Best Tape for Crack Climbing

April 2015

Climb

Hi Steph,

I’m new to crack climbing, and understand full well the value in choosing the stickiest tape money can buy. The problem is, after some experimenting with a number of generic tape brands out there, I still haven’t found one that fully satisfies all my criteria. I’m curious to hear what you use or recommend. Any thoughts?

-Chris

Hi Chris,

You’re right, stickiness is EVERYTHING when it comes to tape for crack climbing. I always tell people, you can tape before you rip your skin off or you can tape after you rip your skin off. Tape sticks a lot better to skin than to oozing pus. 🙂 The most important thing in taping is not to compromise your actual hand and finger size, and to have the tape stuck very firmly to your skin so it’s not bulky or sliding. For this reason, I never re-use tape gloves. I want my hands and fingers to fit in like they would normally but with an ultra-snug protective layer so all my skin cells stay on.



The best tape I’ve found is Mueller Eurotape. You can purchase this at either of the climbing shops in Moab, Gearheads or Pagan, and you can even call them up and have them mail it to you if you’re not in Moab. The Eurotape should stick well for you, but if you need even more stick, use the Mueller sticky spray too. Spray this on your fingers and backs of your hands before taping, and it will REALLY stick. This is pretty extreme, and I only do it for very hard finger cracks in warmer weather when the tape wants to roll.

Here’s my favored hand taping method, photo instructions and video 🙂 We also cover this pretty extensively in my crack clinics, of course!

If you’re going to be doing some offwidthing, don’t forget to tape your ankle bones too, even if you wear socks. Those take forever to grow skin back!

🙂 Steph