Is Taping a Waste of Time?

The Case for Crack Gloves

• Speed: You can take them on and off in seconds. No more 15-minute taping sessions at the base of the crag (and then having to keep the tape on all day) while your partner gets bored.
  
  
• Convenience: You can put them on for 1 route or boulder and then easily take them off again for climbs (great on multipitches) that have a mixture of crack and face. No having to keep that tape on for the whole session when it’s not needed.
  
  
• Better Friction: Modern rubber (like on the new Wide Boyz gloves which drop next week!!!) is stickier than both skin and tape. I often find that flared or marginal jams feel better with gloves.
  
  
• Cheaper: Ok, so the initial outlay to buy a pair of gloves is more than a roll of tape. However, the expense in rolls of tape you will need to buy over the life span of a pair of crack gloves is far more than a pair of gloves cost. Also as we have improved the durability of our new crack gloves, the cost benefit is even greater.
  
  
• Reliable: If you aren’t that experienced then gloves are a simple and trustworthy solution. If you don’t have a lot of taping practice, you may find that tape easily comes off your hand when you are jamming, as you have done parts of the taping process either incorrectly or not well enough.

The Case for Tape

Tape is the "old school" choice, but it’s still an absolute staple in my bag for a few very specific reasons.

• Custom Fit: You can mould tape to the exact shape of your hand, and also only tape very specific areas, whilst keeping the rest of your hand free. If you have a specific "hot spot," tape can target this (and only this) nicely.
  
  
• Thin Cracks: When the crack gets really thin, even the thinnest glove can add a few millimeters of bulk. Sometimes that extra millimeter is the difference between success and failure. However, interestingly in these cases I actually prefer to go bare skin as the friction of skin is better than the friction of tape.                                I had this exact scenario on a crack called Stranger Than Fiction in the Utah desert. The glove made my hand too thick, the tape didn’t have good enough friction, so bare skin was actually the best solution (quite a rare case though).
  
  
• Multifunctional: Tape is great for taping the fingers for finger cracks (something a glove can’t do). Plus it’s also great having some spare to fix holes in your ripped down jacket, trousers, etc

Conclusion

Honestly these days 90% of my crack climbing is done with crack gloves, they are just my go to. However, I’ll still always have a roll (or 2) of tape in my bag for the reasons mentioned above.

So if you are looking to protect your hands when crack climbing, my suggestion would be to get a pair of Gloves asap (especially if you’re new to crack climbing), don’t tear up the backs of your hands, trust me i’ve been there done that…it’s not worth it.

Our new gloves will be available on our website next week. Really psyched to share them with you.