Sean after completing the Evolution Traverse in the Eastern Sierras, where he stopped to change out of his Guide Tennies and into his climbing shoes a few times for better performance!
The major factor when selecting an approach shoe is finding one that is comfortable to hike in while still being aggressive enough to perform well on the rock. The La Sportiva Ganda is the closest anyone has gotten to achieving this perfect balance. Sized just a hair small, the Ganda can walk the delicate line between comfortable hiking shoe and technical climbing shoe. The front of the shoe comes to a nice point, which is great for all your edging needs. In my opinion, this puts the Ganda a step above the 5.10 Guide Tennie, which provides great friction but leaves something to be desired when trying to step on smaller edges and footholds. The Ganda also feels like it is molding to your foot as you sweat. You know how it feels to put on your nicely broken-in climbing shoes after a resole? The Ganda provides that feeling better than any approach shoe I have experienced; just another way the Ganda performs like a technical rock shoe.
The back of the Ganda widens up to more of a tennis shoe sized heel, and is board lasted to provide the support one needs for hiking. You won’t be able to do any aggressive heel hooking in these, but if you plan on it, you should probably put on your climbing shoes! The back of the shoe feels like a nice sturdy hiking shoe. This is another aspect of the Ganda that sets it apart from the Guide Tennie, which feels pretty floppy.
The Ganda comes with insoles that can be removed for hiking, and then re-inserted to create a tighter fit for technical climbing. To me, this aspect of the shoe has limited and specific application as it still requires taking off the shoe (maybe someone will come up with an air pump feature like Reebok tried awhile back! I wouldn’t count on it though). Taking off the shoes to add the insoles gives marginally better performance, and I have found that I have to take the insoles back out if I want a comfortable hiking descent. I could see this being useful for some, but I hate stopping to take off my shoes.
Now the question is, which function does the Ganda perform better: hiking or climbing? In my opinion, the answer is climbing. The Ganda is absolutely comfortable enough for hiking, but I think it is closer to a climbing shoe than a hiking shoe, which seems to be the aim. In other words, I would not wear this on a multi-day backpacking trip to reach some backcountry climbing. I like it as an all-day multi-purpose shoe for a light and fast objective.
All in all, the Ganda is the closest that an approach shoe has gotten to a high performance technical rock shoe. If you hate taking off your shoes (or if you’re like me and just tying them once a day takes intense concentration), the Ganda may be the shoe for you.
Sean McNally wearing cut-off jean shorts in honor of “throwback Thursday.” He completed the Spearhead, Cheifshead, Pagoda, Longs traverse in Rocky Mountain National Park without stopping once to change out of his Gandas!