I did a few experiments to figure out how much chalk actually helps in climbing!
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Conclusion: Magdust won't turn you into Magnus Midtbo, but you will climb harder with chalk! 😎
You Geek CLimber should do a collab Miguel!
@@Rmikeyhow Haha we have! Check back a few months on my channel 🤙
Your stool placement on the second go with chalk on the beastmaker was different. When you hung from the beastmaker the first time, the stool was practically right under you, it was so close you could easily step back onto it when you were done. The second time, with chalk, it was much farther back. Taking your feet off of the stool from that far back was like releasing a toe/heel hook, and it transferred the stored energy and made you start swinging immediately. So chalk or no chalk, the second attempt was going to be worse than the first. Other than that great video! Interesting attempt to compare chalk to no chalk, and quantify how mucb affect it has. If you were to do this over many days, probably alternating chalk/no chalk, you could get more reliable data due to the increased sample size, and it would help control for some other variables. I too only recently started using chalk. As I'm progressing into harder grades, with more slopers, slopey crimps, and other bad holds, it really helps give you that bit of extra friction that can be all of the difference in the world between sending and not.
Thanks for pointing it out! I do agree that the stool placement might be the main reason I fell, instead of due to too much chalk. The explanation of it being like releasing a toe/heel hook makes a lot of sense to me!
Actually a really great demo of why you've gotta set up directly below a hangboard to stop the swing. Kept happening on my home board (it hangs from my pullup bar so it swings easily). Can easily cause injury when you're pulling very hard
@@GeekClimber That being said: You do have too much chalk on, or atleast not evenly spread out enough. There is a reason to why people claps their hands/blow on their fingers before going on...
@@GeekClimber Yes, this swinging factor is MUCH more relevant for ALL of your hangs than chalk itself. If the hangboards would be reachable from the ground and you could position yourself perfectly when you start, without any swing, it would boost up all your times significantly. If I have even the smallest swing, it uses up some of my power - I can add at least 20% more time if I do this perfectly, than with even with a slight swing.
@@GeekClimber Maybe next time ask someone to remove it :p
😭😭😭 you’re the real one for leaving that accident in the video. I hope you’re ok, that looked very painful. Great video as always keep it up!❤️
and showing it a second time lol
It took me a week to recover from that fall 🤣. On the bright side, the recovery time is way shorter than a finger injury.
@@GeekClimber mate that stool made me so scared, I could see the nightmares of whiplash as soon as I saw it woble, try to get a foam stool. Loved the experiment.
@@GeekClimber i bet the stool was hurt more! :D
@@8Hidan8 I don’t think he meant to swing
I think the advantage of chalk is not limited to grade chasing, but also that you can hold the same hold for the same amount of time with lower intensity
Who the heck climbs without chalk WTF. I understand it for outdoors but this is gym climbing there is chalk everywhere. The air is made of chalk. Touching any hold and your oily hands will suck up the chalk so much. Like are you doing it to save 20 bucks every two months? The chalk prevents the oil and moisture from building up. Do you guys not sweat?
You should retry this but with max weighted hangs. Where I think chalk helps me the most is at my limit of power, not with mega endurance.
I think the tearing of your skin was due to increased friction supplied by the chalk. The skin on my fingertips wears away if I go very hard on plastic or rock. It is possible though that your skin was not used to the increased friction it was experiencing and thus why it teared. Given time to adapt to using chalk, I would imagine that you would reap the benefits of the extra friction and your skin would better handle the increased load.
Also if needed use some hand lotion. I do that during some times in the year when the air is dry due skin wear. When climbing a lot even during "moist conditions" I will use hand lotion or climbing specific finger lotion. Avoid doing it the day before a hard project day since it might effect how slippery your fingers are the day after putting it on. Avoid liquid chalk since it contains alcohol and dries out the skin even more. And.. Blow off the excessive chalk before climbing or hanging! I like your vids but dude... climbing without chalk is so contra productive! Chalk up!!!
This is exactly correct. Hands adapt to the continued use of chalk and they will eventually stop tearing so badly.
