Crack Gloves and Technique

I believe that a beginning crack climber should avoid crack gloves. They prevent you from learning proper jamming technique. With gloves you will not learn how to set a proper jam, rotate/adjust a jam, properly vary jamming pressure, etc. If using gloves as a beginner you will probably develop bad habits like setting/adjusting an engaged jam, sliding a jam, or jamming carelessly when there is a better jam available. 

Some people become so immediately threatened when their gloves aren't available. "Tape them or scrape them!". But if you know how to climb without gloves, you know how to climb with them, and this is not true in reverse. Please learn how to jam, and THEN bring your gloves to the game if you feel that you need to. 

TLDR: There is a time and place for gloves, but if your time is always and your place is everywhere, you'll never learn to climb cracks for what they are.

Pic of climbers hands after raw dogging 8 pitches of granite 5.11, 20 pitches of 5.10 and 4 pitches of 5.8/5.9 in a day. 

Nice.

Cory N wrote:

Nice.

the physics don't add up.

Dude, on the other hand, if you wear gloves while learning you save yourself from having really bad scar tissues (aka Gobies!).  And then, even once you become a 5.9+ Crack master like myself, you still need gloves because the scar tissue is weak.

So maybe learn a bit with gloves, and then transition out of it.

Pics for my h8ers

Oh how I yearn for the harsh caress of rock on skin with nothing in between to take away the intimacy. I will never be able to truly commune with the earth in the same way now that I have these gobies.  But it was through the acquisition of the gobies that my appreciation has grown into what is today. The duality of life is present even here. 

I can appreciate the spirit of the message here. I wouldn't go as far as to say avoid hand protection entirely (unless you're on granite only), but I agree with you that crack gloves can contribute to bad habits. Jamming on granite tends to be a little more friendly on the skin vs. rock like you find at say, Joshua Tree. In any event, my opinion is that it's worth going with thin protection like tape because you can find a better middle ground between being able to feel the jam and the impact that small modifications make vs. something thick like Ocun gloves where you can practically hammer a fist into a crack mindlessly and not get any tactile feedback on it.

I started with the old model (thick) Ocun gloves as a beginner, then went to the thinner version, and quickly moved on to a single layer of tape which is my preference now. I'm only a couple years in so I do hope to eventually be able to go totally barehanded like Where's Walden is describing, but these hands just ain't tough enough yet nor is my technique at that level of proficiency 

Strong disagree. Crack gloves allow you to trial and error technique without it being incredibly painful. Especially if you are learning on cracks in a gym (where jams are more painful). My crack climbing excelled exponentially once I started using gloves in the gym. The shitty plastic stopped hurting my hands and I was able to run laps to dial technique. This same idea applies if the rock is anything like jtree or vedauwoo. 

Nowadays, I mostly climb without gloves, but they are still nice if you are crack climbing at your limit. 

I also strongly disagree. Crack climbing is so fucking painful when you're learning. I use gloves and tape way less now than when I was learning. I still put em on when I'm doing something hard. 

I resonate with the spirit behind the OP's message here, but wouldn't go so far as a blanket prohibition.

Using some hand protection enables beginners to attain the necessary mileage -- getting heavy gobies on the first day of their first Creek trip will keep them from learning.

I say beginners would benefit from a selective use of crack gloves or thin tape, and then occasionally going bare-knuckle so that the rock can provide more immediate feedback on their technique.

As a parallel, I wouldn't advocate that beginners learn to foot jam in Moccs. Strap on those tree-lasted Air Tommy's and ease yourself into the pain of foot jamming.

When I learned to jam in 2012, my trad mentors were righteously crusty aid climbers who hardly ever freed above 5.8. So naturally, they fed me the "tape is aid" hyperbole and I swallowed it. My first attempt at desert crack climbing was eighty feet of steep blue Camalots (WHJ at CW [RIP] for my 970 friends). I shredded my #1-sized hands and have dealt with the ensuing weak scar tissue ever since. To this day, I wish I had taped.

Props to the OP for climbing a long route without hand protection. He, along with Honnold and the other bareknucklers, have excellent technique. To the beginners reading this, I would advise the course of moderation.

+1 for what Fritz says above. 

Also… for those of us moving into our… uh… sunset years, the skin on the back of our hands starts to turn into cellophane, so crack gloves or tape are a near necessity—speaking for myself anyway. When I was 18, though, we “didn’t need no stinkin’’ tape!”

