Smith Rock Climbing: Skin Care for Welded Tuff

Smith Rock · Skin is gear

Welded tuff. Dry air. The place that made sport climbing, and the place that made Rhino.

Smith Rock is twenty minutes from our door. The rock is volcanic tuff that eats fingertips, the air is high-desert dry, and the season runs from fall through spring. Here is how to show up with skin for a Smith trip, keep it through the week, and leave the park better than you found it.

Pack for Smith Find your way in

6 on the crew · see who

Skin is gear

The place

Where American sport climbing started.

In the 1980s a handful of climbers rap-bolted the blank faces of the Dihedrals and the Christian Brothers and changed the sport. To Bolt or Not to Be went up in 1986, the first 5.14a in the country. The tuff that made those routes possible, sharp enough to hold on a smear and rough enough to crimp, is the same tuff that sends climbers home with bleeding tips after three days.

Rhino was started by people who climbed here every day they could and spent every evening dealing with their hands. The first batches were tested at Smith. We make everything in Redmond, twenty minutes away, and we give one percent of sales to the nonprofits that keep crags like this open, starting with Smith Rock Group, which builds and maintains the trails you walk in on. This is home. The kit below is what we climb on.

A Smith trip, day by day

From two weeks out to the drive home.

Where skin goes wrong on a Smith Rock trip, and what goes on at each stop.

Two weeks out · PrepBuild the tips for tuff.

Tip Juice every other night. Thicker, tougher tips mean day one does not take the top layer off on the first crimp.

Tip Juice

80/100 Skin File

The night before · 9 PMDry hands for warm rock.

Performance on the palms. Smith gets hot in the sun even in October, and the Dihedrals face it all afternoon.

Performance

Dry Spray

Day one · Morning GloryKeep the water in.

Dry high-desert air pulls moisture out of skin fast. Hydrate between burns when the tips go glassy. Brush the hold.

Hydrate

Impact Chalk

Day two · The DihedralsClose what opened.

Split stick in the chalk bag for the crack that shows up on the pad. Tape the tip that is thinning. Repair at camp.

Split

Rhinos' Own Adhesive tape

Repair

Rest day · BendGrow it back.

Split+ whipped balm on anything raw, Repair twice, Massage Cream on the forearms. Walk the Crooked River trail and leave the tips alone.

Split+

Massage Cream

Drive home · SundayCome back thicker.

Tip Juice on the rest days at home. Pocket Water refilled. One percent of what you bought goes to the trails.

Tip Juice

Pocket Water

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 we take to Smith.

Travel sizes in the chalk bag. Full sizes in the car at the bivy.

All of it, one boxPower Company Performance Kit

Toughen, grip, close, recover. One box, built for a tuff trip.

The whole routinePower Company Performance Kit~~$66.75~~$56.95

13 items · pick a size, hit Add

Two weeks outTip Juice$12.95

The night beforePerformance$8.95

Spray versionDry Spray$8.95

Between burnsHydrate$8.95

Thin and evenImpact Chalk$19.95

Every morning80/100 Skin File$2.00

Every night at campRepair$8.95

Chalk bag, cracksSplit$4.95

Whipped balm, rest daySplit+$8.95

Thinning tipsRhinos' Own Adhesive tape$3.95

ForearmsMassage Cream$8.95

Chest pocket on the approachPocket Water$12.95

Smith Rock art by Ashley ZeiglerSun Hoodie - Bamboo - SPF 50$19.95

The crew

The people who climb here every week.

Rhino athletes, locals, and the Smith Rock Group trail crew. They tell us what the tuff did to their hands.

Alex JohnsonBouldering, Rhino athlete

Michaela KierschSport, Rhino athlete

Katie McKinstry StylosIce and mixed, Rhino athlete

Fanny GibertCompetition, Rhino athlete

Ethan SalvoRhino athlete

Anak VerhoevenSport, Rhino athlete

Seen at Smith

Show us the tuff.

Monkey Face at sunset, the bleeding tips, the bivy coffee. This wall is yours.

@rhinoskinsolutions

@rhinoskinsolutions

@rhinoskinsolutions

Climber on Chacal — sport climbing action photo from the Rhino blog.

@rhinoskinsolutions

Climber caring for worn skin at the crag — Rhino blog skin tips.

@rhinoskinsolutions

Climbing in the Lofoten Islands, Norway — granite walls above the sea.

@rhinoskinsolutions

Climber on Kachoong, the classic roof route at Mount Arapiles, Australia.

@rhinoskinsolutions Tag us
#SkinIsGear

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.

Field reports

From the comments.

Where it comes from.

Help keep Smith open

Volunteer with Smith Rock Group.

Trail days, stewardship, the work that keeps the park climbable. Rhino is a member and a sponsor. Come swing a tool with us.

Smith Rock Group Pack for Smith

Smith Rock kitPack for Smith

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.

Read the Deep Dive

Goes well with

Welded tuff. Dry air. The place that made sport climbing, and the place that made Rhino.

Where American sport climbing started.

From two weeks out to the drive home.

Tell us what happens. We'll point.

What we take to Smith.

The people who climb here every week.

Show us the tuff.

Straight off the feed.

From the comments.

Where it comes from.

Volunteer with Smith Rock Group.

Want the long version?