Searching for the Hardest Possible Climbing Fall - P.1

What are the forces on really hard Lead Climbing Falls? Are big or small falls harder for the climber?

Massive thank you for everyone who helped me to do these experiments.
P.s. NO one got injured ;)

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Thanks a ton!
Ben

I have some new toys today

which reminded me
this famous physics lecture.

[Music]

Well, more on toys later.

But now here is a quiz for you.

Which fall do you think
is harder for the climber:

this one

[Music]

or this one?

That was sick.

So a really hard indoors fall

where we intentionally created
a lot of drag

by zigzagging the rope.

And then belaying
in the hardest way we could.

Or a massive outdoors whipper?

Which do you think was
harder for the climber?

[Music]

So if you're one of these
99 percents of the people

who think that you know the answer

wait for it. Because it's not that simple

and I've been there and I'm gonna

explain throughout this video.

But actually the main motivation for me

for this video was not to just
compare these two falls

but to measure what are the forces

on really really hard
real climbing falls.

And now you might ask:

Who cares?

Like... numbers... whatever...

Rope...

A fuzzy rope...

happens. We keep falling and
falling and falling.

And the rope gets more and more damaged,

more and more fuzzy,

and in some extreme cases

very damaged. Like this one

got really really really erect

yum yum yum yum

And now the real question is

how dangerous this is.

Could i break

this rope on real climbing fall?

If I would have taken
a couple of more falls

would it have snapped

or no?

So the first idea how to test this
was very simple.

Just go outside and make a bunch of falls

and see if it's gonna snap.

Obviously by having some backup -

rope or something.

But yeah nobody would want to take

a bunch of really really hard falls

again and again and again and again

and then to make it

to hit that spot at the same spot

and again and again and again.

It would be pretty difficult.

So instead I decided

to reach out to Mammut

and ask if I could come and
play with their drop tower.

So this is where
the rope testing magic happens.

Basically every rope manufacturer
has a facility for

testing ropes.

Unfortunately so-called standard test

is really really hard.

What are the forces on standard tests?

Um... like around for a single rope

it's around like 8 to 9 KN...

Pretty much impossible

to reach in real life scenarios...

And my guess it would just
snap this rope instantly.

And that's not what i wanted to do.

I wanted to reduce to modify that test

to be more or less like
really really hard realistic fall.

And for that I needed to know

what are the real forces

on really hard falls.

Ha-hah, hard is easy...

And to do so it was
a good time for me to visit

Andy from LineGrip

And get myself a couple of these.

It's basically a device
that can measure forces.

It's the only device you can have logging

for a specific amount of time

without connecting any other device to it.

Like there's scales or load cells.

But you have to attach
a notebook... a laptop...

And that would be quite complicated
especially for him

to take a laptop with him...

And no this video is not sponsored.

I bought this

and the other one myself.

Well, so technically it's sponsored
by my curiosity

and by good people who support me

by visiting my website www.hardiseasy.com

So what's your estimate?

Oh I have to estimate the peak force?

Yes, of course.
Ah that'll be

2.95

2.95? Yeah!

Well, um as a developer
you have to be precise

It's 2.95
OK 2.95 Right.

Uh 3.1

2.5

What's your guess? 2.7 2.7

And what do you wish for?

What's you wish for? Zero... 1.5 please

1.5

So obviously to get real data we needed
to do real falls.

And doing really really hard falls
with real humans

is sketchy.

So if for whatever reason
you will decide to repeat this -

don't!

2.56
2.5 already

How does 2.5 feel?

Soft.

Soft? Yeah.

OK let's try harder.

So our plan was to start soft

and then keep making
harder and harder falls

where the belayer would do basically
the opposite of the soft catch.

Basically as hard as he can.

Yeah but that looked like a hard catch.

This time 2.89

2.89

Yeah.

That's close to three kilonewtons already.

But the fall this time...

How was the fall?

It felt much more harder than before.

Yeah I would say it was okay...

It doesn't feel hard? No it was not hard.

But it wasn't soft so.

That's a sacrifice for the experiment.

I feel sorry for you.

No problem. No problem, no problem?

His hands are bleeding... No problem...

