As I move onto a new pair of rock shoes (La Sportiva Katana) I thought I’d put some notes together on my (mostly very enjoyable) time spent climbing Five Ten Anasazi VCS climbing shoes as a bit of a review.

Five Ten Anasazi VCS rock shoes – Shot from the Five Ten website as it’s a far better representation of the shoe than my dirty/battered pair!

Why I bought the Anasazi VCS

They were my 3rd pair of shoes after Scarpa Vantage and then Red Chilli Durango VCR. I’d really got on well with the Durango VCRs and was pretty upset the rubber gave way after only a few months (of admittedly heavy use both indoors and outdoors – on some pretty abrasive North Wales rock at time) and with the fit starting to feel perfect (it happened to a friend with the Corona VCR… but for now we’re putting it down to “poor technique” whilst trying out other shoes). Anyway, having arrived at Redpoint in Birmingham to climb for the day and the hole in the Durangos even bigger, I found myself trying on lots of different pairs of shoes. I ended up torn between the Anasazi VCS and Katana, despite feeling the Katanas held my feet a bit better I was drawn to the Anasazi due to fantastic reviews I’d previously read (and heard from my mate who swears blind loyalty to Five Ten) and the extra feeling of stiffness in the soles which I thought would help with edging.

How I got on wearing them

I bought them tight and suffered at first but soon developed far greater confidence and interest in my footwork, being much more careful how to position my feet and then trusting it would stick. Whilst it’d be easy to say these shoes on their own brought my grade up, I think any similar shoe would’ve done the same thing and that a large chunk of this improvement was a mental change in how I climbed.

They were mostly used indoors but outdoors I predominantly climbed on Limestone where they felt better than others I’d used previously.

Frustratingly for me the longest period of outdoor climbing in these shoes came after 3 months away climbing (torn ankle ligaments from a bouldering fall) and as they started to give so that there was space in the shoes. These two things combined (plus my style not really suiting limestone… I’m working on it) lead to a reduction in the confidence I previously had wearing the shoes and my overall climbing, which lead me to point the finger too much at the shoes and not at how I was climbing.

Wearing the shoes climbing on the Costa Blanca

Overall feelings on the Five Ten Anasazi VCS

• After a couple of sessions I genuinely felt I could stand up on anything, a brilliant combination of super sticky rubber and well designed shoe
• In particular they’re fantastic for edging
• Brilliant fit for me, I’ve got wide feet and they held me feet better than other shoes (including I think my new pair of Katana shoes)
• Super simple but quick/easy velcro straps means they’re on/off in seconds – The padding above makes them really comfortable too
• It’s perhaps that they last so long that by the end they were a bit too loose on my foot but lots of wiggling and tightly done up they hold okay
• It may be just the increased climbing I had when I started wearing these but they seemed to smell a lot more than other shoes I’ve worn – For the performance it didn’t bother me though
• The heel – It seems you love it or hate it. Perhaps my size was too big to start which lead to this but a pocket developed in the heel which meant a heel hook didn’t feel anywhere near as solid as it does now in my Katana shoes

Looking back, these were by far and away the best rock shoes I’ve worn and I’ll be getting them re-soled so I can use them for easier routes indoors/outdoors. Thanks Five Ten!