Magnesia

Choose your Climbing Magnesia from the best brands - Express delivery (More details)
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Choosing your chalk

When climbing or mountaineering, the use of chalk is essential. It's not uncommon for hands to become damp from physical exertion or heat, resulting in a loss of grip and making progress extremely difficult. This is where magnesia comes in. Magnesia, which is mainly composed of magnesium carbonate, sometimes combined with silica, plays a crucial role. It absorbs moisture from your hands, giving you the grip you need to hold on to your holds. By applying magnesium to your hands, you improve your grip and boost your confidence while climbing.

Magnesia powder

Magnesia is widely appreciated by climbing and mountaineering enthusiasts. It is generally sold in large bags and can then be easily transported in a small bag specially designed for the purpose. Magnesia bags, whether rectangular or cylindrical, are attached at the waist and feature a drawstring for easy opening and closing. It's best to opt for a chalk bag that allows you to fully immerse your hand, making it easy to apply chalk even when you're in the middle of a climb. These chalk bags offer you convenience and accessibility for reapplying chalk without difficulty during your activity.

Liquid chalk

Liquid chalk is classic chalk to which alcohol has been added. A sufficient quantity is placed in the palm of the hand and then spread over the entire palm, as if you were washing your hands with soap. Within seconds, the alcohol evaporates, leaving only the magnesia powder. There are several advantages to using liquid magnesia when climbing, especially indoors. It's less volatile, so you don't have to climb in a cloud of powder.

However, for outdoor climbing sessions where you're in direct contact with the rock for long hours, it's better to opt for powdered magnesia. You'll be able to wick moisture away from your hands by dipping them in turn into your chalk bag. It's important to note that opening a liquid chalk bag requires the use of both hands, unlike powdered chalk. What's more, using liquid chalk can lead to more minor injuries. In fact, its alcohol concentration dries out the skin and makes it more fragile, which can lead to the appearance of small cracks in finger joints after intense effort.

Magnesia powder controversial?

Despite its widespread use by many climbers, powdered magnesia is coming in for increasing criticism, particularly when used indoors. A simple visit to a climbing gym shows just how quickly powdered magnesia can fill the air. Although magnesium carbonate presents no health hazard, it can obstruct the respiratory tract with its extremely fine particles. What's more, some magnesias used for climbing or mountaineering contain a small proportion of silica, a substance that can have adverse health effects if its concentration exceeds 1% in the powder's composition.

Choosing powdered magnesia guarantees a good grip even when you're several meters off the ground, but it also leaves a lot of residue on your holds. This is why many bouldering gyms have simply decided to ban its use. So, before choosing your climbing chalk, it's essential to check with the establishment you're visiting to find out their rules and recommendations.

The "pof"?

Powdered magnesia is also criticized in the wild, where it leaves visible traces of climbers' passage and spoils the beauty of climbing and mountaineering sites. What's more, it's difficult to know what long-term damage it can do to rock. That's why climbers who enjoy outdoor spaces and bouldering are turning to an alternative called "pof" or rosin. These are pine resin crystals encased in a cloth. Tapping the pof on areas of the rock where you want to improve grip can achieve the same effect. This practice is widespread in climbing areas such as the Fontainebleau forest.
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