Washing Outdoor Holds

I recently read that climbing after rain can help with friction as some of the grease and chalk gets “washed away.” On that mode of thought in curious whether anyone  has any stories about washing holds outdoors. And a query into the ethics; is it aid? Soap and water? Will the rock forever be tainted? Is a post cleaning cleansing rite necessary? Excited for thoughts on this.

Little soap and water with a stiff bristled brush on sandstone really helps. Granite you want to go at least steel wire, diamond coated wire if you can get it. Some specialty hardware stores will carry them in heavier industrial areas. Not sure about limestone.

John Clark wrote:

Little soap and water with a stiff bristled brush on sandstone really helps. Granite you want to go at least steel wire, diamond coated wire if you can get it. Some specialty hardware stores will carry them in heavier industrial areas. Not sure about limestone.

Bad advise. Water and stiff bristled brush on sandstone will wear away the rock. Similarly no need for steel wire brush for granite or any other rock for washing away excess chalk. A bit of water and soft brush works just fine for washing away excess chalk. Emphasis on for washing away excess chalk.

Allen Sanderson wrote:

Bad advise. Water and stiff bristled brush on sandstone will wear away the rock. Similarly no need for steel wire brush for granite or any other rock for washing away excess chalk. A bit of water and soft brush works just fine for washing away excess chalk. Emphasis on for washing away excess chalk.

Advice*

Being one of those stupid old fools who climbs without chalk, and crusty cursed to those who do, spray electrical cleaner works ok. 

I have tried a fair bit of scrubbing, soap and water on granite, basalt and gneiss.  It worked OK.  Also tried spray brake and carb cleaner on some sample rocks, but they bleached the surface of the rock a little bit.  Spray electrical cleaner, a stiff but thin bristled wired brush, and a spray bottle of water, maybe a big car wash sponge  seems to work. Any spray chemicals on limestone, sandstone or any sedimentary rock, probably even some quartzites, no go.  It can react with the calcium, or other bonding minerals.  Chemists please set me straight.

Just got o say it, if you can’t climb 10a without chalk…WTF are you doing?

ryan albery wrote:

Just got o say it, if you can’t climb 10a without chalk…WTF are you doing?

Nobody can climb 10A period. Welcome to the bouldering forum, where 10A is actually hard

Grab somme CLR cleaner for limestone. Works wonders at getting off caked on layers

Allen Sanderson wrote:

Bad advise. Water and stiff bristled brush on sandstone will wear away the rock. Similarly no need for steel wire brush for granite or any other rock for washing away excess chalk. A bit of water and soft brush works just fine for washing away excess chalk. Emphasis on for washing away excess chalk.

If you’re dealing with excess chalk; I’m thinking holds that are so caked it’s tough to tell whether you’re touching rock or just a conglomerate of dead skin cells and sweaty chalk paste. Would it still be unwise/detrimental to use something more aggressive to remove some of that refuse?  Understanding that climbing is a privilege and “damaging” or altering the prehistoric state of the rocks for the sake of sending seems a bit brash, but gumming holds up with decades of shoe rubber and goo and then NOT cleaning them occasionally simply due to some sort of twisted leave no trace principle doesn’t seem to be the “ethical action” either.  

How is this thread not lit up? Because it was posted on the bouldering forum? 

I would love to clean Twisted in LCC. 

Plastic m16 brush does wonders for cleaning chalk cake. It also has little impact on the rock itself. spray with a little water or wait till a rainstorm. When cleaning, take into account the softness of the rock, however.

Sandstone at the NRG can withstand pretty aggressive brushing when wet. Joes valley on the other hand….be cautious. Never touch or brush when wet.

Granite, gneiss, etc?  Usually can take heavy brushing regardless of wetness. If it is at all friable when dry, avoid touching it when wet.

Adam R wrote:

How is this thread not lit up? Because it was posted on the bouldering forum? 

I would love to clean Twisted in LCC. 

Literally the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title lol. 

From a chemistry perspective: Crystallized chalk is a mixture of magnesium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide, using a dilute acid like vinegar will chemically dissolve the residue much better than water alone, but will not be harsh enough to damage the rock itself.

Some gyms just soak their holds in vinegar and then use water with a pressure washer. Hmmmm.

Thrutch wrote:

From a chemistry perspective: Crystallized chalk is a mixture of magnesium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide, using a dilute acid like vinegar will chemically dissolve the residue much better than water alone, but will not be harsh enough to damage the rock itself.

Yeah the local access association here did tests with diluted vinegar and had amazing results (on soft coarse grained sandstone) got some classics back to looking like unclimbed first ascents. Although in the end, they recommended plain water as good enough for most cases.

It's best to not use vinegar solutions to clean on abseil. It's still an acid and might affect your rope and harness!

Oh they did a whole article on it. Here you go.

https://acansw.org.au/cleaning-off-climbing-chalk-simple-tips/

guanella as a whole could use a powerwash, can be hard to tell whats actually a hold since the entirety of the boulders is chalk

Sam M wrote:

Oh they did a whole article on it. Here you go.

https://acansw.org.au/cleaning-off-climbing-chalk-simple-tips/

I wonder how quickly it would accumulate again after a cleaning and how much use it takes to develope a cake.

I've found good results with rubbing alcohol.

Sam M wrote:

Oh they did a whole article on it. Here you go.

https://acansw.org.au/cleaning-off-climbing-chalk-simple-tips/

The before and after photos near the bottom of this article are quite cathartic, anyone have photos of some nasty holds that cleaned up nicely? 

Bumping this with some first hand experience.

I helped at a trash & chalk clean up day at Sydney's most popular bouldering area yesterday. The rock is fairly soft sandstone.

We used plain water. The thing is, you spray it on and the chalk dissolves quickly and goes clear and the hold looks great. But the chalk is still there mixed in the water, once it dries it reappears. It's actually crazy to see, the hold can go from gym caked chalk, to totally natural looking clean wet rock, but back to white when the water dries.

The key part is to use a rag or towel to mop up the chalky water. This actually wipes the chalk off the rock.

Sam M wrote:

Bumping this with some first hand experience.

I helped at a trash & chalk clean up day at Sydney's most popular bouldering area yesterday. The rock is fairly soft sandstone.

We used plain water. The thing is, you spray it on and the chalk dissolves quickly and goes clear and the hold looks great. But the chalk is still there mixed in the water, once it dries it reappears. It's actually crazy to see, the hold can go from gym caked chalk, to totally natural looking clean wet rock, but back to white when the water dries.

The key part is to use a rag or towel to mop up the chalky water. This actually wipes the chalk off the rock.

This is some good added info! The same things happens with gym holds if you do not wash them throughly enough. They will look totally clean but then once they dry they will have a thin chalky film all over them.