Thursday, March 12, 2009

Long Lasting Skin Technique

With gritty granite, sandpaper sandstone and razor sharp limestone, our skin is always an issue. Unless you were blessed with rock hard indestructable skin, you may find climbing days are cut short due to flappers, raw tips or jug rash. Over the past few years I have picked up tricks and advice from climbers all over North America and I have come up with a perfect skin saving routine. Some may call it a little obsessive, but I am perfectly okey with being OCD over my skin. Nothing sucks more than your hands being completely raw, but you still want to climb. Try it out, and hopefully it will allow everyone that extra burn on their project or at least more enjoyable climbing days.

Leslie's Mutant Skin Growth Technique:


Step 1: Wash hands with soap and water and let dry


Step 2: File down callouses and tips. This step is an art that you will perfect over time. The idea is that by filing down your tips it will enhance new skin growth and by filing down your callouses it will prevent them from catching and ripping. Flapper prevention. Just purchase any file and focus on filing down hands until they are smooth, with no big bumps or flaps. If your tips are super raw, then file them down smooth too.


Step 3: Rubbing alcohol. This stuff is awesome. It cleans all the little micro cuts, stops sweaty palms (when you are obsessing over your proj) and it also hardens the skin. There is actually a warning on the bottle that says, "Excessive use will harden the skin".


Step 4: Joshua Tree Climb Salve. This step needs to be done before bed. You lather on a super generous layer of J-tree all over your hands, and pack it into any holes or flaps. Let the "magic sauce" soak on your hands all night while you sleep. www.jtreelife.com


Step 5: Wake up with happy skin and crush the proj!






Try it out, but be prepared to be mocked for being an obsessive rock climber.

3 comments:

  1. Leslie, I may be just as obsessed as you. Since I only boulder my skin issues are usually

    a) an acute tear or break through on a tip from a particular spike or crystal on a small crimp or

    b) wear through to the blood from some slopers or

    c) extreme painfully dry hands from chalk when constantly at the gym.

    Here's how I treat my skin:

    When bouldering outside you have time to sit and rest between attempts. During these breaks I am always sanding my tips with sandpaper. I am doing this to get rid of tiny pieces of dead skin that will potentially turn into flappers.

    After I'm done climbing for the day I wash my hands. Once I crawl into my tent for the night I put on a) Gylsomed ($10 CAD) or b) Body Shop Extreme Hemp Hand cream (twice the price). I put on SOOOooo much that my hands are goopy with it. I try to zip into my bag touching as little as possible. The more you put on the better. This will really help build more skin.

    In Sept 2008 I switched from boulering with Flashed Chalk to Metolius Super Chalk. I found that I was having more success with Super Chalk at the time. I could spend less time managing the amount on my tips and the amount on the rock or whatever.

    But, when training in the gym the Super Chalk is just waaay too dry. My hands would ache and burn even when applying cream before bed. So, as a result I am not using Flashed chalk in the gym and when training and saving Metolius Super Chalk when climbing outside.

    I was talking to Brian Camp, Jamie Emerson and Andre DeFelice in Hueco and they said that CAMP chalk (Italian) is the best chalk they've used - but that is another discussion...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Being a father of three breast-fed children, my wife discovered Lansinoh brand Lanolin with the first child. Yes this stuff is for nipples; it soothes heals and protects dry and cracked skin, and is safe for the baby. It is a secretion from a sheeps skin that is 100% medical grade, it helps them shed water off their wool. With that being said, this stuff works amazingly well in healing rashed out climber skin, gobbies and flappers. It is my secret weapon of choice and though friends give me a hard time about my beloved' nipple cream', i have made believers out of nearly all of them. My method is nearly the same as yours except my magic sauce is lanolin. Give it a try, you might be a believer too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thats helarious that you brought up lanolin. I use it all the time for chapped lips and it has been an ever running joke amongst my friends. "Hey can I use some nipple cream?". But seriously, it definitely works if you have super chapped lips, and I dont doubt its powers for other stuff too.

    ReplyDelete