What’s the problem?

Many liquid chalk brands currently for sale in Australia contain rosin, otherwise known as pof, gum or colophonium. This substance does not wash off in water and creates highly polished holds over time. Rosin containing brands of liquid chalk should be avoided when climbing outdoors on natural rock and even at commercial gyms. This article will explain the problem and list the brands that are rosin free, and the ones that contain this controversial sticky substance.

What is rosin?

Rosin (also known as colophony) is the term collectively used for the solidified, distilled form of resins from pines, cedars, spruce, firs and junipers. Read more about its plant origins on Wikipedia. Gymnasts, weight lifters, pole dancers and stringed instrument players use rosin on their hands for a sticky grip – nerd out on this scientific study about baseball and rosin. Unlike chalk, which is mostly used to keep your hands and holds dry, powdered rosin will slightly melt with bodyheat and pressure and get slightly sticky. There is a lot of further information about the origins and use of rosin in other sports in this article about rosin bags. The use of rosin in these other activities is reasonably uncontroversial as it is easy to clean it off weight bars and instruments. Rosin has historically only been used in a handful of climbing areas world-wide – most controversially in the French bouldering mecca of Fontainebleau where it’s use has seen many popular problems turn impossibly slippery. It’’s now very rare to see anyone deliberately using rosin for climbing outside of inadvertent use through liquid chalk. Disturbingly the brand 8C Plus seems quite open about selling this product for climbing in many forms – powdered, liquid chalk and mixed with dry chalk.

What’s the problem with rosin and rock?

Rosin will fill in the natural roughness of the rock texture and builds up on holds over time making them become slick and polished. Think of a smooth layer of amber (very similar material) on your holds. Once a hold is covered in this rosin it requires all climbers to always use rosin to maintain grip (rosin requires rosin to stick together). No rosin and you slip off. And unlike chalk, rosin is not water-soluble and cannot be brushed off easily. On natural cliffs you’d have to get up there with a high pressure water sprayer and nasty chemicals to get the buildup off – an almost impossible task on roped routes in the outdoors. Even worse, mixing chalk with rosin means the ugly white chalk seen on many overhung crags is actually going to be sealed onto the rock with rosin making chalk clean-ups increasingly hard. Attempts at recent chalk clean ups at areas where there are high users of liquid chalk such as Mt Coolum in Queensland seem to confirm that water cannot entirely remove this chalk/rosin mix. Rosin on rock is going to permanently alter the climbing experience for everyone else. Using liquid chalk that contains rosin is a bad idea for our precious crags and boulder fields.

Rosin in the gym

Because of the recent compulsory use of liquid chalks in climbing gyms due to Covid-19 health measures, gyms are now seeing the effects on their holds from rosin containing liquid chalk. Some have described it in extreme circumstances as looking like “peeling paint” when they clean the holds – a layer of thin tacky gum that is hard to remove. According to page 22 of their rulebook The International Federation of Sport Climbing actually prohibits rosin in all climbing competitions.

We have seen liquid chalks that contain rosin for sale in many gyms so there is clearly some acceptance or ignorance about these products. However, some gyms are now asking climbers not to use rosin based liquid chalks in their facilities. If in doubt ask the staff what their policy is towards rosin and consider replacing rosin based liquid chalks with the rosin free variety when you next purchase.

Thickeners – the other mystery ingredient

The basic concept behind liquid chalk is to suspend magnesium carbonate (chalk) in an alcoholic liquid. The alcohol is there because it evaporates quickly when spread on fingers leaving just the chalk behind on your hands. Some brands add other ingredients which are described as thickeners, hydroxypropyl cellulose or even honey. These supposedly work to stop the liquid separating into components (the reason you have to shake liquid chalk bottles to get an even mix). We are not sure of the long term implications on rock of these additional ingredients. If this concerns you choose a brand that only lists chalk and alcohol on the ingredients list.

Doing the right thing doesn’t cost the earth

Our research shows there is no price difference between rosin and non-rosin containing brands. It is easy to switch to a brand that won’t harm the friction properties of natural stone or gym holds with rosin. Just follow our handy guide below! You can also find several made in Australia brands that are rosin free. Most liquid chalks have an ingredients list on the back – the words to looks out for are colophonium, rosin or gum. Spread the word to your local gym or climbing retailer about this issue – it will take the whole community to get educated and help push change. We suggest retailers at minimum label rosin containing liquid chalks as “indoors climbing only” on websites and in store and explain to customers who are buying liquid chalk what the problem is.

Rosin Free Brands – Use at crags/gyms!

Brand/Product	Thickeners	Price per gram *	Where it is made
8C Plus Chalk Fluid	Unknown	11c	Unknown
Friction Labs Secret Stuff Chalk Cream	Yes	36c	USA
GodsGrip Liquid Chalk **	No	7c	Australia
Juncture Texture Cream	No	37c	USA
Mad Rock Chalk White Chalklate	No	10c	China
Metolius Super Liquid Chalk	No	10c	China
My Protein Liquid Chalk	Yes	9c	Unknown
Perpendicular Liquid Chalk	No	12c	Australia
Rappd	Yes	16c	Unknown
Redpoint Friction Formula **	No	14c	Australia
Reset Liquid Chalk	No	8c	China
Sierra Liquid Chalk	Yes	10c	Spain
Szent Liquid Chalk	No	18c	Unknown

Rosin Containing Brands – Home walls only

Brand/Product	Thickeners	Price per gram *	Where it is made
8B Plus Liquid Chalk	No	22c	China
8C Plus Chalk Rosin	Unknown	8c	Unknown
Beal Pure Grip	No	9c	Unknown
Climbing Meta Base Layer	Yes	11c	China
DMM Liquid Chalk #	Yes	11c	Czech
Edelrid Liquid Chalk #	Yes	17c	Czech
Getya Grip Liquid Chalk	Yes	8c	Unknown
Ocun Liquid Chalk	Yes	9c	Unknown
OziGrip Liquid Chalk	Unknown	13c	Unknown
Petzl Power Liquid Chalk #	Yes	12c	Czech
Trango Liquid Chalk	No	8c	China

For more information read our detailed spreadsheet of the products, prices, origins and ingredients here.