off. But if you are a rope climber who enjoys not blowing feet on technical terrain, whether in the gym or outside, give the Anasazi Laces a try.
A quick note on sizing: I typically wear a size 11 street shoe and sized down to a 10.5 in these shoes. I found this fit to give me plenty of performance while still being comfortable enough to wear all day. Being a synthetic shoe, I didn't find that they stretched much at all.