Bouldering Info Guides

So, you have probably heard about climbing balms and might be wondering what all the fuss is about. You might want to know when is it appropriate to use the balms and what sort of effect it will have on your climbing.

When I first heard about climbing balm I shrugged it off as an unnecessary accessory.

However, the more I learned the more I thought the balms could be a useful tool if used correctly.

When is the best time to balm up?

I think one of the biggest questions for people wanting to try and take advantage of these balms is lack of information on when you should be using them.

Depending on if you’re a gym monkey, Crag chaser or Yosemite regular the answer is going to differ.

In the gym, you’re going to have the ability to wash all that chalk off your hands straight after the session. As soon as you have dried them off, you are going to want to apply your balm to lock in the moisture.

Now if you’re a rock jockey and spend your weekends on the wall wondering if Alex Honnold is a freak of nature or just really dedicated? You might have to wait before applying your balms.

Weight is a big issue when climbing, so any water you have needs to go towards hydrating you and not being wasted on cleaning the chalk off your hands.

This means you are going to want to wait until you can get to a place to wash your hands, without wasting all that precious H₂O.

Washing your hands is quite an important precursor to applying the balm as it makes the perfect base for skin repair.

The reason you want to lock in the moisture from your washed hands is due to the science behind skin repair which I will go over later.

How Balms Will Help Your Climbing

So, it’s no secret in climbing that we put our hands through a self-inflicted proving ground of misery and pain.

We often try to push our hands to the limit when trying to get that cheeky dyno or taunting sloper, usually for bragging rights.

This tends to lead to our fingers being covered in torn and flapping skin.

Before I started using balms the solution to this was to stop whining about it, tape up and get back on the wall.

But here is the interesting thing: climbing balms when used correctly can be used as a preventative measure as well as a way to speed up recovery.

The reason you get tears and rips in your hands has a bit of duality to it.

If your hands are too soft they’ll rip.

<——- The sweet spot ——->

If your calluses are too hard they’ll rip.

This may look like an impossible quest. But trust me there is a sweet spot in there.

When you have soft hands the wall makes mincemeat of them and the rough holds can be almost sandpaper-like and rip the skin.

With hard callused hands, they have a tendency to catch on holds and tear if they are too hard. This can result in some painful hand injuries.

Regardless if you have hard or soft hands, balms are still a good method to speed up recovery. However callused hands get the extra benefit of the balm softening them up. This means if it does happen to catch on a hold the resulting flapper won’t be anywhere near as big!

A balm used this way can help prevent taped hands which will mean your fingers will toughen up that much faster. Tougher fingers give you an easier time with those horrible holds and means you can spend more time climbing and less time asking your hands why they have let you down. Again.

The Science Behind Climbing Balms

So, climbers’ hands tend to be on the dryer side, and this doesn’t really provide the ideal recovery conditions for your hands.

Climbing balms work based on trying to create the ideal conditions for skin repair. They use ingredients that contain something called humectants.

Humectants are substances that are very good at attracting moisture and retaining it.

Not only are Humectants good at drawing and locking in moisture, but they are also promoting your hands to produce more ceramide.

Ceramide is a key ingredient in your top layer of skin (stratum corneum) which is your hand’s main way of protecting themselves from water loss and drying out.

So, the main humectant ingredient in climbing balms is usually beeswax (like we needed any more reasons to save the bees!)

However, there are quite a few claims out there that seem to think beeswax also has some extra properties. and that these properties make it the perfect choice for climbing balms.

The claims state that the beeswax also works as an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial aide. But I couldn’t find much evidence to back these claims up.

Now, most balm manufacturers also add additional ingredients to help the balm work more effectively and make them more appealing.

I have seen some balms with cocoa butter or shea butter added to make them similar to a moisturizer. While others add such ingredients like lavender oil or lemon oil to try and make the smell more enticing.

Every climber knows how important chalk is.

…and every climber has, at least once, given the classic “I slipped off” excuse.

When you’re pushing your limits, you don’t want anything to hold you back. You want it to be just you, and the climb.

Now, if you’re a regular climber you’ll have at least heard of liquid chalk before. Perhaps you’re wondering if there are any benefits to it.

Or perhaps you’re a newbie who’s looking for that extra edge.

The truth is, there are actually some benefits to using liquid chalk over the tried-and-true staple of dry chalk that most climbers swear by.

And yes, some climbers even swear by liquid chalk.

But it isn’t without its downsides, as you’ll soon see.

Why Use Liquid Chalk?

Liquid chalk is lighter to carry around than regular chalk, and unlike a bag of regular chalk, it doesn’t coat absolutely everything around it with chalk dust back at home.

But there is one reason to use liquid chalk over dry chalk which stands out far above the rest.

And that is that it lasts longer. Much, much longer.

Of course, this depends upon how much your hands like to supply themselves with their own natural WD-40.

Some people find that one application of liquid chalk is enough to last a whole session, but the least you can expect is a solid 20 minutes of grip.

Liquid chalk isn’t magic. There is a reason why it lasts so long, and that reason is what gives it its downsides.

How Does Liquid Chalk Work?

The key ingredient in liquid chalk is isopropyl alcohol.

Isopropyl alcohol is practically a sponge for water and grease. That’s right – it’ll absorb every last trace of slipperiness from your hands.

And what’s more: it’s readily absorbed by the skin too.

If you put these two points together, you can easily see what makes isopropyl alcohol so special in the context of climbing.

It works as a kind of antiperspirant for your hands that not only safeguards against sweat, but also traps chalk into the surface of your skin.

This means that all you have to do is apply it once at the start of your session, and then you can just forget about it.

The way that isopropyl alcohol works is that it disrupts the bonds between water molecules, reducing the amount of energy required for them to evaporate.

