The Scarpa range of shoes has just been added to by a new king shoe, the Chimera. This shoe fits me like glove, it's common to say this but this is not exaggeration, or hyperbol. My first rule of shoes is, if it doesn't fit you, it won't climb well no matter how expensive or well thought out it is. With this being said, there might be more chance in fitting you than some. This shoe has an interesting lace system that gatheres the shoe bow around your toes nicely. The interesting use of three different kinds of rubber makes the shoe flexible where it should be and flexible and soft in the right places also.
The interesting lacing system shown above really worked for me, people are often two lazy nowadays to appreciate a good lace up, relying more on sticky rubber than technique, but in doing so they loose hight. Even I often favour a slipper over a lace up, especially on a long day or when its hot. But hey you know when your lazy, and anybody that buys this shoe won't be a lazy person they are going to be a rock assassin.
The Chimera is a turned down, high end shoe designed to help you climb. You can see in the above photo the pull under the shoe fixing the heel. The heel is very important for me because I love heel hook of all kinds, and heel scuffs and scums, and heel toes, thee moves require a firm well fitting stable shoe-thats the Chimera!
I was looking at this shoe with Heinz the designer, and he was really proud and enthusiastic. His face as I muscled in my rhino feet looked worried, but then we both new that that heel would never come off, its sticky tactile and is firm, locked on.
Nathan ran me through all the stitching, and very complex things that make this shoe work, which will undoubtedly make it very expensive. The choice with this shoe will be -can you afford not to ware it, not can you pay for it. I had a talk with many old climbers at the show, and we were all agreed that shoes make a huge difference, and the more you wear and climb in good shoes, the better skills you get.
