Climbing Chalk is Just Chalk, Right?

Anyone looking to get into the extreme world of rock climbing will probably notice a rather curious-looking bag on the back of anyone brave enough to scale a vertical rock wall. Inside that bag is magnesium carbonate or as climbers simply call chalk. This fluffy white powder removes sweat from the climber’s hands and fingers allowing for a better grip when pulling down on ledges the size of credit cards. 

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However, not all chalk is made equally. As a climber myself, I go through mountains of the stuff and my general go-to brand is FrictionLabs Unicorn Dust. Unfortunately, the last time I went to buy a new bag, my local gear shop was completely sold out. While perusing the various options, with names like Gorilla Grip, Bam Bam, and Gunpowder, I came across Black Diamond’s White Gold bag of standard chalk. This seemed like a good deal at only $6.95 for 100 grams. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to test it out. The next time I went out for a day at my local bouldering area, I was staring down my climbing project in high hopes that this chalk would finally allow me to climb the rock. Unfortunately, as I ripped open the new bag and dipped my hands into it, that chalk turned out to be white pyrite or quite simply fool’s gold. 

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Black Diamond’s white gold chalk contained far too many chunks of unground chalk and had this rather odd caking feeling on my hands. It could barely remove any sweat or moisture. It quickly fell off my hands and left a slimy layer of what felt like pancake batter on my fingers. 

Refusing to give up, I still attempted to climb my project with failing attempt after failing attempt. Black Diamond’s chalk wouldn’t stay long enough on my fingers to make the powerful and balance moves I needed to make. Every time I fell off the move I had made a thousand times before I was forced to wipe the slimy chalk layer off my hands just to try and apply a more robust layer only to fall a move sooner than before. 

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Clearly, the savings on this bag of chalk was not worth the squeeze, and I wasted a day of late-season climbing. The next day I headed back to the gear shop with my complaints and to grab a bag of hopefully usable chalk. This time I took the proper time to look at a full list of ingredients and utilize a large number of forums to narrow my selection down to a handful of options. The last piece of evidence I was looking for was the actual feel. Thankfully, the gear shop had numerous samples I could test out on their hangboard and in-shop training area. After testing out a few brands 8b+ crushed chalk at $8.95 for 100 grams is my new go-to chalk whenever the unicorn dust seems to fly off the shelf.

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