A Guide to Buy Rock Climbing Shoes in India for Beginners: Prices, Where to buy

During many of the beginner rock climbing workshops, we interact with several beginners. To help plan the session, our first question to most interested rock climbers is: Have you climbed before?

Interestingly, a majority of them say yes they have climbed before, even though it turns out they haven't! Well, it so happens that everything from hiking to rappelling qualifies as rock climbing in the outside world. So, we figured out the easiest way to find out if someone has actually climbed before.

Ask them: Did you use special shoes for climbing, that were tight, maybe a little uncomfortable too but helped you stand on really small edges. The answer usually is a no or a blank face!

The above question sums up the importance of climbing shoes in rock climbing. Rock climbing shoes are the most important rock climbing accessories. It has a direct impact on your climbing performance and it helps to know them better.

What are rock climbing shoes?


Rock climbing shoes are specially designed shoes with a snug fit and a sticky rubber sole. The fit and design are carefully crafted by the leading companies (like La Sportiva, 5.10 from Adidas Terrex, Scarpa) to help you stand on small edges and crevices while climbing. Advanced climbing shoes worn by experienced rock climbers are also highly down turned and compromise significantly on comfort to deliver additional performance.

Which is why rock climbing shoes are not supposed to be walked around. You would typically wear these shoes just before getting on rock and take them off immediately after you finish climbing.

The workshop leads at Avathi Outdoors (and most other climbing event organisers) provide shoes to participants of beginner rock climbing workshops. Once introduced, and if participants want to pursue climbing, we would highly recommend buying a shoe. Renting shoes is a logistical nightmare and very few options exist in India. If you are just starting out, start with one of the beginner rock climbing shoes.