Chalk makes a way bigger difference on plastic and rock than on wood. Also, gym holds have so much chalk already that they actually chalk up your hands (as GeekClimber recognized on his non-chalk test). Also also, too much chalk on your hands WILL make the holds slippery, that’s why pros slap their hands or blow on their fingers. Finally, GeekClimber’s “cracked” finger tips look super healthy compared to the chewed up skin of the vast majority of climbers, and his stats are crazy high for being a V6 climber.
That was hard watching that fall. Hope you were okay!! Cheers for keeping it in the video!
low key this might just be me bc i live in the south and it’s hot and sweaty down here but i find it low key disrespectful to climb anything above like V4 or 5 without chalk because at that point you’re just packing on grease to a hold that someone else is gonna have to brush off later. and even then grease never fully comes out of a hold so you’re just slowly making the holds worse for everyone else. please climb with chalk, at the very least for etiquette’s sake.
I think brushing vs not brushing makes just as much difference as chalk vs no chalk. You should do a test of that as well.
I've fallen like that before and it is not fun, hope you're okay. For the skin issues, I've noticed that it gets significantly less dry if you wash your hands immediately after finishing your session and then moisturize. Leaving the chalk on there for a long time is what destroys my skin, but for me it's mostly the top side. It looks like you may have some eczema or something if your hand cracks open that easily.
I think if you continue climbing with chalk for a little while, your skin will adapt somewhat, and you'll build up callouses that work with the dryness. Also, as other users have mentioned, washing your hands immediately after, and using some surface moisturizer (i.e. ClimbOn) can prevent cracking. A deep moisturizer (like most lotions at the store) will prevent cracking but potentially cause flappers so don't do that.
Love how you strugged off that nasty fall! I hope you're doing ok and not too sore
Chalk increases your coefficient of friction meaning you need to apply less force to counteract gravity. This is why it helps so much on the small crimp and the pinch. However, this makes it less useful for moves that don't require force like the larger crimp. For higher level climbing, it's simply not possible to generate the force needed without chalk so it is necessary once you pass V8 ish.
I think chalk becomes more and more essential the harder you climb due to the size and angle of holds at higher levels. They often require greater pressure on smaller surfaces or high levels of friction.
USE MOISTERISER AFTER CLIMB WITH CHALK you just need to keep it hydrated after climb with water and moisturiser
Here's an experiment to try! Calculate the coefficient of friction with chalk and without. Lay your hand palm up. Rest polyurethane block on your palm. (Like an Atomik ninja pinch hold.) Measure how much force it takes to move the block from rest. Compare without and without chalk. Can also compare different chalks (liquid, powder). I'm not sure exactly how to measure coefficient of friction, but it seems right you up your alley. I would love to know the measurements. Also, this is an awesome video!!! The previous video inspired me to use chalk for the first time. Also, Mani the Monkey has a great video on the beastmaker sloper hold and experimenting with different weights. He hypothesized that a heavier climber generates more friction on the BM sloper and can hang from it easier.
To get actionable information, you do need to be doing this test hanging on the block... otherwise dew point/moisture ramp up from finger exertion, loading/density of force vectors aren't well represented for application in climbing.
@@ahbzjr This is a simple and easily testable scenario to see whether chalk makes it more "sticky", to use Magnus's word. All the difficult-to-control variables, such as muscle fatigue and technique are removed. (To make it even more controlled, you could use a cadaver.) If there isn't a measurable difference in the simplified case, there won't be a difference on the wall.
@@richarddoan9172 Check out these two papers published--consider their procedures and methodology beyond the abstract... : DOI: 10.1080/026404101300149375 DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2012.724700
the problem with mani's video was that his center of gravity completly changes with the 10kg in front of him. put the weight on his back and the results would change. nonetheless it was a nice try and idea.
This
I was looking at that stool during the sloper hang and thinking "that could hurt". Then... owwww
Great timing since I just rewatched the Magnus episode yesterday. I'm interested in how much difference you'd see with a more objective approach. Although I don't know exactly how to accomplish that, I think I have 2 ideas that would be really fun to see you try. Firstly, project a route without chalk, do the moves and links and all that without it, and then use the chalk for the send go. And secondly, and I want to try this myself because it sounds interesting, just chalk up the weak hand and get on the hardest grades you can normally do. It'll be cool to see what does better, the strong yet naked hand, or the weaker and more friction-y hand. Great vid glad to see you follow up on that Convo with Magnus!
simple comparison vid! super nice
I normally don't use chaulk but watching this I will try to use it more.
