UKC

I have an old pair of Mantas I was going to sell, but before I do so, has anyone used a pair as a base for fruit boots? I would have thought they'd be too heavy but thought I'd ask.

Andrew.

In reply to planetmarshall:

Too heavy and too flexible I'd say

In reply to planetmarshall:

Fruit boots??? WTF? Please!

In reply to Dave Perry:

Mixed climbing boots for short routes / competitions. In my case, mostly for dry tooling. Commercial versions are available but exorbitantly expensive.

In reply to planetmarshall:

What about an old pair of cycling shoes, very light, very stiff.

In reply to The New NickB:

Oh now there's an idea... not sure if the lack of ankle support would be an issue.

In reply to planetmarshall:

If you're getting into making your own, how about a light pair of B2 boots since you don't need the warmth and then adding in a new carbon innersole to stiffen it up.

Might as well go the whole hog and get really blue peter on your boots.

In reply to fire_munki:


That was my first thought. Probably a pair of Scarpa Freney, replace the sole with rock shoe rubber ( there are a couple of local companies that should be able to do this ) and bolt BD Raptors onto the bottom.

In reply to planetmarshall:


That's what I pretty much did with my old Garmont Tower GTX:es (used Grivel Racing cramps though)... Perhaps will not be good enough to hang solely from heel spurs... but going bareback seems to be the way anyway...

In reply to Dave Perry:


This posting on A N Other forum explains the term quite well I think: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1012618/Fruit_Boots

It is apparently also used by skateboarders as a derogatory term for inline skates: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fruit%20boots That usage has strong homophobic undertones, which is nice... I don't know how the term got picked up by the climbing community - whether it came pretty much fully formed (with associated non-PC baggage) from the sk8r world, or had a completely separate derivation.

If they're supposed to be "rock shoes for mixed" then the Mantas wouldn't seem to be a particularly good place to start. (And it seems a shame to b*gger up a perfectly good pair of Mantas.)

In reply to planetmarshall:

Thanks for that guys. Fruit boots? Where's my drill, I feel some modifications coming on.