Friction is your best friend!

Climbing is a sport where you fight gravity with a dear friend; friction. This blog post examines friction and answers whether there is anything you can do to get more and better friction?

Use chalk
chalk is our friend. chalk basically has two functions:
1. To dry out the fingers. The lime is very dry and acts as a buffer for your sweat production. It takes some time to sweat through the lime on your fingers and therefore you buy some time where you don't have sweaty palms and fingers.
2. The lime is a bit rough in structure and creates additional friction between your skin and the climbing holds. As a starting point, chalk should be coarse-grained. The coarser the grain, the better the friction.

Remember to brush the grips
Friction is not only a result of having chalk on your fingers, it is also something that is alleviated by the rough sandpaper-like texture of the climbing holds. Climbing holds gradually become more saturated with chalk as they are climbed on. It can be a great advantage to brush the grips clean of chalk to get back down to the rough texture of the climbing holds. It's also good practice to brush the holds before and after your session so we can all enjoy the good friction and climb our projects.

Strategic chalking
Ok, there is no such thing as strategic chalking, but if we use it enough, it will become a thing. If your fingers sweat a lot, it can be a good idea to keep your fingertips dry by liming a little bit between attempts. When you're ready to climb again, chalk as usual. This can keep your fingers that little bit drier, allowing you to achieve your climbing dreams.

May friction be with you!