Black Diamond White Gold Review

Cons: Easy to spill, creates a lot of dust
Manufacturer: Black Diamond
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
![]() This Product
Black Diamond White Gold | |||||
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Awards | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ||
Price | $2.75 at Backcountry | $15 List | $7.45 at Backcountry Compare at 2 sellers | $19.00 at REI | $5.00 at Backcountry Compare at 3 sellers |
Overall Score ![]() |
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Star Rating | |||||
Pros | Widely available, good texture and friction, nice price | Excellent value, good friction and coverage | Coats hands well, least expensive "climbing specific" chalk | Great Coverage, Excellent friction, almost no dust | Consistent texture bag after bag, great friction |
Cons | Easy to spill, creates a lot of dust | Unusable if you have cuts and abrasions on your hands | Low friction, doesn't last as long as other chalks | Not a great value | Expensive |
Bottom Line | Widely available and reasonably priced, this chalk takes the taco in our competition | Similar performance to Secret Stuff at a lower price | A good choice if you like to use loads of chalk | This chalk cream isn't cheap, but it could be that little advantage that makes the difference between success and failure | Consistently crunchy and provides great friction, for a high price |
Rating Categories | Black Diamond White Gold | Mammut Liquid Chalk | Metolius Super Chalk | Friction Labs Secret Stuff | Friction Labs Gorilla Grip |
Friction & Overall Feel (25%) | |||||
Coverage (25%) | |||||
Mess (25%) | |||||
Value (25%) | |||||
Specs | Black Diamond... | Mammut Liquid Chalk | Metolius Super Chalk | Friction Labs... | Friction Labs... |
Resealable Packaging? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Price Per oz | $1.03/oz | $1.94/oz | $0.80/oz | $7.60/oz | $2.50/oz |
Type | Loose | Liquid | Loose | Liquid | Loose |
Drying Additive | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Our Analysis and Test Results
White Gold is the top choice of several of our testers, citing that it feels "grippier" than Metolius Super Chalk and the Frank Endo chalk blocks and noting that it's much cheaper than Friction Labs Gorilla Grip. However, none of our testers were able to correctly identify White Gold during our blind testing.
Performance Comparison
Friction & Overall Feel
Much like the Frank Endo Chalk Blocks, BD White Gold can start out as chunky as you'd like, and breaks down into dust over time in your chalk bag. In its chunkiest form, it leaves a thin layer of chalk dust on your hands every time you dip in the bag. Once it's ground to a powder, you can cake it on thick if that's what you're into.
Testing friction performance with the loose chalk turned out to be pretty inconclusive. Many testers had a bias against Metolius Super Chalk, but when doing a blind comparison on sloper holds in the gym, no one could tell a big difference in performance.
Coverage
The liquid chalk from Mammut and Friction Labs gave us the best coverage, followed by the loose chalks, and then the chalk balls. Among the loose chalks, BD White Gold leaves a thicker layer of chalk on your hands than Gorilla Grip, and about the same as the Metolius Super Chalk and the Endo. So if you need a thick, cakey layer of chalk on your hands to feel confident that you'll stick to the climbing holds, White Gold delivers.
We found we got the best coverage when we combined loose chalk with a liquid chalk base layer. Check out how much chalk was left on our testers hands after three reps of hanging on slopers in the photos below.
Mess
You'll need to take care getting this chalk out the re-sealable plastic packaging and into your chalk bag. The 300g bag has a huge opening, so simply pouring the chalk into your chalk bag will result in chalk spilled on the ground, gym floor, or our case, the trunk of the car. You'll want a scooper of some kind unless you're ok with getting chalk on your hands every time.
Value
This stuff goes for about $1.03 per ounce. While not quite as good a deal as Metolius Super Chalk, it's way cheaper than Friction Labs Chalk and 10 cents per ounce cheaper than Frank Endo. We think its the best compromise of price and performance.
Conclusion
Black Diamond White Gold doesn't come in consistent sizes and textures like the Friction Labs Chalk, but it's a much better value. Even our more discerning testers couldn't find anything to complain about. If you're lucky enough to climb a lot and go through tons of chalk, White Gold is the Way to go.
— Matt Bento