There's always one at the crag.
You know the type. Arrives, chalks up generously, pulls on the problem, falls off, chalks up again. Repeat six times. Leaves. The holds look like someone dusted them with flour. The next person who comes along can't feel the texture because there's a centimetre of packed chalk sitting between their skin and the rock.
Nobody told them this was a problem. Nobody told them the rules. Because in climbing, the rules around brushing are almost entirely unwritten — passed down by example at the crag, or learned the hard way by picking up someone else's project and getting glared at for ten minutes.
So here they are, written down.
The rules
Brush before your attempt. Every time.
Not a token swipe — actually brush the holds. The chalk left from previous sessions has dried, compacted, and lost most of its friction benefit. Two minutes of brushing before you pull on restores the texture and gives you an honest read of what the hold actually feels like.
Brush after your session. This one matters more.
Pre-attempt brushing is for you. Post-session brushing is for everyone else — and for the rock. Fresh chalk on a hold is easy to remove. Chalk that's been sweat into the texture and left to dry for a week is significantly harder to shift. Do it anyway.
Don't over-brush.
Especially with stiff nylon bristles on softer sandstone or limestone — aggressive scrubbing doesn't just remove chalk, it removes the micro-texture that creates friction in the first place. Brush firmly enough to lift chalk. Soft natural boar hair is almost always the right call for rock.
Tick marks: small, precise, and gone before you leave.
Tick marks are fine. The issue is scale and cleanup. A small chalk dot is a tick mark. A palm-sized smear is vandalism with extra steps. Remove them when you walk away.
Don't touch holds unless you're actually climbing.
Skin oils, sweat, and moisture are far more damaging to hold condition than chalk. If you want to feel a hold, chalk up first. Touch it clean, and you've potentially ruined it for the next ten attempts.
Use less chalk.
Most climbers use two to three times more chalk than they need. Precise chalking — fingertips only, only what actually contacts the rock — leaves less residue, requires less brushing, and probably improves your climbing because you can actually feel the holds.
Highballs and top-out holds need brushing too.
Everyone brushes the starting holds. Almost nobody brushes the top-out. If you're going to climb the whole thing, maintain the whole thing.
The bigger picture
Popular outdoor boulders take real damage from heavy use — not from climbing itself, but from the combination of chalk, moisture, and insufficient cleaning. Areas get restricted. Boulders get closed. Access gets lost.
The ChalkBlaster lifts chalk instead of moving it around.
See the ChalkBlaster →Frequently asked questions
Should you brush climbing holds before or after climbing?
Both. Brush before your attempt to restore friction for yourself. Brush after your session to leave the hold clean for the next person.
Is it bad to over-brush climbing holds?
Yes. Especially with stiff nylon bristles on soft rock. Brush firmly enough to lift chalk residue, not so aggressively that you're scrubbing the rock surface itself.
Are tick marks acceptable at the crag?
Yes, when used correctly: small, precise, and removed after your session.
Should you brush someone else's project?
Not without asking first. When in doubt, ask.
