A Climber’s Guide to Skin Care: Dealing With Sweat, Tape, Splits, and More

In a couple of decades, Elon Musk may have taken over and planted our brains inside of android skeletons à la RoboCop… But for now, we’re still flesh and blood, and that means we have to take care of our skin while climbing.

From sweaty hands to thin tips, gobis, splits, and the nefarious flapper, there are a number of skin woes waiting to stymie your projecting. The good news is that climbers have learned quite a bit about how to remedy these issues. In this piece, we’ll cover a few things you need to know about taking care of your skin while climbing.

Climbing Performance: Sweaty Skin vs. Dry Skin

From a performance standpoint, climbing skin care comes down to whether your hands are too moist or too dry. If your hands are extremely sweaty, you’ll slip right off the holds. Excessive moisture also leads to softer skin, causing an increase in certain skin injuries, like bloody slits and flappers.

But if your skin is too hard, tough, and dry, you run the risk of getting “glassy” tips, giving you zero friction with the rock, a recipe for dry firing. Dry skin is also more prone to cracking and splitting.

There’s bad news on either end, so you need to hit the middle. You want enough moisture and malleability in your skin for it to conform and grip the rock, but not so much that you slip off. Most climbers will sit to one side or the other on this spectrum—some have naturally sweaty hands, some have naturally dry hands—so skin care differs person-to-person.

5.15 climber and trainer Cameron Hörst, who deals primarily with moist skin, says, “My usual tactic is applying Antihydral on my palms every other night the week leading up to my trip. I continue to apply it—usually every few days—depending on the conditions, type of rock, and holds during the trip. I put it on my palms, as opposed to my fingertips, because I personally experience negative returns from having really dry fingertips.”

“The Antihydral makes my skin very brittle, and when pulling in small holds, it causes my tips to crack. I find that applying it to my palms—where the sweat glands in the hand originate—has a general drying effect on my entire hand.”

Besides the application of Antihydral, Hörst recommends minimizing time spent in the shower, washing hands, and washing dishes. “I’ve found that washing my hands with dish soap while on trips rather than conventional hand soap keeps my hands more dry.”

To keep his hands from getting too dry, Hörst uses moisturizing cream after post-climb showers (before his rest days.) “If I’m always drying my hands out over the course of weeks, my hands get very uncomfortable,” he says. “There is a balance that needs to be sorted for everyone.”

Skin Protection: Tips and Tricks

Another aspect of skin care is protecting your skin to prevent it from becoming injured in the first place. As we mentioned above, the healthiest skin is a blend between moist and dry.

Excess moisture, particularly on the finger pads and palms, can lead to bleeding, cuts, and tears. Dry, hard skin, while generally more durable, can split easier. Both excessively moist and excessively dry skin can lead to performance issues, as well.

Taping

You can protect your skin by taping. Taping is both used both to prevent skin damage in the first place, such as when crack climbing, or (more often) to protect and heal existing damage.

Trad climber Molly Mitchell admittedly takes a rather nonchalant approach to healing skin wounds. “Rub some chalk in it and move on,” she joked.

She did note a personal tip. “If I get a flapper or split and I have to use tape, I always use superglue too,” she said. “[This] makes the tape stay in place and actually work. I superglue the first part of the tape to my skin—just a little, not on the wound—then wrap it, and I superglue the last part of the tape to the tape itself.” If cuts and tears aren’t healing on their own, Mitchell recommends Neosporin and a Band-Aid overnight to promote faster recovery.

On most climbs, there’s not any point in taping pre-injury unless you’re jamming. However, if you’re projecting a route with a hold that’s causing particular damage—such as a small crystal or uber-sharp crimp—you might consider putting tape on your finger in that particular spot to prevent injury as you take burns.

Sanding

Sanding down protruding skin (ex. calluses) is another tactic that can keep your skin smooth and pliable, preventing tears. You want the surface of your skin level and uniform to prevent protrusions from catching on the rock and tearing.

Evening out the layers in your skin also promotes faster growth (just don’t go overboard and make your skin too thin). You can use basic sandpaper for this, a nail file, or a dedicated climbing hand file. It’s also smart to sand away dead skin as injuries heal.

Other Factors

Diet and hydration also play a role. Drinking enough water, eating a whole food diet with very little sugar or processed foods, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine can all help promote ideal skin conditions.

As a beginner climber, it’s also useful to think about how you’re using your hands. Rolling, dynamic movements are notorious for producing flappers. When you can feel your skin becoming extra-sensitive, such as at the end of a long session, climb slowly, and make static moves.

If you’re dealing with lots of cuts and flappers as a new climber, just be patient. The longer you climb, the stronger your skin will become.

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