The effect of chalk also heavily depends on the conditions. Outdoors, where the rock might not always be 100% dry the difference between with and without is like night and day.
You took that fall like a boss!
Apart from drying out your skin, chalk increases the friction between your hand and the holds as there are many tiny "crumbs" of chalk that can grip onto the texture of the holds. That is why a hold fully covered in chalk starts getting slippery again, the texture on the hold is gone and the chalk on your hand cannot be placed into the texture of the hold.
I like this dude. Happy vibes and a simple concept.
Do you moisturize your hands? It may help make chalk more sustainable. I like to keep a small moisturizer in the office to keep my hands from becoming too dry/flakey.
Nice test! Since body position is key on slopers, you can't induce a sving when you start on bad slopers. Standing directly underneath is better, lifting legs from surface.
It’s great that you’re acknowledging as many variables that may have possibly affected your tests regarding things such as your mood/thought influence. Goes to show you’re not just blindly doing things.
Re: skin cracking - happens to me too, and I work in healthcare where I have to wash hands all the time and disinfect too, so doubly cracky! But moisturising and skin care for hands can work wonders. It adds time and effort, but mitigates dried out hands
Just bought a chalk bag a few weeks ago. I noticed a big improvement in grip today. It really helped because for the first time my hands were sweaty from the heat.
Haha. I love it. Chalk helps. I used chalk and my fingers cracked. I’m now not using chalk. Friggin hilarious. Great vid mate. Keep it up.
Would be interesting if you could create a device to measure the friction. Like a vertical force meter attached to a flat plate with something pressing into your hand at a constant force where you can pull up without using your own force against the plate
Ouch! That was a nasty fall - hope you’re ok? Interesting video. There is probably a bit of placebo effect going on and also perhaps that fatigue is your limiting factor on some of the holds not friction, which chalk really helps with? Anyway, thank you - very interesting!
This looks like an interesting experiment
I think there is an optimal amount of chalk - too much can be worse than too little with slopers, this is why we brush the holds. As your hands are on the dry side, using gym holds which are already chalked, you were using chalk already, so maybe your skin just do not need much more, unless you need to use small holds - so with your results, maybe the optimal for you is just to chalk your tips when necessary, not your whole hand. I am on the other side with really sweaty skin. The most drastic effect for me are slippery, thin pullup bars, I can one hand hang on them 2-3 sec without chalk, and 20 sec with chalk...
What a wipeout! You should climb with chalk for a month and see if you get up to v7.
ouch! that was a nasty fall, always hate seeing stuff like that. Hope you're alright dude👍
I think Magnus actually addresses why your skin can get cracked from chalk/climbing in one of his videos, but chalk effectively removes any moisture from your skin in order to produce more friction. Highly recommend to wash your hands ASAP after climbing to prevent the chalk from further drying out your skin and then rehydrate them with lotion. At least lotion up before you sleep for the night so that your hands will have hours for hydration to set in. The more you do this, the less likely your hands will be cracked from climbing/chalk in the long run. Take care of your hands!
I've always wondered about this! Is it generally humid at your climbing gym or dry? I feel like that might matter too
Maybe already said below: If you can exert longer with chalk on test A you are using up session 'batteries' and test B is therefore perhaps not an equal starting point. Main point: Cool video, thanks for making it!
What you said never crossed my mind, but it's actually also true. Thanks for pointing it out. Very difficult to conduct an experiment that is completely fair, haha.
Amazing crossover
i always wash and moisturize my hands after climbing. later in the day i use a pumice stone to sand down any rough callouses. if i don't climb for a while, it takes a few days of climbing and skin care to get back to having good skin. If you never use chalk though and don't sweat, i can definitely see how it could hurt your hands. But for me chalking up and doing a bit of skin care after every session helps so much.
