This past weekend I met up with my of my favorite climbing buddies. I have climbed all over Utah with Mike, spent a month in France with him, and now that he lives outside of Bishop I get to see him when he travels south to L.A. Mike came into town on Thursday night, so we were able to get a couple surf sessions in before we headed up to Santa Barbara for a day of sandstone climbing. I had climbed once before at the Brickyard, but this time we explored the Lizard's Mouth area. Despite being way too hot, there are enough fun lines to get down to business. I planned to really put the 5.10 Coyote to the test. Recently I have been wearing them in the gym and outside when warming up. The shoes are easy to slip on, thanks to the velcro straps, which also make it easy to adjust the shoe for a snug, comfortable fit. After doing a handful of fun warm-ups, we hiked over to the Lizard's Mouth Cave. The steep wall has a great sandy landing and plenty of different lines with lots of pockets, slopers and little crimps.

I previously only used the Coyote on lower angle climbs, so I was curious to put the Coyote through its paces on steeper terrain.  For being an "all-around" shoe, I was surprised how well the Coyote edged. While I prefer this shoe for vertical or less than vertical climbs, the Coyote did pretty well.  The stiff rand and sticky C4 rubber add a lot of power to the Coyote.   I think this shoe is a probably an awesome alternative for people who don't care for the ultra-performance fit of shoes like the Dragon or Team, and are looking for a work horse shoe that can take them climbing anywhere.

Lizard's mouth has a lot of fun problems in a pretty amazing setting.  It's at the top of the Santa Barbara hills, overlooking the ocean and vineyards.  We finished our day watching the sunset over the Pacific, and then zoomed into town for some delicious Thai food.