[Music]
Whoah!
It's not a sound that you want to hear
when you're out climbing.
Is it bad if I scream behind the camera?
How fuzzy is too fuzzy?
This is the rope that I used for about
two years of intense climbing...
or at least this is the end of this rope.
If I compare to the middle, this is how
the middle of the same rope looks.
And as you can see it's a huge
difference.
So the question is, should I worry about
this fuzziness? Or another question that
I see climbers disagree a lot on is: If i
can squeeze my rope like this, does it
mean that inside, core strands are
damaged or no?
So, to avoid breaking my back on homemade
experiments....
yeah as some of you noticed
it can be quite stressful
so not this time. This time I decided to
reach out to Mammut and ask if by any
chance I could come over and nerd with
their engineers.
How dangerous is this?
(laughs) We will find out!
so this is a product developer from
Mammut
and you said you're an expert in textiles.
Would you whip on this?
(uncomfortable noises)
Can we destroy this rope? I would say the
core strands won't fail if it's a normal
sport climbing fall.
Within the first fall?
No no no not the first fall.
Would you whip on this?
Oh yes definitely.
How many times?
So this rope is not the same rope that
we used in an experiment. That one was a
little bit worse than this
and it kind of died.
Can ropes die?
Anyway the goal was to find out what
happens if you take a huge fall
and this soft spot hits on your
quickdraw
exactly on the peak force. And by the way
this video is not sponsored, but in case
you don't know, Mammut is one of the
oldest companies making climbing ropes
so they have some serious knowledge
about that so I wanted to know everything.
Let's get nerdy! I have a
bunch of questions from me and my
followers.
Sounds great!
Ah. You're probably gonna add
10 000 more questions.
I'm sorry.
And by the way the questions that you
guys sent
had some
serious sense of practicality.
A cat pees on my rope how bad is that?
Or a dog peed on my rope how bad is that?
If you have a dry rope
we test it with human pee
because I mean if you're on a multipitch and you have to go... you know...
So you actually did the testing on this?
Yes and
the answer is no it's not dangerous.
I wonder if cats pee or dog's pee is more
aggressive than a human pee?
Hey let's go do some science!
So this is where the rope testing magic
happens and this is where you get those
six seven eight or whatever falls on the rope.
Exactly yeah.
Statistics.
The scenario is like really really hard
like we have a fall factor of around 1.7
we test the ropes with the 80 kilogram
steel mass which is like super static.
What are the forces on standard tests?
For a single rope it's
around like 8 to 9 kN.
For the first fall?
For the first fall.
And... we had the first problem.
so called standard rope test that every
manufacturer does is super extreme. In
order to make it more like a real
climbing fall, we needed to reduce it
below 4 kilonewtons. And if you ask why four,
it means that you haven't seen these two
videos where we tried to create their
hardest real climbing falls and measure
the forces of them.
That's why I said like maybe we try like
with a new rope to get like a feeling
like what falling height we need to have
like around this less than 4kN and then
we switch to your rope.
-Don't look, guess. -2 kN.
2 K? I think it's less.
Wow two and a half.
As I said these guys
are really good. It took only one fall,
and we got the force of two and a half
kilonewtons on a brand new rope. And that
was perfect because we were estimating
that once we swapped the ropes to the
old one the force will go slightly
higher because older ropes don't
absorb the impact as well and it's going
to be a perfect representation of
a realistic hard climbing fall.
So here's the tricky part:
when you fall on a rock,
sometimes it happens but almost the same
spot hits the
-top carabiner. -Yeah
And now the tricky part is how to place
that spot that it would be on a peak
force on the carabiner
Yeah.
Not easy. Or hard is easy.
As you can imagine, once the fall happens
the rope stretches and that soft spot that
we are trying to hit will move.
(indistinct)
You thought it's gonna be easy?
No no,
I knew it will be exactly like this.
The force to the rope will start increasing
increasing increasing increasing
increasing and at some point reaches the
maximum, and then the force will start
dropping dropping dropping dropping
dropping.
So the challenge is, how to position the
soft spot
that it would move over the quickdraw
as close to the peak of the force.
With this
small fall scenario a new rope
it's about like what? 400?
-300 400 500 . -Right. A lot
-So new rope would hold about 400 falls on...
-Small falls -Like, realistic falls.
Let's see what happens if we put that
damaged rope and see
if it's hundreds or it's just a few.
Do you think we will hit that spot or we
will be very far off?
I think we hit it yeah
where is it now? Like 30 centimeters
below.
Yeah it's around here now
and the rope is tense so probably this
will move up,
how much we will see.
So we overshot the soft spot just by a
little bit, so we will try to readjust
now and
see if we can hit it more perfectly.
So we managed to hit the spot at
2.47 kilonewtons of force, and now we will
try to increase the fall a little bit to
get to really hard falls.
-20, 30 centimeters? -Yeah let's do that.
Let's see if we will still stay in
the damaged spot where it will just
stretch over.