I think we don’t really have to talk about this one. When it comes to crimps, chalking is just superior. You don’t really need to scientifically prove that once you experienced a wet slip on a crimp. And crimps are everywhere. Not only on „higher level“ (whatever that is) -climbs, you can have pretty bad crimps on a v3 slab. For slopers and bigger holds.. I think it depends on the texture. If the hold is very grippy, it should not make that much of a difference unless you’re sweating like crazy. Means: Granite slopers without chalk will probably work fine. But sandstone slopers without chalk? Oh boy. Fun fact: The beastmaker slopers are easier without chalk imo when u have the perfect amount of skin moisture, makes the wood a little bit more sticky.
Assuming you switched around granite and sandstone.
another guy did a review on many chalks, the primo chalk comes with some moisturizing thing to protect your skin and smell good, even though it performs worse than magdust just friction wise.
I've heard about the skin breaking up before from other people, they often use moisturiser on their hands or do some other skincare.
Pretty interesting. I never did much past the 5.10s and almost all outdoors, so I never used chalk. I always resented the people who use way too much, especially on big or easy holds, and what it does to the aesthetic. On popular routes it takes some of the appeal away for me when every hold is a huge obvious white spot, and it feels more like a gym at that point. I see why its benefits are needed for some situations though.
Duuuuuude, I kept shouting at the screen "dude your fall and hit that step stool! Alas it actually happened... maybe safer to keep the stool out in front or to the side? Cool video man
I really saw that accident coming. That gym definitely needs to get foam step stools or mats so you can reach the hangboard. Hope you're all good!
Yea pretty stupid having them so high
I think you have got better Your forearms looks so strong now 💪🏻
What brands of chalk have you tried?My skin cracks/splits pretty quickly if I’m using a chalk with a lot of drying compounds in it like gold dust. The ones that work best for me are oncrux, Frank endo, and friction labs. Haven’t had a split since I’ve switched
In my opinion, chalk makes you a better climber because you learn to trust bad handholds way more due to increased an optimally always similar friction on the same hold. Same as some other comments pointed out... You are able to pull harder with chalk, skin needs to get used to that which takes like 4-8 weeks maybe. Additionally it dries out your skin therefore you might consider using some hand lotion after climbing. There are also some climbing specific products (im not certain which ones are available in the us).
When hanging on slopers, start off further below the hangboard with arms straight down to control your swing from the start.
dude that fall was brutal... nice video though, hope you're ok!
It’s classic to succeed harder on the second attempt. To be fair, you should try another sequence: First with chalk. Second without.
Actually people say that the beastmaker slopers are better without chalk, even with slightly wet hands, because the slick wood furfice will absorb the sweat and make it more sticky apparently.
I think one varaible might be that since you held on for longer with chalk, it might also have tired you out more than you're used to. Might have affected the outcome of the later excercises.
I hope you're healing from that fall, doesn't seems fun at all 😦 Besides that, I started to use chalk since not too long ago and I see some difference. 1. Is important DO NOT ABUSE of the chalk. Just use a bit, not go crazy with it in all your hand, because there are parts of your hands that don't really need. Also it make the hold super slippery in the gym, EVEN WORST if you do climb outside (THE CHALK DOESN'T GO AWAY AFTER THE RAIN, IT JUST GET MORE STICKY! I try to do not use it outside and brush after I climb if I used). 2. Definitely I feel that I can climb more crimps and hold myself in pockets when I use chalk. To me is important to make sure that I use certain amount, it helps, but it will never do all or the big part of the job. Just put some in the fingers and the big areas that really need to get better friction. Thanks for share your videos!!! 🤩
i'm confused why the hangboards are up so high in this gym. seems quite dangerous and prevents you from going to your limit due to the risk of a fall. i really prefer if it's in a height such that i can easily reach it while standing, so that returing to the ground requires only a small movement of the legs.
well if you hang you can kick it away to savety. or someone to put it away...
I have hyperhidrose so chalk is a necessity if I want my fingers to stick to a hold. But I guess if you have really dry hands, just the residual chalk on holds is enough
My back is crying for you, hope you're ok!
You said the sequence was the same and therefore fair. If by adding chalk you can exercise and strain your body longer (up to 50%), is it fair on the next exercise?
on the first climb i was more focused on the kid in the background killin it
You should use Primo Chalk! I have the same problem. My hands are so dry that they will crack and bleed, even without chalk or climbing. I had this issue with regular chalk until I found Primo Chalk. It has a moisturizer component mixed in so it keeps your hands nice and healthy. It was a game changer for me!
