How to Use a Chalk Bag While Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we're at Chapel Ledges in Ashville, Massachusetts, Trustees of the Reservation Property and in this series I'm going to be talking about rock climbing gear. We're going to talk about rock climbing chalk and chalk bags. It use to be a contentious issue back in the 70's or so, people thought it was cheating to use chalk. Nowadays most of everyone uses it, still makes since to think about of how you use it, how much you use, what it does for you. The bag that you're going to carry it in, here's a couple of variations, they come in all sorts of styles, shapes and colors. Generally speaking, something about this size is big enough. If you're going to be bouldering and hanging out in one place for a while, you might buy a big bucket to just sit on the ground, but if you're carrying it with you, this is plenty big enough. Inside the bag you've got chalk in one form or another, I want to recommend to you a chalk ball, because this contains the chalk inside a fabric covering. You can see my hands are still getting chalky, but it's not going to spill. Bad climber etiquette is to fill your chalk bag with all kinds of loose chalk, sit down, have it dumped out and leave a big mess behind, so a nice concise chalk bag that meets your style with a chalk ball inside, that's going to give your hands a little powdery coating to keep the sweat down, makes you grip the rock a little bit better, maybe it gives you a little psychological advantage too while you're up there, so choose what fits you."