Do you think this chalk bag has a good shape for rock climbing, or not?

Question

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302690857&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442278225

Answer 1

Personally, I hate chalk. It stains the rock and highlights all the good holds, taking some of the challenge away.

The chalk brush is for brushing away the excess chalk on a hold. The are completely unnecessary.

Chalk balls holds the chalk so it's less messy and your chalk will last you longer. But if you like a ton of chalk on your hands, you'll hate the ball.

In my mind, finer chalk is always better, but it's more expensive.

Answer 2

That chalk bag is as good as any other.

The chalk brush "toohbrush" is used to brush gross clumped chalk off of holds to make them easier to use and less slippery.

You seem to be starting off in the climbing world, so I suggest a chalk ball

it's easy, and if you accidentally leave you chalk bag open, you won't get a huge mess.

I prefer chunky loose chalk because it feels better on my hands, and I actually have a prana chalk bag pretty similiar to the one shown above ^

I've been climbing for 6 years and it works just fine for me

:]

Welcome to the climbing community and enjoy yourself!

Answer 3

The PrAna chalk bags are great, I have two of them. They are smaller than some others so they don't hold as much, but I don't use a lot of chalk so I love them.

I prefer the very fine chalk in a chalk ball - you will use less chalk (which leaves less on the rock) and you will never drop any - both good for the climbing "environment". Keep in mind that most chalk washes off the rock each winter so there isn't really any permanent damage to anything.

The brush is used mostly for bouldering to clean exessive chalk off of holds on problems that get climbed a lot.

Good Luck

Answer 4

Most chalkballs are much of a muchness, that one seems fine, you can get cheaper ones elsewhere probably that are just as good.

Toothbrushes are good at climbing walls where loads of people use the holds really frequently, so all the grip gets filled in with chalk and sweat and rubber. They're not unnecessary as one answerer mentioned, but they're not altogether necessary either, and less so outdoors than in.

I prefer chalkballs because you can throw them at your non-climber friends that aren't expecting it. No but seriously it's cheaper and easier to use than loose chalk.

Answer 5

That bag looks pretty good.  I use one of these:  http://www.madrockclimbing.com/koalachal...

I love it because it is really light weight and easy to reach your hand into quickly and getting chalked up.  

You just want to make sure it's easy to reach into and take your hand out without delay.

When it comes to ball chalk or loose chalk, it depends where you are climbing.  At almost all rock gyms they wont let you use loose chalk.  I like the loose chalk better when outdoors because it actually coats your hand.  But the ball works fairly well also.

The only bad thing about the loose powder chalk is that it tends to be more expensive.  So I buy a block of chalk and then use a rubber mallet to break it up into a powder.  It saves a lot of money because you can normally buy the block chalks in large amounts.

Hope that helped!