I’ve done the exact same thing on the beastmaker slopers 😂 they’re brutal!
For some reason, it's harder than it looks. When I first saw it, I thought I would be able to easily hang on it for a few seconds 😆.
bruh, that little ladder for hangboarding just screamed "million dolar baby" to me, instantly i thought wtf, thats dangerous, and you confirmed my suspitions on video! damn, be careful
You should remember to moisturise your skin after you chalk up to maintain skin health, and also you may get skin tears and cracks shortterm, but the skin will get stronger over time similary to your grip
7:44 Ouuuuch damn that hurt
If you decide to use chalk again, I highly recommend hand salve. It will help keep your skin healthy and help prevent against rips and tears.
It's probably not related to the specific holds, but rather that the small advantage helps a lot on the holds where your ability is already on the edge. Probably your pinch would have a bigger improvement with more weight. That's my theory. Also the whole V6 climber thing. If you were to climb with chalk while projecting V7s if you then end up succeeding twice? as quickly as without chalk. It doesn't make you 6 grades better immediately, but it might allow you to get 6 grades better much quicker.
Great video, but I think u missed a rather important hold on that orange v6.
@Geek Climber As others have said in the comments. Chalk will dry out your skin a lot. So make sure to wash it off as soon as you are done climbing and then apply a good hand lotion. A good one meaning one that actually has credible ingredients that will moisturize. Not a cheap bogus brand :P Go to your pharmasy to find a good one. Also the added friction from Chalk will tear on your skin more. It's like when you just start out climbing. Your skin will be weak and un-used to the tearing. You start feeling this burning sensation in the skin and soon have flappers or cracks. So try to keep using chalk but be very careful with cleaning it off and applying moisturizing lotions asap. Your skin will adapt! :)
Climbing at an extremely high level, like V15, generally means you're hitting hard limits in technique and strength. It makes perfect sense that reducing one factor, like chalk, would have a substantial difference in hitting a maximum possible climbing grade.
The linear comparison is of course silly. Obviously chalk won't turn a V0 climber into a V5 climber because for lower grades all the holds are really good anyway and you don't need chalk. However at elite level, a V10-V15 improvement can be feasible because then you get super bad holds where even small differences such as chalk start to matter. Also for test like 20mm hold and the pinch hold the failure point seems fatigue rather than friction so it's not a very good test for chalk effectiveness, especially since it's not very representative of what you do on the wall. You don't just hang from a huge crimp or pinch for a minutes straight. A better test would be how much weight you can lift with a pinch rather that holding for time for example.
You are right! In hindsight, a better test indeed should be about how much weight instead of holding time.
@@GeekClimber you call yourself a geek but you are an idiot
Funnily enough you are describing a physics lab that I did last year. My teacher is an avid climber and loves to mix in climbing things into lessons. We did that pinch experiment and it turns out that I could pinch 55% more weight with chalk than without. It was super interesting since, as a skinny climber, without chalk I came in 2nd in terms of how much weight i could pinch ( a D1 swimmer beat me by 5lb). But with chalk I easily came first in our class about 10lb more than the swimmer.
Not bring able to hang on a beastmaker hold even for a second is a clear indication of chalk being important. Since even when I'm super weak and untrained I can hang at least a short while with chalk. The stool placement was deadly for the chalk attempt, never place it so weirdly, it made you swing so much.
you should make a video comparing climbing shoes. Do they help you climb harder grades?
Yes, chalk dries out your skin. Therefore, in order to prevent the skin cracking you talk about, I use some sort of hand lotion in order to re-moistorize my skin. Helps (me) a ton (no skin cracking any more).
I don't mind using a little bit of chalk here and there.... but some people pour their whole chalk bag in their hands, slap em together, and climb up- leaving the holds so caked with chalk you lose the grippiness of the hold! It's so frustrating. I feel like i use my brush to wipe away the chalk of holds more than i ever actually use chalk.
