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Chalk not the best thing to improve grip... (Read 3669 times)

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Chalk not the best thing to improve grip...
January 09, 2005, 11:11:04 pm
Well I'm not too sure about this one :?
I found this bit of research on the T'internet

http://www.sportex.bham.ac.uk/staff/lifx_files/Coeff%20friction%20climbing%20JSS%202001.pdf

Check out the results of using wet hands vs chalked hands!

r-man

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Not only that, but also:

Quote
As skin temperature rises, its pliability increases, since the lipid bilayer of the cell wall becomes more fluid. This increase in compliance
will lead to an increase in the coeffcient of friction.


 :shock:

Fiend

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Obvious that if your hands are bone dry, adding a layer of chalk to them will make them slightly less grippy. However it's entirely irrelevant for me at least, as I never get bone dry hands with the temperature above zero.

As for the wet hands thing, well whatever happens in a lab, I don't give a fuck. The simple fact outdoors is, wet hands make me slip off things, dry hands don't. No amount of concocting excuses for trying to get a climbing-relevant degree work is going to change that.

clm

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wet rock made me fall off yesterday.

LJ

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Think i read somewhere that it wasnt the water that was making the friction worse, it was the oils that are produced from your hands that made the friction toss. Still sounds like a load of arse to me, and i have many a grazed knuckle from wet holds to testify!

clm

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and another pertinent point.  rock is rarely completely clean so any dust will forma soup with water and get slippy.  likewise water seems to make lichen bloom and grow and get really slippy.  i once heard that there is some chemical effect of chalk which slightly dissolves the surface of the skin and makes it sticky.  might be bollox though.

ray evans apparently never used chalk and only climbed in bendy boots as a matter of principle.  check out the boys first ascents list. wad.

 

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