This is also a salve, but it is not bar-shaped. It is more like a vaseline tin, where you put your finger in and scoop some out. That is probably the main reason why it ranked lower than the bouldering hand creams on this list. Once again the products are natural, with beeswax, almond oil, mango oil, and jojoba all making appearances. For starters, ClimbOn is intuitive and handy to apply. The bar is solid, but after warming up in the hand it creates a nice layer of balm on the skin.

The salves did differ plenty in effectiveness, feel, and of course, price. For the details, read on. To make matters worse, the oily residue means that it’s impossible to do anything else for about 10 minutes after application. Unless you have the time to sit and wait for your hands to dry, this is a pain.

WHAT'S IN IT?

Recovery-wise, the ClimbOn seemed to produce the most reliable healing. I personally care most about performance outdoors, which means that I like my tips to be ready for a beating. The ClimbOn heals without softening much, which is helpful for maintaining a solid layer of durable skin. The ingredients list is short and pleasant, and the salve smells gently herbal, but it reminded some testers too much of Burt’s Bees Hand Salve. Like the Joshua Tree, it’s a soft solid that sits in a tin and allows a fingertip or two to be dipped in at a time. It smells pleasantly citrus-y and it’s easy to apply.

Research your chalk and skin type to make the right choice. Whenever you’re climbing, monitor your hands for cuts and tears. Retreat immediately if you notice one and apply first aid. 3. Handcare After Climbing If you’re looking for quantity, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Balm has you covered. For the same price as others in this review, you get twice the amount with very a similar formulation. I love this balm because it has no noticeable smell and only a few ingredients. The balm has a very loose, almost buttery consistency but that means a little goes a long way. Unlike other balms, this one can be found at most drug stores so it’s easy to replace when you run out. The larger size means I don’t usually carry it with me to the crag. Yes, it’s a premium product, and it’s coming from Spain, but it’s a steep price to pay for an ounce of balm.

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How does the salve feel on the skin? How pleasant is it to touch and use? How much do I want to use it? Application & Convenience The Giddy balm was a pleasant surprise and a strong performer. It missed out on an award only because of the prowess of the ClimbOn bar.

The Joshua Tree isn’t exorbitantly priced, but it’s still the second most expensive salve in our test. It’s a decent performer, but the compromises are too great for us to wholeheartedly recommend it. Metolius Hand Repair Balm Skin can also become so hard and dry along the tips that a split can develop. This becomes very hard to heal as any further use can open the split again – much like a split at the corner of your mouth in cold weather. Climbing Skin Care TipsClimbSkin is another aggressively marketed product courtesy of our friends at FrictionLabs (who sell in the USA for the Spain-based ClimbSkin). As I mentioned above, finding consistency wasn’t easy in this test. To make matters more difficult, the more I used the salves the harder it was to wear down my skin for testing. If you ever want an incentive to train all the time, salve testing is a good last resort. We rounded up our favorite six climbing skin-repair remedies and set about destroying our hands for a month to declare an overall winner: the ClimbOn Original Bar. Some climbers that have very wet skin when climbing will use a drying agent. We don’t recommend this for the vast majority of people. If you take care of your hands properly with a good routine they should actually be less wet as they won’t be constantly trying to repair themselves. Combined with a good chalk this could solve a problem with wet hands without further action.