P. S. To the OP: Ever climb at the Voo?

I get what you're getting at. I'll be doing some kind of gloves, even if it's just tape, for laps in the gym at least. Granite's probably nice enough it's not needed, but damn the gym cracks are so rough.

Daniel Joder wrote:

P. S. To the OP: Ever climb at the Voo?

I climbed for many years without gloves at the Woo. 

The last few years, I've used gloves at the Woo. 

I still can't climb cracks at the Woo. 

What should I doo?

Is this where we say cool story, bro? Asking for a fiend. That’s right.

Full disclosure, I usually only climb cracks with hand condoms and a pair of board lasted Air Tommies. I like the instantaneous feedback of shredding my flesh into a weeping meat sore as much as the next climber but my work requires a less combative look.

WW has a point, to a point. I went through a couple tape, no tape, tape, no tape phases, in that order. When I was doing a lot of the good Yosemite classics for the first time, I hamburged the backs of my hands more than once, I'm afraid. It became an issue at work, I was called out on it, like "wtf is going on with your hands?" kind of called out.

I got better by climbing with a guy who really never taped and never bled either, so over the course of a few hundred pitches I slowly got better. Then later, out of shape, back on with the tape, for all the right reasons.   Not bleeding became more important than good style. Some climbers never stray from that POV, ever. It's cool, all good.

Where's Walden wrote:

I believe that a beginning crack climber should avoid shoes.

They prevent you from learning proper jamming technique. With shoes you will not learn how to set a proper jam, rotate/adjust a jam, properly vary jamming pressure, etc. If using shoes as a beginner you will probably develop bad habits like setting/adjusting an engaged jam, sliding a jam, or jamming carelessly when there is a better jam available.

Some people become so immediately threatened when their shoes aren't available. "Tape them or scrape them!". But if you know how to climb without shoes, you know how to climb with them, and this is not true in reverse. Please learn how to jam, and THEN bring your shoes to the game if you feel that you need to. 

Pic of climbers feet after raw dogging 8 pitches of granite 5.11, 20 pitches of 5.10 and 4 pitches of 5.8/5.9 in a day.

 

Matt N wrote:

Nice. I haven't seen the movie but now that you mention it I'm sure there is loads of sweet footage of him heroically raw dogging the granite. 

Now to contribute something valuable. I started crack climbing in the gym and then at the Voo. Neither of those places are good to climb without tape. I taped for a while and then I bought some gloves. I used the gloves at the gym and used tape outside. At this point I climb almost 100% wingate and really prefer nothing on my hands. A few circumstances that I have found require tape for me are, hand/fist stacks, and fist stacks.

Below is the United States of Gobie that I got from steep fist stacks in wingate.

This is really an issue to be concerned about?  Wear gloves, don't wear gloves. Who cares?

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

This is really an issue to be concerned about?  Wear gloves, don't wear gloves. Who cares?

I don’t know, the guy posting pics of his dick, I mean, hands after “raw dogging” all day?

I'm a newer trad climber in the Red. I wear crack gloves because they make crack climbing more enjoyable. It's nice being able to make it to the top of the pitch without bleeding. Maybe it's the rock, or my technique, or my skin. IDK. I could see the benefit of taping instead of using crack gloves though. I have the thinner Ocun gloves and they are still a little bit thick and can make things more difficult on thin hands cracks.

Where's Walden wrote:

I believe that a beginning crack climber should avoid crack gloves. They prevent you from learning proper jamming technique. With gloves you will not learn how to set a proper jam, rotate/adjust a jam, properly vary jamming pressure, etc. If using gloves as a beginner you will probably develop bad habits like setting/adjusting an engaged jam, sliding a jam, or jamming carelessly when there is a better jam available. 

Some people become so immediately threatened when their gloves aren't available. "Tape them or scrape them!". But if you know how to climb without gloves, you know how to climb with them, and this is not true in reverse. Please learn how to jam, and THEN bring your gloves to the game if you feel that you need to. 

Pic of climbers hands after raw dogging 8 pitches of granite 5.11, 20 pitches of 5.10 and 4 pitches of 5.8/5.9 in a day. 

I defy you to have hands like that after a similar day at Vedauwoo (so, lower the grade by a little, and double the pitch count).

I get where you're coming from. I honestly haven't taped up since I left Wyoming. But I learned to jam at Vedauwoo, and I lost a lot of blood learning to jam, even with tape gloves. Without, I might've died, or at least been unable to climb more than 5 pitches a month.