So we broke the sheath
we broke the sheath after two falls
and you said it's gonna last!
No but that's what I said like the
sheath will break...
What's was the force?
The force was
only 2.1.
Only 2.1 kilonewtons and the sheath
broke!
So...
if your rope is
soft, good luck.
If the sheath is already damaged like we
saw it like now this will lead like to
cut sheath like immediately. But the
the good thing is that the rope will not
snap
because the core strands like are
-still intact. -So how many falls it would
take now to completely snap the rope?
That's a good question, I never tested
this.
But we could do this I guess we can do
at least like two or three falls now
only on the core strands.
Yes yes.
Guess how many falls it's going to take.
20.
-20? -Yeah.
Wow so it took only two falls to completely shred this sheath.
But the good thing is like a rope is
constructed in a way that the sheath only
takes around like 10 to 20 percent
of the load,
and the rest like the
load bearing structure is basically only
the core.
Okay so
The question is if you take a rope and
you squeeze it so you feel that it's
soft completely inside, does it mean
that the core is damaged or no?
No because a lot of people think that
it's damaged inside.
The core is still intact.
Like if I were to cut the rope at
that spot would i find some damage
inside of the core strands?
It's difficult to say because over time,
the core strands, also when we do fall
tests, you can see that it gets a
little bit more hairy
if you would cut it open, but it's just
a couple of filaments that might have
broken, but it's not that an entire core
strand is broken, but it's weakened for
sure.
-Let's see if we can snap this rope now. -Yeah
So how many falls you said?
I don't know.
10 to 20?
10 to 20. let's see.
So this is one multifilament.
-Multifilament made out of multiple filaments. -Yes.
How much?
-280. -This is 280 inside of this so if I
would take one,
what force that one thing would hold?
Well you would not test it like this
because a multifilament you look at it
as the entire thing but what i can tell
you, that this core strand would hold 180 kilos
And we are not even reaching
-very hard falls yet. -No, this is nothing.
-So you see? -One strand snapped.
So you said 20 how many strands are
inside?
Two of eight!
So you said 20 falls?
10 to 20!
Apart from standard drop tests, what
are other tests that are performed on
-climbing ropes? - What we usually do is
also test the abrasion resistance of the
rope so there we have an in-house
developed testing method. So it's a
machine which pulls a rope over a sharp
metal edge and we are counting how many
cycles it takes for actually damaging
the sheath.
We have like two parts now broken.
So we have one part and two parts broken!
Yeah if we talk about abrasion resistant I
have some interesting stuff to show you.
200 cycles so 200 times
back and forth. Here you see a classic
rope so it does not have any treatment
impregnation, it's a 9.5. It's pretty
-worn out. -It is worn out! It's at the point
where i would consider maybe even
-cutting this. -Yes, and you should.
Then next to it, we have
also 9.5 but it has the dry treatment.
-What? That's a huge difference! -Yes.
That's exactly the same rope but just
-dry treated? -Yes. that's a huge huge difference.
It feels a little bit burnt like
when you touch it,
it definitely got hot,
like on the edge.
So your six lives got a bit damaged.
But that's good to know that you can climb.
You can climb? You would climb on this?!
I mean the Fitz Traverse
was done by Sean Villanueva like with a
sheath-cut rope, like from the
beginning. On I think the second pitch or
the third pitch he had a stone fall, and
his rope already got cut. Like the sheath
was completely damaged, and he did the
whole Fitz Traverse with this rope then.
He like rappelled a lot over it.
Does the percentage of sheath versus core strands...
-It's not always the same. -In sport climbing ropes?
Yeah or like climbing
-ropes in general. -It's not always the
-same now? -No.
-And what does it depend on? -Well for us
it depends on what kind of rope we want
-to make. -Sport Climbing.
Wait let me show you something.
-Show me something. -Okay so you have the interplay
of both the percentage of material that
is the sheath but also
how the sheath was constructed. For example
here on this rope we have more sheath
twines so
if you would count these
singular ones, they are much more than on
-this sheath. -Oh yeah that's almost double, no?
No that it isn't but it's just a slight
difference. But if you check out the
surface
you can see that here the little cubes
that they form are smaller
than on this one. So here we have a super
fine surface of the of the sheath so if
you for example would touch this one it
-feels much rougher. -Yeah.
so this is also what makes it more
durable.
Now one more and it snaps.
-Oh shit! -No kidding!
So we are still very far from twenty but
-what's the force? -Maybe I get some coffee huh? No?
(Camerawoman) Yes!
-It was already 3.4.
It's increasing and increasing so the dynamic
performance of the rope gets lower and
lower and lower.
This one here is our workhorse construction. It does not have
any treatment but we're using the best
and the finest yarns that we have to
make this construction. And it also.. I
would say you know it's as good as the
-dry rope. -So why
not all ropes are made this way where we
have finer construction?
Because price matters.