My guess was chalk would improve the maximum force you could apply, and not the endurance. I think it would be worth testing those claims and it might be as easy as using a digital spring balance to pull a weight loaded sloper over your flat fingertips as you rest your hand palm up. At the point where the sloper moves from rest, if the force on the spring balance increases when you use chalk, then we'll know that chalk provides greater friction.
That V7 is a V3 in my gym lol
I think you gave up chalk too fast. Based on the stats in the video, it would probably raise your max grade with one :) Your skin will probably adapt quickly and is not going to tear. Also, if you grow calluses, you can probably scrape them off with sandpaper and apply some hand cream. By the way, why don't you try the front lever with chalk, I think it can help to hold it.
I was thinking "wow he cld get seriously hurt putting that stool there" after the first time...my intuition was correct but thankfully you didn't get seriously injured. It doesnt take alot to break your neck or spine. Next time just have someone move the stool or use it to the side of what you hanging on to. With grip implements it makes a huge difference using chalk ive found especially when dealing with metal objects.
There's a bunch of ways to measure how effective chalk is but I think the methods used were insufficient - as others have said, chalk becomes essential once you get on worse holds, and you want all the friction you can get. The best thing in my opinion would have been to try and hang the smallest edge you can, and do max weighted hangs on the 20mm, then test max weight on pinch, and make sure when using the beastmaker slopers not to swing into the hang. Slopers are a lot more about technique than crimps (in my opinion!!), you should check out Emil's vid about slopers, the tips there could lead to you hanging the beastmaker 45°!
Nah u gotta pull on slowly to the slopers and let your feet drag on the ground to the point where you're hanging without swinging beneath the sloper. Ideally, you just pull up from directly underneath the sloper, but the foot drag trick helps with any error.
I think you should try using chalk for a longer period like a month or so. Also you can start by using a not as much in the beginning to avoid drying out your skin too much. Also think of it like switching from conventional deadlift to sumo deadlift in weightlifting, you wouldn't see improvements immediately as you have to adapt to the new technique/setup first. Or maybe like changing your IDE when programming, at the first couple sessions you might work slower due to not being familiar with it yet but in the end if its a better IDE, you will be more efficient. Using chalk is also something where every individual is different, some people have sweaty hands naturally, others dry hands, also to much chalk will make you slip or if the hands are too dry. So you should experiment taking chalk for a longer time.
I think you might want to retest by first cleaning the holds. I believe you will see even better results with the chalk.
What an interesting test! I think you made it as fair as you could without making this a major undertaking that would span multiple days, but I think there's a variable that isn't accounted for in this setup. For the sake of proving a point, let's say you were able to complete the V7 project with chalk. Since you only performed a few moves without the chalk, now you're going to be more fatigued going into every other test. So you may actually perform WORSE with chalk, simply because you did BETTER on the early tests! May or may not be significant, but this, to me, implies if you were doing the exercises totally fresh on individual days, we may see an even more marked improvement with chalk on the later tests.
Chalk is definitely better, but there is a balance you have to find. Too much chalk on a already chalky hold, then you will just slide right off. Too little and you start to sweat then you also slide right off. For me on big sloper type holds when throwing to them with too little chalk on my hands it will tear up my skin if I slip/pop off them. I get less skin fraying on my tips the more chalk I use. And omg tell that gym to lower that beastmaker! You showed exactly how dangerous that setup can be, I hope your back is okay!
In my personal experience, chalk is best on small crimps and wide slopers, and you benefit vastly more the longer you climb. First climb of the day? I often forget to throw on chalk for the first few routes but do fine because ive memorized my warmup routes quite well and my hands are dry. After i get some sweat built up and move onto different routes, thats when chalk really comes into play. While the palm of my hand doesnt really sweat, the top of my hand does, and after about twenty minutes, my palm is well lubricated and will slip off crimps and slopers pretty instantly, and worse, will make the holds wet, which can ruin any further attempts by me or other people to climb them until they dry. I've noticed though, of possibly greater importance then chalk, is clean holds. Brushing some slopers and crimps is like a night and day difference. If im having trouble with a specific hold, instead of thinking "Im not strong enough, oh well", I like to make sure its brushed nice and clean and then try it again, and more often then not, its an amazing hold that was just caked in layers of chalk gunk! A specific V4 with this weird sloper undercling start comes to mind, I had done it once before and while it was difficult it was definitely doable, I hadn't done it in a few days, and decided to do it again, couldn't for the life of me stay on the start, literally as soon as I moved my weight at all, id just slip right off. I thought I was going crazy cause it was a fraction as hard just a few days ago. Dude saw me struggling, offered me his brush to clean it, I gave it a good bit of elbow grease and enough chalk came off that hold to fill a bag! Sure enough, when I tried again, it was much easier. It's very interesting the role chalk and brushes play in creating the best friction possible, hope you make some more videos covering things like this!
