What’s your favorite chalk?

Bison designs like 80% of the time. Friction labs the remainder of the time. I've found that on humid days FL works better. 

I go with the free chalk that gets automatically applied whenever I am outside, aka dirt. Seriously, I chalk up the gym but outside I found my hands are so dry from being dirty that I never dipped the chalk bag so I just stopped carrying it.

Paul Hutton wrote: Chalk is aid

Absolutely goddamned right.

Unicorn Dust!

Mark Paulson wrote: Metolius Super Chalk when it's hot, block chalk when it's not.  You gotta hand it to them- Friction Labs (and now 8aPlus) sure saw a market opportunity to take money from new climbers susceptible to flashy packaging and bogus "science".  The whole idea of "premium chalk" is laughable.

While I agree that the "science" may be bogus, in actual usage, FL chalk absolutly stays on the hands for a very noticeably longer time and requires chalking up much less than any of the non premium chalks.  I haven't tried chalk cartel, 8aPlus or other premium brands to compare, but I was very sceptical until I actually tried FL and there is no denying that it lasts much longer, now I'm not saying that it's price is justified, but it certainly is a better chalk.

Aaron Nash wrote: Just buy whatever is cheapest. Blocks, bags, whatever. It's chalk ffs.

Agreed. Is there any actual test data out there that shows that this "unicorn dust" or whatever actually yields more friction? I'm curious

idk the diff in ingredients if any (haven't looked - don't care).. it's just so fine it really coats your hands.. you notice the diff immediately dipping into it - compared to cheaper chalks. So visibly obvious. idk if the other chalk would be the same if you mashed it around enough to grind all the chunks out.. but is it really worth the time and effort even if it was? spolier: not to me

I bought a case(24 lbs) of the Frank Endo stuff years ago and shrunk wrap most of it. I usually just take a brick and pulverizes it and put it into an old Nalgene water bottle.

Ken Noyce wrote:

While I agree that the "science" may be bogus, in actual usage, FL chalk absolutly stays on the hands for a very noticeably longer time and requires chalking up much less than any of the non premium chalks.  I haven't tried chalk cartel, 8aPlus or other premium brands to compare, but I was very sceptical until I actually tried FL and there is no denying that it lasts much longer, now I'm not saying that it's price is justified, but it certainly is a better chalk.

i had some chalk i thought was FL (after being a user of FL for a while) i kept wondering why y chalk ball kept making ym hands soupy, come to find out a friend had replace my loose chalk with Bison (which i thought would be far more premium thank white gold) so by my own accidental blind study, FL is still superior. I have INCREDIBLY SWEATY hands and refuse to use anhydrate or whatever that is, except occasional in a rhino skin product.

I prefer really fine chalk that is cheap. Like Bison, or Trango Gunpowder.

I’ve found that the white kind works pretty good 

I use leftover cocaine.

I'll put another vote in for Zen Lizard. I love that stuff.

Metolius chalk is nice and fine and feels as good as Unicorn Dust to me. I usually fill my bucket with whatever I can scavenge from the many chalk bags in my gym's lost and found, creating a fine cuvée.

The difference between Metolious and Friction Labs is like night and day for me.  My hands are on the damper side.  With FL I don't have to chalk up nearly as much and that often makes a huge difference when cruxin' nawmean.

Sam Deshler wrote: The difference between Metolious and Friction Labs is like night and day for me.  My hands are on the damper side.  With FL I don't have to chalk up nearly as much and that often makes a huge difference when cruxin' nawmean.

Huh, well you do boulder a lot harder than me so I’ll take your word for it. I’m pretty sweaty at all times, but maybe the difference is more noticeable when your cruxin on a gnarly v8.

Sam Cieply wrote:

Huh, well you do boulder a lot harder than me so I’ll take your word for it. I’m pretty sweaty at all times, but maybe the difference is more noticeable when your cruxin on a gnarly v8.

Doesn't matter the grade brother, cruxin' is cruxin'!

I've tried all of these, and like them in descending order from: FL/Chalk Cartel/Flashed > Camp/BD/Metolius Blocks > Evolv/Endo > Chalkness Monster/Bison >>>>>: Metolius Super Chalk (drying agent splits the shit out of my skin). I only buy BD chalk but am psyched to get a sample from FL or Chalk Cartel  

Sam Deshler wrote: The difference between Metolious and Friction Labs is like night and day for me.  My hands are on the damper side.  With FL I don't have to chalk up nearly as much and that often makes a huge difference when cruxin' nawmean.

Yep, Metolius used to be my go to chalk, it can't even come close to comparing to Friction Labs.

My favorite combo is Rhino Performance spray plus Black Diamond White Gold. I've used Friction Labs a lot in the past and have done comparisons with other chalks and the only difference I ever noticed is FL might stick to my skin slightly better. I didn't notice any difference in performance when climbing routes and boulders.

Friction Labs is the best, it really did last longer and stayed on my hands longer.   But it comes at a high cost.

If I were just bouldering or doing limit climbing it would be my go to. However I have been doing much more alpine trips where my chalk may get dumped out or totally soaked from weather.  My Go to chalk for every day fun is Metolius, I just recently got a 15Oz bag for around $10.