Yeah now I would like to see not 200 cycles
-but 1000. -Yes they come here. -Oh really?
Not to 2000 but to 500.
I would climb with
this one, and with this one. Or if i have
A risky day I would choose this.
Do you have risky days?
Sometimes...
Turns out size or diameter is
not all that matters when we talk about
durability, construction, and extra
treatments might have a bigger impact.
It's a crazy difference, no? Having in
mind that all of them will run through
the same process
to the point where super thin 9.0 millimeters rope looked
completely fine after 500 cycles of
dragging it across the sharp edge...
This one looks quite good.
Like a little bit fuzzy but I would definitely use it.
However much thicker
9.5 millimeters rope, but old
construction and no treatments, were
completely done.
My guess is five more falls and we snap it.
-Maybe not -I think we have to increase,
otherwise... yeah let's increase.
Everybody wants harder falls but it's already
getting harder, we went from a two and a
half to three and a half.
To increase?
You can just dropping keep dropping it. Yeah keep dropping it.
So I will get coffee
-what do you want? -Coffee. -Espresso?
-Lungo? -Lungo if possible.
-Are you asking the viewer? -With milk?
-Are you sending it to the viewers? -You want a coffee?
Now one interesting observation I got while
I was making this intro animation,
which by the way took me multiple days
and multiple attempts,
was that while the rope is new,
the file glides over the rope very
smoothly and it's pretty hard to make
any damage to it. But once the rope
starts becoming fuzzy, it becomes easier
to make some extra damage so it felt
like the
fuzziness or the damage to the rope is
kind of exponential the worse it gets
the easier it is to make it even worse.
Oh yeah let's do again. Only six
strands left.
-(Offscreen) Whoah! -(Offcreen) So... okay
So you can come back already with your coffee!
So the force went lower, but one
-strand snapped. -(Offscreen) No, two!
Two snapped but the sound of the strand
snapping was (vocalizes)
Is it bad if I scream behind the camera?
It's not the sound that you want to hear
when you're out climbing.
Okay: the fun part. How fuzzy is too fuzzy
or how soft the rope is too soft? When
-should people actually cut it? -I mean you
pull the rope through your hands to
check the ropes. This you should do on
-a regular basis. -And what are you doing
-when you're pulling? - Well, on the one hand
I feel the rope so I feel how the
rope behaves. If it's super soft, if it's
thicker, and at the same time you know
you you pull it over your finger and you
look at it so you do like a visual
inspection.
Beautiful rope. Would whip.
-Would you whip? -You would whip.
Oh the force went lower again
so basically the less core strands we
have, the better the rope is.
The softer the catch
I wouldn't see it that way but...
If you want a soft catch just break the
rope.
So let's say I'm running my rope through
my hand and I find a spot which is
softer. So how do I know if it's already
bad or...
First consider the whole rope. I mean
if you have a really soft rope because
they're... I mean some ropes are
already soft when you you buy them in
the store. I would say that our ropes
are a little bit stiffer in general and
we do that to make them more
long-lasting but if your whole rope is
very soft and you have a spot which is
just a little bit softer,
I would not like say oh
that's super dangerous, but if you
have
the rope is generally really stiff and
then you have one spot with this ultra
soft then you know
something is not right there. And exactly
what's not right there
there are so many things that it could be.
So as an example if I would be
just looking into this piece of the rope,
it would be pretty difficult to say how
soft it needs to be and if I should cut it.
But if I compare it to the middle of the
same rope, I can clearly see a big
difference. So this clearly is far from
what it used to be and it's better to
cut this end. And if you want some tips
on cutting ropes check out this video.
I don't think we can do another one.
Unfortunately the rope kept stretching
and stretching and stretching until we
almost reached the bottom of the drop
tower and we couldn't do any more
testing,
however we decided to show what happens
if you have 80 kilograms of mass hanging
on only core strands and you touch the
core strands with the knife.
Cut test
-It just barely touched it. -What did you do?!
You went too long.
What happened?
But what happened now?
So it didn't break so I was right with
10 to 20 right?
-Actually yes. -Yes thanks.
So basically what we got is
running very damaged rope on relatively
hard-ish...
-Maybe to normal fall? -Yeah, real kN scenario.
-Ripped the sheath of the rope
in just two falls which is very
dangerous. But then it was good to see
that the rope did not snap
and only the core strands kept holding
for multiple more falls so that's good to know.
Pretty good safety margin
But when he touched barely with the
sharp knife the core strands he just
barely touched it it snapped
so if your
sheath gets away,
and then your rope runs across something
-sharp on the rock... -Super dangerous.
Yeah
I think now we're coming to the second
scenario you wanna you wanna show when
-it comes to sharp edge scenarios... -Yeah.
like the ropes don't have this high
safety margin.
Well! I hope that you are subscribed because
the next experiment that I'm gonna show
in the next video is gonna blow your
mind, and probably change a little bit
the way you care about your climbing
equipment.
Okay, now I need you to pee.
Come on.