Ban white chalk on public lands!

Eli Buzzell wrote:I say we ban not using chalk. Think of how beautiful all the cliffs would be if they were painted entirely white like your nice suburban picket-fence.

Not sure who thats directed at but I left the burbs as soon as I was able (22). I would support the idea of develpng a colorless substance to dry hands. I also use a ball or put only just enough in my bag so it doesn't dump out everywhere. Perhapse it should also be a local or style issue much the same way FA ethics for a given area are observed.

Guy Keesee wrote:...go and try to hold on when the going gets hard, on a hot day. Chalk also acts like a cushion under ones fingers on very small holds. These benefits really become apparent as the grades of rockclimbing increase...

I also agree with this kind of. What I mean is there seems to be an intangble benifit to chalk. I dont know if its incresed surface contact or what but sweat or no chalk makes my hands stick to smaller and or rounder features. Again I think there is more to this effect than simply having dry skin.

topher donahue wrote:There was a colored chalk experiment back in the late 80s/early 90s. There were two problems - Instead of matching the color of the rock, the chalk ended up just looking like paint and being just as obvious as white chalk. Crags started looking like a kindergarten art class. The biggest problem was that the dyes used to color the chalk didn't wash off as easily as white chalk and built up on the holds far worse, filling in the texture of the holds and making them slimy and gross. Rather than Leave No Trace, colored chalk ended up being just a more colorful, lasting trace.

Topher has it correct, the long ago experiment did not come out as folks hoped. IIRC places Hueco Tanks started off requiring colored chalk and found it was worse than white chalk.

gription wrote: ^^^^^ This. Chalk is an issue for some but not most. And it is way less of an issue that say thinks like trampling vegitation, litering, defication,...etc

Certainly, less of an issue than spelling...

Greg Petliski wrote: Since when does difficulty have anything to do with ethics? I may be new to being roped up, but Ive been tramping around the mountains for quite a while. !

Difficulty does not, experience does, you lack experience so you cannot understand climbing something difficult, and this conversation is over your head. You don't understand friction because you have never climbed harder than 6a and sport climbing doesn't begin until the 7's. If you push yourself in this endeavor for the next five years you will become a competent climber and your understanding of the situation will improve. As of now you are like a fantasy football player trying to tell a NFL football team about football ethics. Yes, experience and understanding are prerequisite, although there are plenty of weak old men on this site would would love for that not to be true, so in that sense, your in good company,

Welcome to Mountain-project, where the weakest among us have the loudest voices!

Well stated JQ.

gription wrote: Not sure who thats directed at but I left the burbs as soon as I was able (22). I would support the idea of develpng a colorless substance to dry hands. I also use a ball or put only just enough in my bag so it doesn't dump out everywhere. Perhapse it should also be a local or style issue much the same way FA ethics for a given area are observed.

Directed nowhere other than the ridiculous nature of this thread.

C'mon, this thread isn't ridiculous... I mean Tommy would have still been able to free the dawn wall if they had bags of dirt to rub on their hands and someone to bring them clean pants to wipe the sweat on.

We have to take this man seriously.

Matt Stroebel wrote:... We have to take this man seriously.

Only retro bolters should be allowed to use hand chalk.

Bomb the shit out of foreign countries, trash the atmosphere, deforest and 'develop' huge amounts of land domestically...And we're having a conversation about the impact of climbers smearing a few grams of one rock type on a few hundred tonnes of another rock type?

Yeah....I confess I'm finding it hard to care too much about my scattering of chalk around the country side.

r m wrote:Bomb the ...

I useta be a RM.

There are certain parts of Germany that do not allow you to use chalk.

You screwed up and left a trace here. I recommend you delete your posts and then account.

Brent Butcher wrote:There are certain parts of Germany that do not allow you to use chalk.

Probably the same places that do not allow you to use shoes or metal pro?

gription wrote: I also agree with this kind of. What I mean is there seems to be an intangble benifit to chalk. I dont know if its incresed surface contact or what but sweat or no chalk makes my hands stick to smaller and or rounder features. Again I think there is more to this effect than simply having dry skin.

Studies have found that chalk increases static friction a small amount.

All I have to say is if my greasy clam hands didn't have chalk and you tried to pull on a sloper after me, good luck!

But as in any case less is more. I was scratching my head when I saw foot holds chalked on Hobbit Hole in Pawtuckaway.. That seemed very odd to me.

He flashed the same route twice. He's better than all of us. He probably did it without chalk too. Damn!

Evan V wrote:All I have to say is if my greasy clam hands didn't have chalk and you tried to pull on a sloper after me, good luck! But as in any case less is more. I was scratching my head when I saw foot holds chalked on Hobbit Hole in Pawtuckaway.. That seemed very odd to me.

Actually that is hilarious, it's not like there are any foot holds in Pawtuckaway anyway.

I remember a number of years ago at one of my local crags there was a guy that didn't believe in the use of chalk. He used to always say if you can't do the climb without chalk you shouldn't be doing it. Well one day this guy was working on one of the test pieces at the crag that a friend of mine had put up. This climb is about 30 feet and is pretty much hard boulder moves the whole way. After the guy gave up, my friend went and flashed it wearing a pair of flip flops. He then told the kid if he need climbing shoes to do the climb you shouldn't be doing the climb. The kid never gave us a hard time about using chalk after that.

A few years later this guy had started was using chalk. Not sure if he finally went through puberty and started sweating or if he found some other advantage to chalk use.

Haha, c'mon Eli, there are foot holds. They are those super slippery polished things. That first foot hold on The Roof is the best!

Why not just buy rock colored chalk?? Isnt crazy obvious on the rocks.

Purchalk makes them for all rock types..

onsightgear.com/collections…