UKC

Hi,

I've been bouldering for almost one year and a half, and I consider myself fairly lucky in terms of injuries and fingertip skin condition.

However, I have an issue with my skin at the level of the DIP joint (the one just after the fingertip), on both of my middle fingers, and also slightly on my ring fingers. Namely, I tend to get thick skin there, which leads to splits, but also just simply localised pain whenever I use a hold which is bigger than a crimp.

With time, I learnt how to heal splits, and how to prevent them: basically, sandpaper my skin very locally until the whiteish dead skin disappears, and tape whenever there is a threat of a split. The photo show my two last splits from 3 months ago.

So, I can manage to not get these splits now. But I still get quite a lot of "skin pain" (not joint pain) which prevents me from committing as much as I would like. For example, it's very hard for me to stick moves like "going to the last big hold" on the moonboard, because it presses so hard on my thick joint and crushes the skin. Also, it's painful for me just to fold my middle fingers on themselves. I would love to get some tips from people that experienced this issue.

I feel bad to ask this question on a forum because it's probably been asked a thousand times, yet after hours of research in the internet I couldn't find a related topic somehow. Also no climber that I talked to has this exact problem.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope that you guys can give me some help on that

Best

elidiot

The splits seem to occur on a distinct colour boundary; what is the cause of that boundary; my fingers don't have a colour transition like that.

Looks like you are climbing too much. Do I have proof - no, of course not, this is the internet! but the different colour bands are weird, but looks like you've been taping a lot and (too) tightly (almost looks on the verge of being macerated). Also its obviously bruised under the surface skin, again an indication of too much. Looks like someone needs to ease off a little, then your hands and skin will look after itself! . Thank you, have a nice day!

I wondered that, too...

Ok that's a very fair point I should have said it in my original post. The color is just a light effect, I took the photo quickly and didn't notice the shadow.

Also, this was the day after a competition where I climbed 8 hours, so yes I totally overclimbed but I never do this otherwise

Here is a photo of my middle finger right now. It looks totally healthy, though it feels very thick at the DIP joint, and I have some pain when I press the joint (skin pain). When I climb, the pain grows quickly.

Yes, it's better when I climb less. But I don't want to I know many people climb more than me and are fine. Still hoping for some skin care advice

Thanks !

Flexitol heel balm worked for me with similar looking splits, it's cheap and easy to find. Overnight application cleared up the problems within a few weeks.

Ok thank you for the suggestion it looks very good ! I'll buy it and try.

Are you only sanding them when they look like they might split? If so, it might be worth being a bit more proactive. I usually sand my fingers after every wall session - I find if I do it regularly then I don't get the build up of thick/dry skin so get less skin pain and fewer splits or tears. Plus, if I do it regularly it's a pretty quick job. I also moisturise a lot, generally with something shea buttery. I have some at home, some in my work bag, some in my climbing bag and some in my desk drawer so whenever my skin feels dry I can stick it on.

No it isn't - your next picture is taken at a totally different time. 

The colour change follows the direction of the picture, not the direction of the finger; it would be a bit odd if the tips and rest of the fingers were different colours but those colours were switched between left and right hands.

I've got lumps below both middle finger joints after 50 years of climbing. They cause some discomfort but no major problem as I'm a bumbly these days.

Thanks for your answer. I used to only do it when it's kind of too late indeed, but now I do it very often and it's not enough. The thing is, if I want the pain to go away when I climb, I have to sand out so much skin that I'm almost sanding my flesh. I did it last time and it unlocked me a new move on the moonboard, just because it was too painful before. But now I'm irritated, and that's too bad for me I guess, it was obviously quite dumb.

I'm not really using so much moisturizer right now so I'll do it more now and we shall see

Interesting. I think my issue is different though, I don't get this kind of lumps, and also your skin at the joint level looks healthy and not too tight/thick. Good that it's not a major problem to you !