What this means is that isopropyl alcohol actively evaporates water off your hands, leaving them dry, grippy, and ready to climb.

Once the water has evaporated off your hands, the isopropyl alcohol evaporates too, leaving behind the chalk that it’s mixed with.

The great thing about this is that it’ll already be soaked into every last pore in your hands. The sheer coverage that liquid chalks gives you is second to none.

However, as mentioned before, there are some potential downsides to liquid chalk that relate to its use of isopropyl alcohol.

The Drawbacks of Using Liquid Chalk

Liquid chalk is interesting in its drawbacks.

It’s unusual, because for most people, there are no drawbacks. The vast majority of climbers can use liquid chalk freely without worrying about the condition of their hands.

However, for some people, the isopropyl alcohol can cause skin irritation because it makes their hands too dry. It’s essentially a bit too severe for what they need.

If you have naturally dry hands even while climbing, you might be one of the few people who have this problem. The easiest solution, of course, is to use less liquid chalk.

Besides, you’ll probably find that “less is more” when it comes to liquid chalk. That is to say, it doesn’t take much to dry out your hands nicely and provide that extra grip you’re looking for.

This will also help mitigate one of the other downsides to liquid chalk: that it always has a slight scent of alcohol. Many liquid chalks contain added fragrances to mask the alcohol, and they really do cover it up completely.

However, some people are put off by the idea of their hands smelling like scented skincare products, while others can get headaches from strong fragrances. Liquid chalks usually smell pretty nice though, and I’d see that as more of a pro than a con.

The Best Way to Use Liquid Chalk

If you’re a climber who’s looking to really maximize their grip, there is a trick to using liquid chalk which I think you’ll love.

It’s especially useful for longer or more difficult climbs. If you’re tired of having to find a resting spot so you can chalk up again, and you’d rather just focus on sending the route, then this is essentially the only way that you can do that.

The trick is simple. Use liquid chalk at the start of your climbing session to create a base layer of grip, blow on your hands to get them nice and dry, and then chalk up on top of that with your usual dry chalk. The liquid chalk will act as an antiperspirant layer throughout your climb, and at the same time it’ll keep the regular chalk on your hands and off the holds.

The advantage to doing this over using a larger amount of liquid chalk, is that liquid chalk can tend to get sticky if you use too much. You’ll also run the risk of drying your hands out too much, which can lead to your skin cracking and peeling.

The only downside to doing this is that you’ll have to carry both liquid chalk and dry chalk with you, though you won’t have to carry either of them on you while you’re actually climbing the route, so you’ll be saving that valuable bit of extra weight to give you an edge in your mobility.

Why make climbing harder than it has to be?

You might be feeling like you’re not strong enough or lacking stability in your climbs. Everyone hits plateaus in climbing and its difficult to figure out what you can do to move past it.

But here is the thing: correct footwork placement will be far more beneficial to your climbing than you can possibly imagine.

Correct footwork placement is key in the foundation for any good climber and this is because each strong foot placement makes the next move easier.

This is why footwork is so crucial.

The 5 Key footplacements Technqiues For All Climbers

So let’s get to the nitty-gritty of the techniques.

The Basic Frontstep

The frontstep is a stable and easy footwork.

You simply point your foot parallel to the wall and place it down with the big toe directly on the hold, resulting in a stable stance.

With this stable position, you can rest or push upwards to the next hold.

The further you step away with the technique the harder it will be to get any leverage when pushing upwards.

You can also use this technique with others below for better results.

Instep

The instep makes use of the inner side of your shoe.

If this technique is used with both feet it can result in a “frog-leg” like movement.

To put this placement into practice you just lean away from the wall to identify your hold and put down your foot down big toe first and slowly apply pressure. Then pull into the wall while shifting you outer hip towards the wall and put your weight on the newly found hold transferring weight off your arms.

This technique is useful when using high stepping which I will discuss in later posts.

Drop Knee

Okay, so this one might not be a foot placement.

But its super vital nonetheless.

The drop knee is sometimes called the backstep and is one of the best weapons in your war for efficient climbing.

There are tons of reasons you want to add the drop knee to your kit of techniques, It gives you balance, stability along with extra reach not to mention it helps you keep tension on the wall.

To put this technique into practice all you need to do is lower your knee towards the ground while simultaneously raising your hip against the wall.

This is great for walls with steep angles due to its efficiently its saves tons of energy.

Smearing

Smearing makes use of the underside of your shoe, Its all about trying to generate as much friction as possible to try and create any extra thrust to propel your body up the wall. you’re going to require a lot of trust in your shoes, as one small slip can sometimes lead to time spent away from the wall.

To use this great placement you just need to stick your foot on any bit of the wall and start putting pressure until it sticks.

Since this technique requires you to put a lot of faith in your shoes you need to make sure you have the right pair for the job.

Shoes with flat soles are the best for smearing due to the more rubber on the wall, this leads to a better grip and more sticking power!

The Mighty Heel Hook

The heel hook is one of the most advantageous techniques when trying to send a steep climb, It allows you to use your powerful legs in a pulling motion instead of pushing.

This helps you keep tension and relieve pressure from other areas which in turn makes your climbs easier.

Heel hooks have multiple knock-on effects when used correctly.

Your hooks will take the weight off your arms allowing you actually grip those impossible holds.

Not to mention pulling you in the direction you want to be heading in: UP!

So you wondering how you put this move into practice and its simple.

You just put your heel around a hold or feature and use those legs to pull you up the wall!

The best shoes for hooking are ones with a large amount of rubber on the heel for friction, or preferably a dedicated heel cup.

This one might take a lot of practice to get perfect but its fun to do and will help push you onto the next grade.