UKC

For the past few months I've been suffering with split tips on both index fingers and I'm finally at my wits end. The splits are in the tissue of the fingertip rather than the cuticle, and always originate on the thumb side of each finger. The tend to get worse after a day of crimping on small holds. 

To try and manage these I've tried, to no avail:

• Keeping nails long
• Keeping nails short
• Filing fingertips
• Applying Rhinoskin Split
• Glueing the splits to ease to continue with sessions.

Has anyone else had this issue in the past and found a solution to keep them at bay/stop splits from forming? 

I used to suffer the same. It’s obvious from the pic, your skin is very dry. Dry skin, particularly around the nail, cracks. The fix is to moisturise your hands every night before you go to bed and after every climbing session. Glueing skin back together is a temporary fix and you need to deal with the fundamental cause, which is dry skin.

Hey dude, I have a similar issue, but caused by scar tissue from a historic knife cut on one finger.  It never fully heals, but does go away for a while.

I have found continually using super glue to be the best. Then once the skin is grown back together, sand back the thicker area of skin, and hope it stays together.

Thanks both for the advice, will give it a go. 

I get this every year after ski season and noticed your post because I’ve successfully dealt with lots of bleeding tips!

 Get some of that Vaseline you get in a small blue pot for lips. Generously coat each finger at bedtime and sleep with cotton socks over ur hands

 I bought the socks for dry cracked feet from a supermarket and use these. To avoid it coming back key rubbing the tips regularly with Vaseline after climbing. I’m lazy and now have a split thumb again so have Vaseline ready.

I suffered splits though not on the nail side, used all sort of creams (climb on and such) without much result. Then I had a go with Flexitol Heal Balm, sorted them out within a week, It's cheap too.

Using chalk less (not always possible I know)

Wash chalk off hands as soon as you can after climbing.

Moisturising hand cream as soon as possible after washing hands.

Something thick like ClimbOn just before you go to sleep.

I get these seriously bad. Usually every winter, but now I'm climbing outside regularly, they've come back.

I find glueing them doesn't really work, as superglue is incredibly brittle, so just breaks with movement and then causes the split to worsen.

The fastest way I've found to heal them is by taping them up with a plaster. Apply some wax of some sort (such as your rhino skin), and also rub the wax into the pad of the plaster. Then cut the plaster up to the pad like in the photo, and wrap it fairly tight, applying pressure in the direction that'll close the cut. It stings for 5-10 minutes but then you don't notice it.

I'd personally stop filing the skin and keep up with the moisturiser once they've healed to try and stop more appearing.

They're so damn debilitating, and if I try to describe the pain to those that haven't had them before they think I'm over-exaggerating!

I've had these on and off pretty much most of my life. I recently started using Medihoney on the advice of my nurse wife and that seems to really help. As others have said, apply before going to bed.

I also moisturise immediately after climbing (whole hands with normal moisturiser not medihoney) and keep some in my bag for this purpose. Seems to help prevent them. They're always worse for me in winter so I'm extra fastidious with the moisturising after a winter indoor session. 

Thanks everyone for some great suggestions. Definitely food for thought and hopefully a bit of experimentation will keep this at bay for the foreseeable!  

I've had similar splits, normally when I've been at the wall a lot in the winter or during trips when I've been climbing day after day. What works best for me is covering the split with Germolene Second Skin and reapplying it before a climbing session. They seem to heal quite well under this protective covering, which is surprisingly tough. I got sick of paying the inflated prices for climbing-targeted moisturisers and now I use a big tub of O'Keefe's Working Hands, which seems just as effective. It's also much less greasy, so you can apply it shortly before a session if you want.