Protection

I have been regularly climbing for 3 years. One year into my journey, I got crack gloves and TC Pros and I had a revolution and stopped falling (as much) all over the climbs I was climbing. I am so reliant on my gloves for my mental protection, that I wear them on a slab climb. They are breaking. Slowly disintegrating into suede dust. (exaggeration for poetic effect) I need tape to keep them on my hands.(also an exaggeration, in a few weeks or months it might get to this point if I only climb really hard hand cracks) My fancy G7 gloves are sold out. My old school partner seriously bullies me for wearing them in the first place. I am not a young Gen Z gal. I am an elder millennial and I just want my hands to remain soft and feminine and attractive. The gloves also offer sun protection. What do I do: Let my hands get hard and callused and fondle the rock without protection (but be tough)? Or keep my hands pristine and supple and jam the sh*t out of that crack when I feel like it without as much pain (and get bullied)? 

Cue the beginning of an online war. (But I also really need advice)

Find their weakness and bully them back.

To hell what anyone thinks. I also will sometimes wear my crack gloves on routes with very little or no crack moves. I’m older now and my skin is no longer as alligator thick as it once was. I have even drawn blood in the gym by accidentally smacking the back of my hand on a nearby hold. Do what you need to do, I say!

No one really cares (if they do, maybe excise them from your life), so wear whatever you like. Gloves, knee pads, face mask.

If you use crack gloves for the mental protection, then when you climb the route without them does it qualify as a headpoint?

I’m an older climber and recently became a glove convert as well.  I was getting cut and scraped every time I tackled a long crack climb and the gloves have really made a difference in my climbing enjoyment.  
I seldom get deep cuts any longer and can therefore climb more often with less pain. Win win.

Lose those clowns that are hating or let them borrow your gloves and they will be a friend for life! 

To me, the only benefit of manufactured crack gloves is the ease of putting them on and taking them off multiple times per day. If you leave them on for everything as you say, save yourself some money and gain better performance by just making a reusable glove out of tape. I used to get a whole season in Joshua Tree out of a pair, just adding a wrist wrap each day. Your old school partner is more likely to be accepting of tape gloves vs manufactured gloves too. 

Ocun's are nice and half the price ♫ 

Have your "old-school" partner read the comments on this photo:

https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/105810798/me-looking-forward-to-a-great-adventure-on-dr-rubos-i-was-lucky-enough-to-have-s#Comment-106168895

Scott Baxter is one of the most under-the-radar old-school hard man climbers in Arizona and probably US history. Unless your partner is the revenant Royal Robbins, he's probably not as badass as Scott Baxter. Scott Baxter wears crack gloves.

Brandon R wrote:

To me, the only benefit of manufactured crack gloves is the ease of putting them on and taking them off multiple times per day. If you leave them on for everything as you say, save yourself some money and gain better performance by just making a reusable glove out of tape. I used to get a whole season in Joshua Tree out of a pair, just adding a wrist wrap each day. Your old school partner is more likely to be accepting of tape gloves vs manufactured gloves too. 

This.
My old school partner taught me how to wrap the perfect tape glove in the 1980s. There is nothing like the fit of a tape glove. Manufactured gloves are great for convenience in the gym but mine stay in my gym bag. Outside, if I want a glove, I use tape.

Having said that, I don’t make a crack glove every time I go out climbing. For easy alpine days, I don’t bother. For certain rock, Like a Red Rock, I don’t need it at all as there are no crystals to gouge the skin.
It sounds like you’ve just developed a ritual about the gloves. Rituals are fine. I’ve had 3 pulley tendon tears over my lifetime and I have a superstitious ritual about taping my fingers. Even when I’m not going to be doing anything crimpy. I feel naked without it.

. Metolious has this wonderful brightly colored finger tape. I wish they made it in the wide size too. 

Mel Higgs wrote:

...I am an elder millennial ...

Am I the only one here that thinks 40 years is young?   

...and as they say, have fun! ...use protection. ;)

E MuuD wrote:

Am I the only one here that thinks 40 years is young?   

It’s an interesting way to look at it. Millenials 81-96. Forty years old is 1984. So elder Millennial.
by this way of looking at it, I will always be a middle-aged baby boomer. 

Thank you all for your thoughts and opinions. Thank you also, kind anonymous commentator, for your perspective on my age. As I bask in the fountain of youth, I'll reflect on how it's my mental age and general lack of fitness/confidence that are holding me back on the wall and in life, not my actual age. I sound grumpier than I am. I am actually quite entertained!

Update: I found a pair of crack gloves at the bottom of my partner's gear pile and they are. now. mine.

Respect your elders, missy! Climbing partners giving each other sh*t is about as traditional as it gets.

And, enjoy those BD gloves you just stole…LOL

jammies protect your thinning skin on the back of ur hands from sun damage and bleeding 

buy one pair from every brand and always buy them one size bigger

size xl ocun fit great for summer sweat but can also fit medium bd and the stretch put but they rip through the clasp so gotta tape them shut