Correct fitting footwear

The first pair of proper mountain boots I ever bought turned out to be a disaster, in fact, almost terminally. Like many people who are just getting into climbing, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted when I walked into the local climbing shop that afternoon and, unfortunately for me, neither did the staff. I’d borrowed 100 quid off my grandad to buy some boots so that I could go up to Scotland with some people I hardly knew, a trip I could only make if I had something suitable to wear on my feet. I’d read that a good pair of boots should cost a week’s wages but seeing as I didn’t have a job and was still at school I thought £100 would cover it - knowing it would have to because that’s all I could borrow.

The shop was quiet that afternoon, in fact, it was always quiet which no doubt explains why it’s no longer there. The manager asked me what I wanted the boots for and what size I was. I said “Winter climbing” and “size 10” even though it turned out later that I was actually an eight and so without measuring my feet he produced a whopping green box that contained a pair of size 12 Scarpa Mantas. Not knowing what I was looking for, and only used to wearing trainers, I just stuck them on my feet and said: “They’ll do”, paid my money and off I walked down the street.

It was only years later that I realize that the boots he brought out were probably the only boots he had in stock which were remotely stiff enough for winter and even then they were, at that time (I’m talking very old style Mantas here), barely suitable for four-season walking and that’s why he’d pulled them out when, in fact, he should have told me to find a shop that sold the right boots.