Skin Routines
Being the body’s largest organ (yup, it’s an organ!) our skin, on many days, is the limiting factor for climbing harder, more. Responsible for around 15% of your body weight, it’s more than just a pretty weight vest; protecting us from harm and producing vitamin D amongst other things. It’s a delicate thing though, as is managing its condition for climbing. For better or worse it can contain up to 650 sweat glands per inch which is a lot of potential slippiness to control. Additionally, each time you pull on you’re causing varying amounts of damage which can build up to a point where you decide enough is enough, time to rest and let it heal! Frustratingly everyone’s skin is different and reacts differently to climbing and skin care. Some are lucky to have perfect skin, resilient with just the right amount of callus while retaining flexibility and with a low but present sweating rate. Many of us though struggle with wearing through tips, split and cracked skin and or excessive sweating!
So we’ve compiled some tips for dealing with different types but first we’re going to give you the secret… it’s all about
Balance
Optimum skin is a fine balance between dry and moist skin leaning either way depending on your focus. As a base you want just enough moisture within your skin for it to remain supple and flexible enough that it can contort to the shape of the surface it’s touching. More surface area contact = more friction. But dry, thick and hard enough that it is resilient to tears, flappers, high volume days and the devilish sharpness of some outdoor rock.
The problem we find is, climbers with a naturally higher moisture content in their skin generally also sweat a lot. Presumably sweating is the mechanism which maintains the water content. Because sweating less is advantageous in maintaining friction (the sole reason for chalk), theoretically the perfect skin is easier to achieve by artificially hydrating naturally dryer skin when necessary. You want the suppleness but not the sweating. We say “when necessary” because if raw ultimate friction isn’t necessary for a certain day, you want the resilient characteristics of dryer skin for limiting damage. Going the other way, from sweaty skin to dryer skin is possible but the products associated with doing this are much harsher therefore finding the goldilock zone is more difficult.
There are many useful products out there to help manage skin but no single item will give you perfect skin. You may decide though that a single item helps enough to justify that being your whole skincare routine, some may need a combination, some none!
Overly dry skin
Symptoms: You have good durability and can climb for hours without noticeably burning through much skin. You tend to experience dry fires(violently losing friction due to having too hard/glassy skin. Not because you sweated up!), more common and dramatic splits/cracks which linger and take a while to heal when they do occur and potentially irritable eczema like redness. You may find you don’t need chalk as much as others as you tend to sweat less.
To improve overly dry skin for climbing you can
Use moisturising soaps, avoid harsh soaps, detergents and chemicals
Apply overnight moisturisers and experiment with oily/thicker products to seal in moisture. Products with beeswax can provide great moisture barriers throughout the day and night.
Consider regularly sanding contact areas in order to prevent local callus build up which can result in flappers and glassy patches. Sanding can also prevent tears and cracks from worsening and reduce skin thickness. Be wary not to go too thin.
Make sure to wear washing up gloves to avoid washing up liquid coming into contact with your skin and drying it out
Avoid drying agents in chalk, look out for pure magnesium carbonate products
After climbing
Wash your hands to remove all chalk and dirt from your climb
Use a sander and clippers to remove bits of frayed skin
Use a moisturiser designed for climbers eg Rhino Solutions/Climbskin which offer creams specifically for climbers with overly dry or damaged skin
Wear gloves when it is cold and windy to prevent your hands drying and cracking
Finally, consider taking a break from climbing. If the skin on your hands is really damaged and painful, it’ll make climbing less enjoyable and repeatedly climbing will make recovery more difficult. Take a week off, look after your hands and then get back to it!
Overly moist skin:
Symptoms: You’re a regular climber but wear through skin quickly. You tend to experience more common micro tears, cuts and abrasions. You sweat up just thinking about climbing!
Clean your skin with a bar of soap and hot water before climbing.
Make sure to wash your hands with soap before climbing, remove grease and dirt, wash hands again if you eat during your climb.
Use liquid chalk more frequently to cool down your skin, reduce skin ware and evaporate sweat between climbs. Check out “consider which chalk you use” below.
Experiment with climbing specific skin products designed for reducing sweating and drying skin. Begin with small applications and compare, steadily increase if necessary. These products contain very potent ingredients which often work by killing the top layer of your skin. In moderation they can be fine but in excess will lead to cracks and splits.
Consider clothing choices! The hotter you are, the more you will sweat.
Thin skin when getting into/returning to climbing
This isn’t necessarily a problem with being too dry or moist. It is most likely the case that you simply need to train your skin for rock by climbing to build up calluses a bit more. If you climb infrequently AND have very moist skin you may want to consider the above suggestions but until you’re climbing 1 or 2 times per week, more climbing will be the biggest help.
Dealing with minor skin injuries
Flappers/skin tears
Take some time off climbing to recover - unlikely! So…
Clip away any excess or hanging skin
Clean the area of skin
Tape over it using regular climbing tape if you’re carrying on your climb or need to keep it clean. Make sure to tear a small amount to cover any open wound with the non-sticky side before taping over normally.
Once able, expose it to air to allow the area to heal. Barrier creams such as Sudocrem can be very useful in keeping the area moist but not sweaty.
Keep the area moisturised as it heals
As the skin heals, shave down or sand the edges to prevent snagging it.
Split tips
First stop the bleeding and give it a clean
If it is a small abrasion, you could tape it up and continue
With a bigger split it could take up to a week to heal and will split open again if you continue to climb on small edges with it. In the meantime, try a different style of climbing to allow for it to heal and avoid sharp crimps or particularly abrasive rock (granite/volcanic)
Keep the area moisturised and clean
Consider carefully which chalk you use
Sensitive skin can often react to drying agents used in many chalks, so you may want to consider finding a chalk that uses no drying agents or additives, i.e. uses only magnesium carbonate.
Although useful for all climbers, liquid chalk can be especially suitable for those with excessively sweaty hands, as the alcohol can help break down oils on the skin, then evaporate to carry away moisture and heat to have a cooling effect, preventing sweating and reducing skin wear. Then of course the chalk left behind helps to prevent further sweating and slipping.
Look for seawater processed chalks from brands which know what they’re doing. The purity will be higher and the chalk will contain a much lower amount of impurities.
