Climbing Skin Care | Rhino Skin Solutions
Climbing · Skin is gear

Your skin gives out before your strength does.

Splits, flappers, glassy tips, greasy palms. Every climber has lost a good day to one of them. Rhino started in a garage in Bend because we were tired of it, and the first people who tested it were the ones projecting at Smith Rock with their hands taped up.

Alex JohnsonMichaela KierschKatie McKinstry StylosFanny GibertEthan Salvo
6 on the crew · see who
Skin is gear
Where this started

Built by climbers who were sick of losing days.

Rhino came out of Central Oregon, where the rock is welded tuff and the air is dry enough to crack a knuckle on the walk in. The first batches were for a crew of friends who climbed at Smith Rock every day they could and spent every evening dealing with their hands. The formulas got tested on basalt, on tuff, on gym plastic, and on trips to Hueco, Bishop, and Red Rock, by people whose only question was whether they could climb tomorrow.

That's still the question. Everything on this page is here because a climber needed it: something to toughen tips before a trip, something to keep palms dry on a hot day, something to close a split overnight, something to get a pulley talking less. World Cup climbers use it. So do weekend crews who drive three hours to boulder in the cold. Same skin, same rock, same fix.

The skin scale

Grade your tips. Then fix them.

Climbers grade everything. Here's the scale for the one piece of gear you can't replace, and what to do at each level.

  1. V0Fresh
    Soft and pink.

    Rest week, new gym membership, or the first trip of the season. Thin tips that haven't been loaded. The first hard day takes the top layer off.

  2. V2Working
    Calluses building, edges starting to lift.

    The good phase. Keep it here with weekly filing so calluses stay flat and don't roll into flappers.

  3. V4Glassy
    Shiny, hard, no friction.

    Dry air, chalk, and a long session. Skin with no water in it skates off holds and splits when it bends. Spray it back.

  4. V6Greasy
    Sweating off everything.

    Hot rock, hard crux, nervous hands. Chalk is mopping, not fixing. Night-before sweat control, less chalk, brush the hold.

  5. V8Split
    A crack across the pad.

    Tape and glue to finish the session. File the rim flat tonight. Repair and Split overnight, two or three nights running.

  6. V10Flapper
    A callus let go and took skin with it.

    Trim it, glue the edge, tape it, keep climbing if you must. Split+ whipped balm overnight. Tip Juice on rest days until it's back to V2.

Find your way in

Tell us what happens. We'll point.

No score and no wrong answers. Pick what sounds like you, and every answer opens another door: a fix, a page, a longer read.

The pack

What's in the chalk bag.

This is the kit our athletes travel with. Travel sizes fit the brush pocket. The refill pouches live in the van.

Pro Pack
All of it, one boxPro Pack

Condition, grip, repair, recover, full sizes. Enough for a season at the crag or a long trip.

The whole routinePro Pack$125.99$99.95
13 items · pick a size, hit Add
Two weeks before a tripTip Juice$25.00
Every morning80/100 Skin File$2.00
The night beforePerformance$18.95
Spray version, night beforeDry Spray$18.95
Thin and evenImpact Chalk$19.95
Between burnsHydrate$18.95
Every nightRepair$18.95
Cracks and gobiesSplit$4.95
Whipped balm, wrecked skinSplit+$18.95
One more goSuper glue$2.00
Back up the tweaky oneRhinos' Own Adhesive tape$3.95
Forearms and pulleysMassage Cream$18.95
Chalk-bag recoveryAcupressure Massage Ring$5.00
Pass it on

Know someone whose tips look like this?

Your climbing partner is taping the same split you are. Send them this before the next session.

Text it Email it
The crew

The people who test this on rock.

Our athletes boulder, sport climb, trad climb, and compete. They beat their hands up for a living and tell us when something doesn't work.

Alex Johnson
Alex JohnsonBouldering, Rhino athlete
Michaela Kiersch
Michaela KierschSport, Rhino athlete
Katie McKinstry Stylos
Katie McKinstry StylosIce and mixed, Rhino athlete
Fanny Gibert
Fanny GibertCompetition, Rhino athlete
Ethan Salvo
Ethan SalvoRhino athlete
Anak Verhoeven
Anak VerhoevenSport, Rhino athlete
Seen at the crag

Show us your hands.

Flappers, sends, taped-up tips, the pad stack at the trailhead. This wall is yours.

Post it, tag @rhinoskinsolutions and #SkinIsGear. We pull the best ones onto this wall every week.

Watch

Straight off the feed.

Clips from our Instagram and the crew.

Climbing on Rhino
Anak Verhoeven climbing
Steep climbing
Siegrist on Rhino
Deep water soloing
Prudence climbing
What's in your pack
Field reports

From the comments, not the marketing department.

Zoe Steinberg
Athlete review
Review
Review
Ricky Marin
Review
Review
Before and after
Before and after
Before and after
Before and after
★★★★★
“I seriously don't know how I did it without Spit. I live in the desert and have super dry skin, and in the winter when the wind is blowing sometimes I can't even hold on to jugs. It's an absolute game changer and improved my confidence immediately in less than ideal conditions.”
Jonathan Siegrist, Pro climber · Hydrate
★★★★★
“Out here in Colorado, with its low humidity, I've had huge issues with glass skin, especially on cold, windy days and routes with low texture. Rhino Spit has saved my bacon more than once. If you have naturally dry skin, are an older climber, or live in a dry climate, always have some on hand.”
Matthew Samet, Climber and writer, Colorado · Hydrate
★★★★★
“I've tried lots of hand creams for post-climbing. This is by far the best I've used. It soaks in quickly, doesn't leave residue, and it does what it claims: repairs your hands. I haven't had to file my hands since I started using it.”
Alex MacDuff, Climber · Repair
★★★★★
“Against my better judgment, thinking a bunch of herbs must be useless, I tried Rhino Repair. I'm forced to admit it's actually useful keeping my skin in good condition. Lets me climb more and try harder, and that's pretty much the goal.”
★★★★★
“Buying in bulk is definitely the way to go. This keeps me climbing. Minimal flappers, hang nails. Helps a bit with bruising and soreness as well.”
★★★★★
“Awesome for quickly healing splits on tips or between finger joints. The chapstick size is seemingly bottomless and even the smallest amounts work wonders. A few applications a day heals up the worst splits in a hurry.”

The Rhino system, in the field

Made in
Redmond
Oregon

We make everything in our own facility in Redmond, Oregon, twenty minutes from Smith Rock, on 100% on-site solar. The welded tuff out there is our test lab, and the people climbing on it are our first customers.

Made in Redmond

Where it comes from.

How Rhino started
Made in Redmond
Want to climb with us?

Join the Rhino crew.

If you're putting in the sessions and want a team that gets it, apply. Boulderers, sport climbers, trad climbers, trail runners, all welcome.

The Rhino Deep Dive

Want the long version?

What is in each bottle, what it does, and when to reach for it. Ingredient by ingredient, sport by sport, in one book you can flip through.