Best skin salve

Anyone have any skin salve recommendations? I have tried a handful of brands but haven’t noticed anything working better than others. I have pretty soft skin that gets chewed up while crack climbing (see photos). I often find that my skin is the limiting factor for how many days on I can climb on extended trips 

If you've got soft skin then goopy salves are the opposite of what you want. Get some Rhino Skin Dry and use it to toughen up your skin a bit. And maybe invest in a roll of tape while you're at it!

http://www.solmountainfarm.com/store/p5/cbd-salve.html

My job is basically cleaning and this stuff has replaced climb on bar for me. Grown and made in Colorado by climbers

Super Salve...in my limited experience

Wow those are torn up. The menthol in rhino repair will make them feel so much better 

I use the Okeeffe's Working Hands when my skin gets torn up like that. I have had great results from it but it makes your skin feel pretty greasy for a bit. In my experience the greasiness is well worth how good it works.

Nomadic Naturals makes a great balm/tip regenerator salve. Also very not corporate to support, which is nice.

Crack gloves for the back of your hand.

To echo the others here, either get better crack technique or get some tape. If you climb enough crack, eventually the skin on your hands will get toughened up. 

I like Burts Hand Salve. I find that your hands aren't greasy the next morning.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm skeptical about salves that mention being "hydrating" since my skin is already so soft. Does anyone with experience know if antihydral work for toughening up skin or is purely to reduce sweat?

Bug Boy wrote:

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm skeptical about salves that mention being "hydrating" since my skin is already so soft. Does anyone with experience know if antihydral work for toughening up skin or is purely to reduce sweat?

Antihydrol is for both, but really be careful with that stuff. If you do decide to go that route I recommend rhino performance cream. It has smaller quantities of the actual antihydrol in it. 

Second the Rhino Performance suggestion to toughen up skin. 

I tried the Rhino Repair once, but it felt like a really expensive lotion. I like the Joshua Tree Salve. It's also expensive, but keeps my hands greasy for a while and seems to help create calluses. 

Climb skin from Spain. Distribution is through friction labs I believe.

Best for quick absorption and non greasy feel 1/2 hour after application. 

Put some Bag Balm on it.

I've had a good result with antihydral after about a month of using it (sparingly). My tips would often be quite raw after just a day of climbing, and I realized recently that having constantly wet hands isn't great for callus development.

Your skin looks incredibly abused, and I would wait to heal before trying climbing much of anything. How are your calluses before you destroy them? Good hand health is similar to the rest of your body; too much stress at once and it'll react poorly, and having a good base is the really important for trips.

As far as the back of your hands, climb easier hand cracks or wear tape if you want to climb harder. Scar tissue is really bad at healing, and if you don't have the technique to jam well, you'll mess up your hands. I learned without jammies or tape and would recommend that style, but if your hands are getting that messed up regularly, you really should protect them.

Cherokee Nunes wrote:

EDIT:  Bag Balm is meant to rub on udders of milk cows.

You toughen up the hands for crack climbing via good technique. Hah!

You put the bag balm on it to help heal the wounds.

Gneiss Skin is the best I’ve tried. The guy who owns the company knows his stuff and collects/grows a lot of the botanicals in it locally.

https://gneisskin.com/

Joshua Tree Salve, and Jojoba Oil for me.