lunes, 28 de octubre de 2013

The Rock is a Harsh Mistress - Skin Injuries and Climber's Hands

After a few times atempting to solve a boulder problem at Volkspark Friedrichshain I got this:


I decided to do  quick fix and continue climbing a little bit more...



 But the true is that this was not getting better. Now, how much time do I need to wait to be able to start climbin again?

I decided to research a little bit about how to treat skin injuries and how to take care of your hands as a climber. Apart from the torn calluses, my skin was peeling down at my fingertips.


The rock is a harsh Mistress


The main reason why skin gets peeled of, it is the contact against a harsh surface, the rock, while we are climbing. The friction produced while climbing, peels down and injuries the skin.

Blisters and Calluses.
The first thing that's going to happened after a few climbing training session, are blisters and/or calluses. Mainly I guess that's depending on your skin type and former skin conditions. Blisters are formed wen the skin is damaged during friction. After the blisters deflate, it's likely that a callus it is going to form. This may be good to protect the area of your skin that has suffered the strains of friction against future maybe more intense friction while training.

Calluses are good in protecting your skin from injures, but there are not nice to the touch, so maybe your girl/boyfriend is not gonna be happy about them. You can always level down the calluses with pumice stone, but leave a little bit for the rock, otherwise you'll end up doing the same.


How to take care of your hands

Fists things first. If your skin is peeling down, that's because it is dry. So, after climbing, it is important the moisture on your skin
Chalk is a drying agent, we use chalk to be able to crank into the small holds we dig to climb. A humid hand can't climb much, and for me, chalk can became addictive.... I just love to hit the chalk bag and to get things a little worse, I like to wear loose chalk in my chalk bag. So my hands are getting dry. Yeah.

I've noticed that there are many products to take care of your skin, including those sold by climbing companies which may led you to think that are more adequate for the circumstances... you are maybe right, I don't really know. But I'll stick with those.

Taking care of your skin and hands, will allow you to climb longer, better and harder. So I think that taking the time to do it is a good idea if you like climbing :).

I found this very nice article about chalk and moisture products that I want to share with you.
There is a very nice list of different types of chalks of drying agents, and their counterparts, the moisturisers...
 From Chalk to Salve: Crap Climbers Put on Their Hands

So there are a lot a products down there. Just as example, I get into amazon.com and checked the list for chalk, here are some:


Metolius Super Chalk

Evolv Loose Chalk

Black Diamond White Gold Chalk

I also found an alternative to chalk, to leaves no trace on the rock:

Eco Ball Chalk


And some of the healing counterparts:

Climb On! Bar
Joshua Tree Organic Climbing Salve
And don't forget about the tape!

Metolius Climbing Tape


So go out there, happy climbing and take care of your hands! :)


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