MY TAPE GLOVES SUCK

Hey guys. I've just in the past couple of years I have gotten really into crack climbing. Specifically desert splitters. I frequent Indian Creek now, and living is Western CO there is much crack to be had.

My number one problem is that I use so much friggin tape. The reason being is that I never want to reuse my tape gloves. I make them, spend a good amount of time trying to make them perfect, and I am typically as meticulous as I can be. The issue is that no matter what I do, they always roll up on me when I'm jamming hands. It's difficult to explain but the side that is parallel to my fingers on the outside of the back of my palm, will roll on me, and create this weird feeling bulge or bump. I want to know how I avoid this. I've tried wrapping the tape back around the end of my gloves, and anything else I can think of. I always have this problem. How do I avoid it?

Also, it might be helpful to explain how I construct my gloves. I take one strip and put it on the back of my knuckles, where I tend to get a lot of gobies. then I use 3 strips going from there down to the bottom of my wrist to cover the rest of my hand. And then, to secure it I wrap one strip from my wrist up around my pointer finger, and back to my wrist. I do the same with my pinky finger, and then I tie it all together with a couple wraps around my wrist.

please tell me if I need to change how I tape my hands at all to avoid my gloves rolling up on me! Or maybe a sweet hint to avoid this. Thanks All!

+1 for the Steph meth.

What about using Ocun Crack Gloves?

Is that better than Walter White's shiet?!?^^^

3 options:

1 Go bareback. It's a good kind of pain
2 Get a pare of hand jammies or other reusable tape gloves
3 Tape better

Also, get some tincture of benzoin. It helps the tape stick to your hands better and also has other uses, such as treating blisters on trails.

I like Steph's method. It's simple, easy, and quick. Never got into the reusable tape glove thing, as I tend to wreck mine by the end of a session. Tape is cheap.

I do a horseshoe strip around each finger, a wrap around the knuckles on the dorsum of your hand, and then another reinforcing strap over everything at the wrist. Be patient, make sure everything lies flat, and trim up the edges at the wrist when you're done. You can re-use by cutting the wrist strap on the palm side of your hand and sliding the whole thing off your fingers. I've had a pair last a whole week at the Creek.

I've been crack climbing for about five years now and found the method below to work quite well. It's simple, durable, and can be done without using much tape.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFJ8…

Graham Johnson wrote:What about using Ocun Crack Gloves?

This is my preferred solution.

Graham Johnson wrote:What about using Ocun Crack Gloves?

I tried these the other day. I have very average size hands.

For cracks less than tight 2's, they were terrible. I knew they would screw up the fit but I was shocked as to how much.

For cracks of solid 2 (or 3 friend) and larger, they were very nice. I didn't expect to like them that much but I did.

Since the vast majority of my crack climbing is bare handed and 3's are annoying, I could see getting a pair to go into my pack just for those sizes.

Back to the OP, experiment. Use pretape spray. Tape your thumb and thumb meat before the rest of your hand. Try to keep all areas down to 2 layers of tape. Flex your hand repeatedly while taping to keep it from getting too tight. Tape from strips, not directly off the roll. Don't worry about going through lots of tape, any worthwhile tape job is not reusable.

Reusable tape gloves are really only useful for for wide hand cracks and the wider stuff unless you have the hands of a 10 year old. If you do any serious hand cramming your going to experience the dreaded tape roll or you are just making the climbing a lot harder then it needs to be.

Use euro tape and keep the tape thin, use the power x method similar to Stephs or a variation. The only people that use reusable tape gloves at Indian Creek are newbs or people that don't climb anything smaller than #2 camalots.

The other option is to not tape and develop good technique and toughen the back of your hands like leather. However this usually ends badly for those new to crack climbing and you end up with lots of gobies and scar tissue.

I do what Tom Randall does
vimeo.com/40733001
My gloves are fucking monsters though super thick i put on lots of base bits of tape and after the first use i will turn them inside out and tape the inside, they are beasts and handle the super shart cheese grater granite of my local climbing well.

Tape is aid. In all seriousness, Jammie are th shit except for thin hands. I only tape for thin hands using. Boxer wrap with tincture of benzoine.

Are there any good gloves out there besides tape? I can see the draw to tape being good friction.

I like these crack gloves:
Obrworks gloves

Rob Warden, Space Lizard wrote:Tape is aid. In all seriousness, Jammie are th shit except for thin hands. I only tape for thin hands using. Boxer wrap with tincture of benzoine.

By that logic, so are shoes.

Ted Pinson wrote: By that logic, so are shoes.

Whoosh...

Outdoor Research's new crack gloves are awesome, they hold up well too now that they stitch the wrists. I got some for using at the gym as they're quicker to put on them tape, tried them outside once and haven't gone back to tape since. Bonus is they're so light I'll clip'em to me harness on multi's in case you need them, I've even put them on mid-pitch before at a stance.
outdoorresearch.com/en/crac…

Best thing about the OR gloves is they are only a bit thicker than tape, so they don't get in the way for thin hands cracks like Hand Jammies, Ocuns and Singing Rocks do... ymmv

yeah.. I have seen those OR gloves but I haven't heard too much about them yet. I'm glad you guys like them, maybe I'll give them a try. I just don't know too many other people that have them either so I have skeptical.

Nicholas King 1 wrote:yeah.. I have seen those OR gloves but I haven't heard too much about them yet. I'm glad you guys like them, maybe I'll give them a try. I just don't know too many other people that have them either so I have skeptical.

My partner tried the OR gloves last season after wearing out the velcro on ocuns, he was much happier with the thinner profile of the OR gloves.

I've been doing most of my cragging on finer grained granite w/o gloves or tape. Did a multi-pitch last week that has two LONG stellar hand crack pitches, used the ocun gloves on the first pitch that is mostly #2 and they were great. On the second pitch that is mostly #1 I ended up taking them off despite the rough texture. I felt much more secure being able to get more of my hand in like I do cragging. I think that I will be going to the OR glove for alpine now also.

Those ocuns are really nice on #3 size though.