SHOE REVIEW: La Sportiva Katana (VS)

Katana* (VS, size 42) by La Sportiva
*old version/design

Killian Fischhuber, world renown bouldering powerhouse, still competes with these guys for a reason (I'm guessing that he likes them).

Two Velcro straps, two Velcro circles, and the character for "Katana" in Japanese mark this shoe branding it with the responsibility for precision, deadly accuracy, and power of the katana.

I've had these sweet mature puppies for over a year. They got me through the dark ages of poor footwork. The features an asymmetrical toe that really helps out with concentrating those little toesies into a point. It has enough toe rubber for toe-hooking when needed. The toe box isn't too advanced, which is likely related to the fact that it isn't particularly aggressive (even though it's named after a sword! HA I JEST). I find this to be a plus. When toe-hooking in an aggressive shoe, that toe joint curling into the safe welcoming home of the toe box is above the rest of the foot, which leads to terrible pressure on a red-point on your toe joint. With the Katana, this toe-issue (a tissue) is not an issue (not a tissue). You are able to toe-hook with ease.

Sizing (the wide-footed-man's shoe)
It's wide. It's comfortable. But it leaves too much dead space for my slender high profile feet. Furthermore, its not very aggressive. High-grade boulder problems could result in many foot-caused falls with these guys. Wide low profile feet rejoice! You have a shoe that can do virtually any style of climbing with have to be squeezed into a tube of misfortune.
You can crack, sport, trad, and boulder with these hombres.

So get to it!

Final scores:
Bouldering 3.5/5
Sport Climbing 4.5/5
Comfort 5/5
Crack 4/5

Personal Update

Let's Get Personal! Acadia Trip

I am pleased to write that I have officially bouldered outside, and will be writing a review of my crash pad soon!

For those interested in the adventure:
My wonderful girlfriend Molly (who is responsible for the photos, link to her blog here) and I went to Acadia National Park in Maine staying in Bar Harbor. Hiking, eating, touring were all as fantastic as the East coast can offer. Before the trip, we planned it out with the help of rockclimbing.com and the mountainproject.com. It took some effort, and not all searching was fruitful, but we found some magnificent boulder spots: (Monument Cove, and Gorham). Truthfully, it was a fantastic trip for climbing in a place where bouldering is present, but not the most popular form of climbing. Not to worry though! As I walked with Molly, crash pad strapped to my back, climbers of all varieties would ask "You're bouldering? Where?". Plenty of friendly faces and rock lovers to go around.

Acadia is full of some pretty neato-burrito boulder problems along hiking trails with fantastic views. It also happens to be the only coast climbing on the East coast. The difficulties of the respective problems vary from good warm-ups (V0) to the extreme (V13). You could live a good life full of climbing in the town of Bar Harbor: full of beer from the craft ales of the Atlantic Brewing Company and good food of the Mainely Meat BBQ (located next to the brewery, which by the way offers amazing free tours!).

But seriously... That was some awesome beer and BBQ.

It was a fantastic trip! All of which I owe to my gal and her family. Thanks Molly!