How Much Does Chalk Actually Help In Climbing?

Conclusion: Magdust won't turn you into Magnus Midtbo, but you will climb harder with chalk! 😎

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.

😭😭😭 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!❤️

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

USE MOISTERISER AFTER CLIMB WITH CHALK you just need to keep it hydrated after climb with water and moisturiser

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.

That was hard watching that fall. Hope you were okay!! Cheers for keeping it in the video!

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Love how you strugged off that nasty fall! I hope you're doing ok and not too sore