I was doing some research (ie. googling) for the chapter in my book about friction and conditions. And I came across the catalogue of a South African climbing shoes manufacture called Rock Pillars.

http://www.rockpillars.cz/data/files/34catalogue-rock-pillars-2012.pdf

They had a bit of information about friction and rubber – very grandly titled “FRICTION THEORY AND CLIMBING FORCES TRANSFERENCE” – and all that which I was reading with interest when one sentence in particular started to resonate with me:

“Climbing shoe manufacturers design their shoe rubber to work best in a specific temperature range (0–5 °C), below this temperature the rubber is harder and won‘t mould well to the shape of the rock and above this the rubber will be too soft and will deform too easily. This is why climbing shoes work best in the cold.”

A few years ago I did some research into friction and climbing and wrote a piece for theshortspan about it .

http://www.theshortspan.com/features/friction.htm

So I went back and checked and low and behold Rock Pillars had lifted the two sentences verbatim from my piece. That’s fine no problems there.

But.

They are a climbing manufacturer so rather than quoting an article written by someone who isn’t one. Why don’t they just say what they do.