[Shaun]

 Ive just been out enjoying the good friction and got wondering (again) Why Is the friction better in cold weather? I have asked lots of people but no-one has given me a satisfactory answer.Standard answers seem to be:
Hands not sweating
Less humidity
There must be a geologist out there who can give me the definitive answer.
Cheers

[Dave Flanagan]

I have been working on an article for ages to answer these very questions, i'm not a geologist but AndyR is and his is supposed to be looking over what I have wriiten. Will be fnished after Christmas realistically...

[Monolith]

I've always thought surely it's due to sweat clogging up pores in the rocks or resin holds, sort of like miniature pools. Not sure what I'm trying to convey, but I can totally imagine it in my head on a micro scale.  Although this sounds like absolute piffle and smallfry in the face of what Dave will have to offer us as an explanation!

I eagerly await the thesis my friend....

[Jim]

Isn't it simply down to the fact that the colder something is the less moisture it can hold (only applies to gasses and porous substances btw)

[Shaun]

Look forward to the article. I think Jim is thinking in the right direction.If it was just to do with not sweating why would you get better friction with your boots? Another thought is that if it is freezing then surely the water will be ice and not in the atmosphere.

[Dr T]

ironically boot rubber works better when it's warmer, basically the polymer chain's vibrate more due to latent energy and the inter molecular (chain to chain) bonding (generally Van der Waals forces - aka London dispersal forces for those a bit older) is weakened meaning the polymer chains in the surface of the rubber are freer to move a little more independently allowing the rubber to be more pliable tand wiggle into all the pores in the rocks/mould around crystals, pebbles etc.

I think I read somewhere that the best temp's for climbing are between about 3 and 10 deg C - a compromise between optimum conditions for hands (colder the better) and boot rubber (warmer means stickier).

[Dave Flanagan]

ironically boot rubber works better when it's warmer, basically the polymer chain's vibrate more due to latent energy and the inter molecular (chain to chain) bonding (generally Van der Waals forces - aka London dispersal forces for those a bit older) is weakened meaning the polymer chains in the surface of the rubber are freer to move a little more independently allowing the rubber to be more pliable tand wiggle into all the pores in the rocks/mould around crystals, pebbles etc.

This isn't my understanding. yes rubber gets softer as temps go up but this isn't the same thing as working better as temps go up. Rubber works better when its soft but not too soft (or will just deform then and slip). Each compound of rubber has an optimal softness (not too soft not too hard) in the case of rubber on climbing shoes it is designed to be at this optimal softness at a certain temperature (say 2 degrees) so as one has optimal hand and foot friction at the same time.

[Dr T]

fair play, as I said I wasn't sure what the range was, the point I was trying to make was that rubber doesn't work well if it's too cold...

I guess the reason rubber performance starts to drop off at higher temps is more to do with the fact that it starts to lose it's integrity for edging etc because of the inherent weakening I was talking about....

[AndyR]

I have been working on an article for ages to answer these very questions, i'm not a geologist but AndyR is and his is supposed to be looking over what I have wriiten. Will be fnished after Christmas realistically...

D'oh - I forgot about that - send me the link again and I'll look at it over crimbo.

[Fiend]

Somewhat embarrassingly, the same topic posted on UKClimbing usually gets the right answer within minutes. Specifically, deformity of the skin/rubber to fit the grain of the rock without "rolling".

[Paz]

I'll just go on believing it's magic.

[Ru]

Friction, as we should all know, works due to SCIENCE - a topic I have written about at length in the past. I suggest a search of previous topics looking for SCIENCE.

[Shaun]

Where is the thread on ukclimbing?