Vertical-Life
Review - Boreal's Diabolo
Boreal's DIABOLO
Comfort. That's the very first word which comes to mind when we think of these climbing shoes. Not for nothing, the Diabolo and its version for women, Diabola, belong to a category called 'Intermediate' by Boreal; this is something between 'Comfort' (the basic ones) and 'Performance' (the top range ones). We have used them for training, warming up, hard climbing, multi-pitch routes, etc. and they have performed quite well. This is an all-terrain model which serves well for everything. With no spectacular performance, they've got a good behaviour.
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The rubber they use is the new FS-QUATTRO, which means they have the latest and most innovative rubber from a company which has been more than 30 years developing their own rubbers for climbing shoes. Its thickness varies from 4 to 4.6 mm., depending on the size you choose.
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There are several details that we like in these shoes: two well-placed rear pull-on tabs, a super comfy padded tongue, two simple but effective velcro closures, some shock absorption on the heel, maximum quality leather and a not-very-aggressive but well constructed toe profile. They have worked well smearing both on those slabby routes with infamous foot holds as well as on those highly frequented crags with dreadful, slippery sloppy rubber marks which puts your foot work ability to the test.
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These shoes have no interior lining which means that they stretch more than those with it. Consequently, bear this in mind when choosing your size if your feet tend to sweat a lot, etc. We have tried them in a size and a half less than our regular size and we haven't suffered too much.
What we've liked the least is the heel, not comparable to those specificaly designed for hardcore heel-hooking, which is something normal for a model not primarily conceived for this usage.