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cleavoncox
Oct 1, 2012, 2:09 AM
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I know...I know...this is a really noobtastic question, but why do you use climbing tape? I've never needed it and I've been climbing for a little less than 2 years.
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climbingaggie03
Oct 1, 2012, 2:19 AM
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This kind of feels like a troll and has a high probability of degrading, but I'd say there's a couple of reasons to tape. The tape on the back of peoples hands is to protect them when jamming their hands into cracks, the skin on the palms of your hands can toughen up, but the skin in the backs of your hands doesn't toughen up much.
Some people tape their individual fingers to give tendons some support. Some folks also will tape their fingers to keep skin from tearing or to keep torn skin from tearing more.
Some people never tape, and some people tape all the time. I wear crack gloves (tape on the back of my hands) some times, but I find the better I get with my jams, the less I need to tape.
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cleavoncox
Oct 1, 2012, 2:26 AM
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Thanks for the answer! I was just wondering, because I've never used tape, and I didn't know if there were times when I should. I guess I'll know when I need it.
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socalclimber
Oct 1, 2012, 12:12 PM
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Try climbing Joshua Tree cracks with little in the way of crack skills and you will find out quick!
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billcoe_
Oct 1, 2012, 1:43 PM
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socalclimber wrote: Try climbing Joshua Tree cracks with little in the way of crack skills and you will find out quick!
On the money. Climb some cracks that have rough rock anyplace for that matter.
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cracklover
Oct 1, 2012, 3:12 PM
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billcoe_ wrote: socalclimber wrote: Try climbing Joshua Tree cracks with little in the way of crack skills and you will find out quick! On the money. Climb some cracks that have rough rock anyplace for that matter.
On a recent trip to Vedauwoo, I witnessed some kind of outdoor education type group doing a day trip. Instructor taking a big group of brand new climbers, all in their late teens to early twenties. I don't recall if either of the two instructors were using tape, but I didn't see a spec of climbing tape on any of the dozen n00bs they were carting around.
Someone got get an earful later, for sure.
GO
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jbone
Oct 1, 2012, 4:24 PM
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Reminds me of "Family Feud" the RC.com edition
And the number one answer is......
-- To cover a bleeding flapper to prolong your session.
Also, please pack out your tape and don't leave your bloody bandages scattered throughout the crags. Double points if you pack out other people's tape trash.
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shimanilami
Oct 1, 2012, 9:33 PM
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When you don't have holds that are all the same color, you can use tape to mark the route.
(I'm not sure what these other dweebs are talking about.)
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cleavoncox
Oct 1, 2012, 9:35 PM
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shimanilami wrote: When you don't have holds that are all the same color, you can use tape to mark the route. (I'm not sure what these other dweebs are talking about.)
lol
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Marylandclimber
Oct 1, 2012, 11:09 PM
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Were talking about taping hands for hand jams and such unless your joking then lol.
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socalclimber
Oct 2, 2012, 12:04 AM
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Bloody knuckles are just standard fair out here. I have done this myself, and seen people coming back to camp with their hands looking like 2 pounds of used meat!
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sycamore
Oct 2, 2012, 12:19 AM
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Usually either to protect (or serve in place of) skin, or to support and/or protect tendons and pulleys.
On my last trip, I cut my fingertip on a particularly sharp crimp. I thought I was done on the climb, as it was deep and bloody, but I h-taped it and it worked like gangbusters. On another climb, one of the only rests was a fist jam that was bomber if you were willing to give up a fair amount of skin on your wrist. Just a single layer of tape had me resting in comfort on my second go.
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olderic
Oct 2, 2012, 1:38 AM
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shimanilami wrote: When you don't have holds that are all the same color, you can use tape to mark the route. (I'm not sure what these other dweebs are talking about.)
But WHY would you do this when you can use holds of the same color? 
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olderic
Oct 2, 2012, 1:39 AM
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Superglue
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jaded_mike
Oct 8, 2012, 8:54 PM
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My hands are really bad for tearing. If you have calisus' on your hands they catch and tear big flaps of skin. So to prevent this i tape my fingers. Instead you can moisturise your hands or use sand paper on rough skin before climbing.
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occlimbing
Oct 15, 2012, 4:03 AM
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jaded_mike wrote: My hands are really bad for tearing. If you have calisus' on your hands they catch and tear big flaps of skin. So to prevent this i tape my fingers. Instead you can moisturise your hands or use sand paper on rough skin before climbing.
Same here. I've only used it to tape over a torn piece of skin.
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madkiki
Oct 23, 2012, 1:33 PM
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I am 50 years old and not happy about it. Anyway, I work part-time in a very small climbing gym at the local Y. When I am working I do 98% of the belaying. I do more work than I do climbing.
When I do a lot of climbing the joints in one of my fingers tends to hurt and even hurts more when I am belaying while on the job. So, using athletic tape gently wrapped around my finger takes the pain away and helps the recovery process. How I wrap tape around my finger: I tear off about 5 inches from the roll and then tear that piece in half. So I end up with two strips for one finger which gives that one finger joint freedom of movement. Believe me, it really works to remove the pain when I am climbing or belaying.
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