Bison Designs  Competition Chalk

Don't believe the other reviews, the bad ones or the good ones. Just believe the chalk. I'm updating this chalk review because the old Bison Competition Chalk isn't sold here anymore, though this new chalk is the same as the old chalk. What's changed is the digital location of this product, and that means what's changed isn't real, or at least it isn't the kind of real that the R in REI stands for. Now to the chalk review. Bison Chalk is great. It's just chalk, yes, but it's just great chalk. It's like ground up angels...without having to hurt angels. It's like fresh whipped cream...but dry. It's like putting silk gloves on...except it's really chalk gloves. When you use this chalk while climbing, it is like a second, far smaller climber you are holding on to, carrying you up the wall. When you use this chalk in front of climbers, they will ask what chalk it is exactly. I've made friends because of this chalk, and enemies, I'm sad to say. I met my husband because of this chalk. When I put this chalk on my hands, my husband says, "this chalk is a metaphor for our love." This chalk is like a lover that can't stand the angle at which you fall. This chalk is like an animal's beating heart in your hands going quiet. This chalk is like the animal that has forfeited its heart to a mysterious chain of being. This chalk...could be cheaper. Now to respond to a few of the bad and good reviews: SamGoingWest says, "This isn't chalk, but rather a chalk powder that soaks up your sweat and becomes slippery. Not only do your hands become slippery; but if you're sweating, you're gonna sweater right through it!” SamGoingWest is getting granular here, and I, like anybody reviewing chalk, get excited when things get granular, especially when it comes to figuring out what "chalk" is, exactly. SamGoingWest claims it's more of a "powder", and he's not wrong. It does feel like powdered sugar, the sweet lusciousness of which I alluded to in my original review in the metaphor of whipped cream. It doesn't taste like powdered sugar (nor whipped cream), however, and I have tasted both (this chalk and powdered sugar)(and whipped cream). In a rave review titled “Great chalk!” Nvcoyote7 writes, “I like the way it feels. Super smooth. I don't know if its my hands but it seems to stay on my hands better than a few other chalks I've had.” I don’t mean to be rude, nvcoyote7, but it is not your hands in particular. I imagine your hands are special, but I doubt they are the kind of special that retain this chalk better than other hands. This chalk is special because it is a new set of hands on top of your hands, as I mentioned in my original review. None writes, “Been climbing for thirty years and this is one of the worst chalks I have ever used.Hard to get out of the container without making a mess and clumps up while using. Literally fell off my hands unless I rubbed it into my hands.Will not buy again.Please go back to selling chalk in block form.” I have been climbing for 31 years, in fact, and I think that extra year has leant me a bit of perspective, if I may say so. In those 31 years, I have learned that merely putting something onto your hands isn’t a guarantee that that something will not fall off them. None complains that you have to “rub” the chalk into your hands, as if the chalk should rub itself into your hands. It is my opinion that this chalk already gives so much, so why can’t we give it something in return (for example, a brief rubbing of it into our hands)? And what’s more, None’s formalist critique at the end, delivered via an innuendo that blocks are better, a priori, than velvety formlessness, is unconvincing even as innuendo. Every time I dip my hands into the mythic basin of my Bison Chalk, I feel an ending and a beginning, I feel the pull of an intelligence that has no brain, I feel like the climbing wall before me is actually a door, swinging inward to a future that wants to welcome me. For personal reasons, I am changing my original 4-star review to 5. I am still married to my husband, who also likes this chalk.

I wanted to like this chalk because they stock it in stores at REI and it’s super cheap. I also really like the container as opposed to a bag like BDs chalk comes in which gets messy. Unfortunately though this chalk it’s not worth it. Didn’t stick to my hands, had to keep re applying every minute and it peeled/rubbed off super easily. I ended up returning it and traded it for BD white gold. The best chalk I’ve tried though is Frank Endo. REI please start carrying Frank Endo chalk again!