CLIMBING ETHICS - BRUSH YOUR HOLDS

Climbers have been using brushes of all kinds to clean off holds and improve friction for ages. It all started out with simple repurposed toothbrushes, but today many types of bouldering brushes exist.

We chose to offer a simple natural boar-hair brush with a wooden handle because that aligns best with our environmental principles. We prefer not to use plastic if we don’t have to.

At Chalk Rebels we strongly believe that chalk belongs on your fingers, not the holds. Excess chalk on holds reduces friction, is ugly, and is a way of cheating by “showing the way” on onsight attempts.

With the popularity of bouldering, it has become more important than ever to brush your holds. In high-trafficked bouldering gyms, holds tend to become greasy with a glossy residue of skin, chalk, and rubber.

Don’t be that climber who greases up the holds without consideration for others in the gym.

Outdoors there are many good reasons to brush as well. Sometimes a little dirt and grime needs to be brushed off the holds before an attempt. And if you’re going to use tick-marks please brush them away before you go.

There are also some problems that will simply never see water. Think steep overhangs. Those never get cleaned naturally and unless you want those problems to turn into ugly messes of chalk residue, it pays off to brush with a little bit of water at the end of the day.