I ended up buying a pair of rock climbing shoes at REI when I was in SF this past weekend. There wasn't much of a selection in my size, for women's or unisex shoes, so the rock shoe guy told me to take the bigger size, and if they ended up being too big, take 'em back. So I made sure I stopped by REI before going climbing last night. I had the local rock shoe guy take out as many different shoes as possible - I even tried on a pair with velcro. Both rock shoe guys had different ideas as to why I should wear a certain kind of shoe (get a 'flat pair', which are easier for beginning climbers to get used to, or 'an air pocket' around my foot/heel means the shoe is too big), but the big thing is that I need to wear them sock-less (yes, that would be bare skin on leather), and it is perfectly fine to remove your climbing shoes between scaling the rocks/walls. In the end, I ended up with a 'more advanced' shoe that turns my feet red after climbing, and I saved $27!
I tried them out last night too. Not bad. I must say that climbing sock-less feels much different than with socks. One of the guys I was climbing with said he was glad to see I got a pair of climbing shoes because it meant that I was committed. You bet!
did you take a photo of your reddened feet? that would be an interesting post
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