Yup this!! Me and a buddy have this thing where when we struggle with a problem we brush it and then send it right after lol. It’s also a bit baffling that he refuses to use chalk for whatever reason when it’s literally a proven fact chalk helps you climb better and it’s not just for “grade chasing”. Personally I think he is being naive in the video because he doesn’t “climb” with chalk so he doesn’t want to start using it now and back track in that. And his hands cracking, I mean my guy you’ve been climbing with bear hands so they’re going to crack with more friction. But they will heal and get use to that. Anyways this video bothered me haha.
Duude, in the first round of tests I was thinking that beastmaker set up was incredibly sketchy, and then the exact thing I was thinking about happens in the second round. Your gym should honestly move those things.
same here! instantly thought what a shit location for them..
Great video! Magnus also claims climbing with no shirt make a BIG difference. Could you test shirt vs no shirt in another video?😂😂
I'm not sure about friction but, especially outdoors, I mainly think it's a sweat thing.
Here's what I think - on lower grade problems chalk isn't going to make as much of a difference because the holds are so much better in general and you will likely have much more surface area in contact with the holds - the limiting factor is less likely to be the friction between you hands and the rock/plastic. That being said, even at the lower grades, chalk does make a very significant difference. There's a lot of other technique and strength building tho that will be a bigger limiting factor, but the right amount of chalk will help, especially when you're at your limit. The big key is as others have noted is that since your climbing in a gym where everyone else is constantly chalking up before every attempt and the air is 1/3 chalk dust and every surface has a light dusting at the least no matter, so you are in fact using chalk every time you climb at the gym. And if you're hands tend to not get very sweaty and perhaps you're climbing more casually, then it's maybe not a big difference between actively chalking up or not. It seemed like you were likely overchalking most of the time as well as you noted with the sloper - you don't want a bunch of loose chalk floating on your hand, that will make it slipperier. You want a layer of chalk to more or less absorb into your skin soaking up any moisture and creating a layer that will slightly protect your skin and also create more friction than your skin would. Those tears are probably mostly just because you're hands are drier than they are used to being - part of chalks purpose is to dry your hands, so it comes with the territory. But if you wash your hands and put on some lotion after you climb you should be just fine. If the chalk you're just picking up along the way as you climb is enough then more power to ya! Heck, you're probably doing us all a favor and saving some brushing by cleaning off the holds as you go!
damn you got Ko'ed on that chalk hang looked like it hurt bad
Using chalk and moisturising before & after you climb is a great combo
Never ever moisturise before climbing! Greasy fingers will fook up your climbing! Even be careful putting lotions etc on your fingers the day before climbing! (Magnus have a video of this as an example)
what really helps is using body lotion for very dry skin a few minutes before and after climbing, after washing off the chalk. my skin tears way less that way
Hey Geek Climber! I don't think it is a fair comparison because without the chalk friction may be failing you before your strength. However with the chalk you achieved better results on the earlier tests which may have used more of your strength.
That fall hurts my back
I think if your skin is so dry that chalk makes it’s crack you might benefit from climbing specific lotion rather than chalk. I rub climb on on my hands in the morning. It takes a while to soak in/ rub off so not good right before a climb. I’ve heard of people using working hands too
Is there another orange hold youre missing just above your right hand on the project? An interesting video nevertheless
the one thing im missing in this video is the benefit of chalk to the gym sustainability, using chalk allows holds to be cleaned easily with a brush whilst just climbing with your skin and everything that might be still on your skin can easily get stuck in the pores of the holds wich at some point can only be cleaned with laborious methods when the wall gets reset