Bob perches atop Castleton Tower, Utah, in KSO Vibram Five Fingers

By Justin Owings on Nov 13, 2009 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Bob sent in the video below taken atop world-renowned Castleton Tower, Utah. Bob reached the top of the tower and promptly switched to his Vibram Five Fingers. Looks a bit windy up there! Here's a video:

Hey Justin! It's Bob. I've got a sweet and short FF video for you.

We just climbed to the summit of Castleton Tower in Utah. It's one of the most famous and dramatic pillars in the US. In the video I'm standing on the windy summit in my KSOs. (Quite possibly the first ever FF on the summit??) The vista is breathtaking.

As I say in the video, in two days we're going into Moab to run a 50k in the FF. Should be fun!

Cheers,
Bob

Via Wikipedia, you can see an enormous, 13,953 x 1,441 pixel panorama taken atop Castleton Tower. Quite a view:

An incredible 360 panorama atop Castleton Tower, Utah. Click the thumbnail for the enormous, 2.5mb image!

No doubt Vibram Five Fingers ("FF") feel pretty incredible on your feet after a good deal of climbing in the typical, super-snug mountain climbing shoes.

Good luck on the 50K, Bob!
Update: Bob passed on a bit more on the Castleton experience as well as an update on how his Marine Corps Marathon went. Check it out:

You're absolutely right, after spending all day climbing that pillar, nothing feels better than tossing on some KSOs. We had to wait about an hour at the summit for a second party to join us, so my feet were feeling much better than my climbing partners! And then I got to rap off the tower in the comfy FF as well.

The marathon was a blast, thanks so much for asking. I had a bunch of people ask me about the FF, so I think it was a pretty good promotion. Feet were light, I took walk breaks throughout and felt very strong at the finish. Did it 4 hours, which is a decent time. (Both the marathon and tomorrow's 50k are foremost training runs for the 50 miler in Mexico with the Tarahumara's, as featured in Born to Run. So I don't want to kill myself in either.)

I raised $1500 for St. Judes, all through the Internet, which was super awesome. Thanks for your help!

Glad to be of help — way to go VFF-land!
Update 2: Here's Bob rappelling down the Tower in this Five Fingers:

There are a bunch more videos from the climb, which you can see via Bob's YouTube page!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 753 articles and 302 comments.