About ChalkLedge
Who runs the bench, how 100 pieces of climbing gear get scored, and what we do not do.
Who we are
ChalkLedge is a small independent review bench run by climbers who spend more weekends on rock than in a showroom. We buy or borrow gear, use it on real routes, and write down what happened.
How gear is scored
Every one of the 100 pieces on the site is scored on five separate axes — build quality, on-rock performance, comfort, value and weight saving. Each axis is derived from that product's own testing record rather than a single overall impression, which is why two items with the same star rating rarely share the same bars.
The bench score shown on cards and rankings is the mean of those five axes. It is a summary, not a substitute for reading which axis matters to you.
What we do not do
We do not accept payment for placement, we do not run sponsored reviews, and we do not remove a criticism because a brand asked. We do earn affiliate commission when you buy through our links, which is disclosed inside every buy box.
Corrections
Specifications change between production runs. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed at source — the whole site is generated from one data file, so a correction propagates everywhere at once.