Climbing Hand Care

If your are a climber, your hands are constantly in contact with rough surfaces and drying agents making them prone to all kinds of scrapes and cuts. Make sure you take care of your hands and avoid lesions caused by extreme dry skin. Remember that a deep crack in a finger can ruin your entire season of climbing!

Read these quick six useful tips to take care of your coarse hands. If you have time you can also expand your knowledge by reading our suggested articles for more details.

 

1. Wash The Chalk Off

Remove climbing chalk and dirt from your hands after a climbing session, they keep drying out your skin! Apply moisturizer immediately.  "Dirt and chalk are not your friends. Wash up after every climbing outing. Then, apply a treatment to keep your skin soft and supple. This seems counter intuitive, but soft skin is less prone to problems than dry, rough skin, which peels and cracks."

• Read more on this Rock And Ice article: Climbing Skin Care

 

2. Moisturize Your Hands

Use a fast absorbing cream on your hands, back and palms to prevent tears or flappers due to overly dry skin.

• Of course our recommendation is to use Renucell because it is light and non-greasy, and has a long-lasting effect.

 

3. Gentle With Flappers

Don't tear them, keep them moisturized and cut them carefully using scissors, a nail clipper or even a razor blade (Just like Alex Megos).

• Read more about Flappers Care: Whole Hands Are Happy Hands: Flappers And Skincare For Climbers

 

4. Tape Smart

Taping your fingers and hands help you prevent both, cuts on your pads or creases, and scrapes on the back of your hands.

• Read how to tape your fingers from an orthopedic surgeon! Guillaume Michaud, an article featured on Climbing Magazine: Avoid Finger Blowouts 

 

5. Cherish Climbing Calluses

Prevent your calluses to rip off by sanding them gently with pumice stone or water sandpaper, and keep them moisturized between climbs.

• It is an art! Lean How to cultivate your climbing calluses
• The guys that made history on El Capitan superglued their fingers! Chasing History, Yosemite Climbers Sand and Superglue Their Fingers

 

6. Allow Your Hands To Heal

Once you hurt your hands badly, you'll need to let your hands rest away from drying and abrasive agents (AKA: Chalk and Rock.) Healing can be speed up by keeping your skin moisturized, elastic and soft!