Sore feet and new gear!

Today's task was to get Lucy some new climbing shoes. She currently has some old and smelly Evolv Rockstars and as we're going on a long trip, I thought she was in need of some new shoes. 

We headed out to my favourite climbing shop - Banana Fingers and as we don't live too far away, we drove there but it's mainly an online shop and they have a great returns policy on shoes (free postage if you picked the wrong size) so it's not always necessary to drive there!

After trying on around 15 pairs of shoes, Lucy was feeling broken and her heels were feeling sore. It was a toss-up between the Evolv Shaman, Andrea Boldrini Apache lights and the Evolv Elektra. I think the first two would have been the better choice but it turns out that Lucy has very delicate Achilles tendons, so she went with the less aggressive Elektras.

I also picked up a new Edelrid bouldering mat and 70m rope for those long endurance routes in Europe. My favourite purchase of the day though, was my wooden Lapis brush! Anyone who's had the plastic version will agree that they are an excellent brush but I'm also sure that they would have snapped at least one brush due to the weak handle... I'm easily pleased.

New gear

 So that's pretty much all of the climbing equipment that we need for the trip sorted! I somehow managed to not buy a new pair of climbing shoes and anyone who knows me will understand how hard that would have been for me. I was actually quite impressed with the Andrea Boldrini Apache lights, I preferred them to their La Sportiva equivalent - the Miura VS, but I still couldn't justify buying any more new shoes.

Lastly, the mess in our flat is starting to get annoying and mess doesn't usually effect me. We've only got until the 28th to move everything out, so everything is spread out everywhere. One more trip to the tip and two more trips back to Bristol and everything should be gone. Looking forward to that!

Clutter in the flat