Sometimes too much chalk with a lot of moisture builds up to a “goopy” feeling on the hands. Have you ever chalked up after sliding off of a sweaty route, then found the friction you get hasn’t improved at all – or even got worse? There are certain cheap brands we’ve found that almost don’t do the job they’re meant to. Even small chunks work really well and do break down to powder without much work. When you crush the chunks between your fingers it tends to get pushed into the crevices of your fingerprints better. The other chunkier forms are great for a longer lasting coating. If you like to dip and go without crunching or extra work the “Unicorn Dust” fine powder is amazing at getting a full coating fast. It’s fairly easy to see the difference between it and a cheaper brand, as well as being easy to actually chalk onto fingers without lots of dipping. What it feels like is that the finer chalk of Friction Labs gets into the ridges of the fingers better and gives a better coating. It also makes the biggest difference in performance. In our testing of different brands and chalks, this seems to be the biggest change between cheaper and more expensive brands. They also claim that other brands use a drying agent – which is true, but also drying is what chalk is meant to do. This should also have the effect of needing to chalk up less, saving wasted chalk. Their product is meant to be lab grade, meaning better moisture wicking and less slimy chalk hands that do the opposite of giving grip. They claim that most other chalk brands have a lot of Calcium Carbonate – a byproduct that isn’t good at absorbing moisture. All climbing chalk is a powdered form of Magnesium Carbonate, most of which is mined as the mineral Magnesite in China. The thing that Friction Labs claims makes the difference is the purity of the powder. Which is why we also use climbing brushes. However, too much chalk (or bad quality chalk) can lead to slimy feeling holds, or holds where all of the microscopic texture is filled in. Chalk is helpful in these situations to absorb water already on a hold. Sometimes holds themselves – especially outdoors – can already have moisture on them from rain, seepage through a cliff face, or high humidity. The pores on a finger sweating in their weird, up-close glory Not everyone sweats and some sweat more than others so chalk isn’t always necessary but can help a lot of people. Lightly dusting your hands allows the chalk to absorb the sweat, leading to better friction. We sweat through the pores on our fingers, and this moisture detracts from the friction needed to hold on while climbing. Gorilla Grip – Chunky – $5 at Backcountryīam Bam – Super Chunky – $5 at Backcountry Why Use Chalk Anyway?Ĭlimbers use chalk to absorb sweat. Just want to try it yourself? Buy a 1oz tester pack We spent a few months testing it up against other brands to see if it’s worth the hype. Many pros now use it regularly, and you might already have a climbing bud that swears by it as their secret sauce. At about three times the price of a standard bag of chalk, Friction Labs is still much more expensive than most others. When Friction Labs came onto the scene a few years back, the biggest difference most people could see immediately was the price. These days there are a range of brands to choose from – with Friction Labs making the biggest claims of increased performance. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterestįor a long time climbing chalk was pretty bog standard and came in the same blocks used by powerlifters and gymnasts.
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