Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author

Crack climbing gloves - the ethics

gfdonc

8-Feb-2011
11:13:06 AM

(bump)

I used crack gloves for the first time at Buffalo last month, on Backless (21).
Gee, they were nice. A lot less fussing around than tape, I thought worth it for that reason alone.
They certainly worked well, I can see the extra width would be helpful sometimes but make thinner cracks difficult.


tnd

8-Feb-2011
1:33:43 PM

I detest jamming and the only way I can tolerate it is with these gloves. Worth every cent!


evanbb

8-Feb-2011
2:19:55 PM

I've found them a mixed blessing. Good for big-fist sized cracks where contact is marginal, but hopeless when it's tighter. I gave up using them, even on Canberra granite, preferring nude hands.The gloves were useful 1 in 4 jams or so, and a hinderance the rest of the time.

fish boy

8-Feb-2011
5:26:06 PM

I've given away the gloves on the last few cracks I've done, and the scars last a while...if you're ace, you don't need em, I clearly do...


ambyeok

8-Feb-2011
5:45:09 PM

Chicks dig scars, just not on your hands. Tape up.

Wendy

8-Feb-2011
8:12:51 PM

Tape gloves are the bomb, and unless you're climbing barefoot, naked and chalkless, I don't think there's any grounds for criticising them. Well made ones are reusable (mine last about a year and they get a lot of use) and are much better than these silly one off rap around the hand jobbies I see people do sometimes then throw out. Hand jammies are bloody awful. Too thick and chunky, only appreciated on the odd fist crack. I find they feel much less secure because i can't feel anything. I did borrow Ado's Ocun gloves once, and they were actually pretty good. Much better than the jammies. He did buy the last set in the country though. I made a set out of a cut open inner tube once too. They were kind of ok, but got pretty sweaty and my hands smelt of tyre rubber. In general, i reckon tape gloves protect the skin whilst letting you feel how the jam is and if you make a pair you can reuse, it's not much trash to go through a pair a year. They do suck when the thumb loops get a bit floppy and get clipped into the draw on the crux bit of gear though.


Miguel75

8-Feb-2011
8:48:13 PM

I've been really stoked on crack climbs of late. I love the feeling of a solid hand jam and am keen to get onto a few more. All I need to do is figure out how to use my feet. And develop more strength. And more skill.

I've yet to try gloves, or tape gloves though am keen to give anything a crack... har har.

singersmith

11-Feb-2011
11:51:44 AM

Style only affects your ascent, ethics affects everybody else who climbs the route. Therefore, chipping is an ethical issue whereas tape gloves are a stylistic one. Chalk could be either but is no longer really an ethical issue except in some areas such as the Czech Republic.

Reusable tape gloves are crap if you're doing anything hard (bulky, loose, poor coverage - particularly for thumbs down thin hands) , standard tape gloves work over the skin on the back of the hands if you're putting them on/off everyday for more than a couple. I was running fingerless leather gloves until I lost them somewhere along with my straw hat (marked "Ceres" on the brim). Anyone seen them? Maybe atop of Angels or on a ledge thereabouts?

In the Creek we used to say three layers on the hand, two on the fingers for protection; after that it's aid. "Some" climbers are seen with 8 or 9 layers on the fingers to make them the right size for the crack. I'd call fingerless leather aid but you can sure swim up Angels with the them.

Wendy

12-Feb-2011
8:47:03 AM

On 11/02/2011 singersmith wrote:

>
>Reusable tape gloves are crap if you're doing anything hard (bulky, loose,
>poor coverage - particularly for thumbs down thin hands) , standard tape
>gloves work over the skin on the back of the hands if you're putting them
>on/off everyday for more than a couple.

What are reusable vs standard tape gloves??? The ones I make are not bulky, loose and cover pretty much everywhere you'd want for any variation of hands, but not fists. And I happily reused the one pair for our trip to the valley and the creek with no dramas. I think the most common thing we did at the creek was 5.11 thin hands and there really was no drama about them.

>
>In the Creek we used to say three layers on the hand, two on the fingers
>for protection; after that it's aid. "Some" climbers are seen with 8 or
>9 layers on the fingers to make them the right size for the crack. I'd
>call fingerless leather aid but you can sure swim up Angels with the them.

Anthony put my pair of hand jammies over the top of his pair for one fat hand crack at the creek - i guess the only person missing out was him, as he thus failed to learn how to actually climb fat hands. I still swear jammies are terrible for climbing in - whilst people (like anthony) like them because they are thick and thus they can lob their hands in any old way with less pain, you never actually learn much about jamming because they are so insensitive. After 3 days of anthony swearing about most routes and not being able to jam anything but the perfect size crack, i made him a pair of tape gloves, and things actually got better.

gfdonc

12-Feb-2011
11:42:07 AM

Most of my attempts to reuse tape gloves end in a sticky unusable mess.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

12-Feb-2011
5:17:36 PM

On 12/02/2011 gfdonc wrote:
>Most of my attempts to reuse tape gloves end in a sticky unusable mess.

... Resist.
... No, don't go there.
~> Leave it for ww&s!

Seriously, I have re-used tape gloves many times. It would depend on how you made them to start with, but once the finger-wraps give out, then they have pretty much had it. Up until then I often replaced the wrist closure portion but the rest was fine.

I now have some yuppy hand jammies.
Have not used them enough to give a definitive report, but the occasional use they have had has been comfy.
Once before, I borrowed a mates hand jammies, and found I sweated heaps in them on a hot day, to the point that my fist slipped from optimal hold position within them.

There are 71 messages in this topic.