'For science!' as Ryan says
'For science!'

For science!

What's your weight by the way? 72.

And yours, susan? 78.

So we swapped.

At some point we realized

that making really hard falls

just by belayer efforts

is not gonna be enough

so we decided to introduce
extra friction in the system.

Ah that's a nice workout :)

Advanced course

So how does it feel to fall
on your own equipment?

That feels cool.

But let's see how it feels falling at all.

Because I'm such a good climber
I never fall.

Aah. So maybe you should watch my videos
about fear of falling.

And to play safe since
we switched the system a little bit

we started with a soft catch.

So how did it felt for you? 1.6 KN.

It was... The fall was cool.

But the swing was enormous.

Don't jump backwards when you fall

Jump forward?
So i have to...

No-no, just let go...

Um yeah! This is actually
a very common mistake by beginner

fallers

is to push or jump away
from the wall during the fall.

Obviously the harder you
push away from the wall

the bigger the pendulum
into the wall gonna be.

And your legs are not gonna be happy.

So don't jump to the outside.

Yeah! just let go straight down.

Don't touch the rope!

One,

two,

three.

So you got only 2.1

How does that felt?

Uh I couldn't tell the difference
to before.

Except that the wall contact wasn't there.

No difference. Hard one. Hard one.

But in this time
when you fell straight down

you did not touch the wall at all.

Great! It'll be hard but it won't hurt.

Come on! Three, two,

one.

Oh!

2.6

Oh my god, that was crazy.

That was crazy and it's...

and it's only 2.6 KN.

So how was this fall for you?

Again it was perfectly okay

except for the wall contact. That was...

That was pretty hard this time

So

even harder

without me jumping out.

So, dummy. Yeah?

As hard as possible.

So don't jump out!

One, two, three.

2.8

At this point we had a ton of drag.

The belayer belay as hard as he can.

And we reached 2.8 KN
of force to the climber.

But Andy really wanted to reach

his 2.95 estimate.

So we decided to increase

the distance of the fall a little bit

Yeah, that's the drag.

Yeah, that's enough, I think.

That's enough, just start with that.

And don't forget to let go.

One, two, three.

2.9

2.9, it's very close to your guesstimate.

You said 2.95 is your guess.

I gotta go again.

Take this much more rope.

Yeah, no.

We actually maxed out what we can do

in that climbing gym

and trying to make even bigger fall

would result into the fall

which is too close to the ground.

But we had another test candidate.

And what's your weight?

65kg

One, two, three.

2.9

2.9?

And quiz number two.

How can a lighter climber

generate the same force
as the heavier one?

Well let's take a look again.

Whoa

Do you notice the difference?

So the lighter climber
fell more straight down

resulting into pretty much all the force

going into the rope.

While the heavier climber
jumped out a little bit.

That increased the pendulum.

So there is less force into the rope.

And more force into the pendulum.

Or into the wall...

Or into your ankles.

So here is a mini model

to demonstrate that.

If i take a 10 kilogram of mass

and drop it next to the anchor

I get 2.67KN

Now if i do this again

but i step a meter back

I get 2.1 KN

Because a bunch of force
went into the swing.

If I would try to

even increase the swing more...

Now the force was only 1KN.

So how was that last fall?

Oh it was hard...

Have you ever got a fall
that hard on real rock?

No, never

Almost or not close?

Yeah there was one that was close,

but not as hard as this one.

So still your estimate is off...

By 0.03

Shame on me!

That was close.

That was very close.

Do you know that our max

was exactly the same?

He had 2.92 and I had 2.92.
We...

Ah so maybe that's

the universal limit of the hard fall?
It is!

We found it! Yeah!

So a couple of takeaways from this.

First obviously it's really hard to design

a real life experiments
to be very precise.

Because it not only depends on

how high the fall was,

how heavy the climber was,

how hard the catch was.

But also how much

the climber jumped out from the wall.

So that's another thing to consider.

And obviously a practical takeaway

is that the harder you push yourself away

from the wall or jump away from the wall

the harder you will smack back
into the wall.

We have a game. If you squeeze it

it reads a number. Can you explain why?

Oh, yeah! It's a material deformation.

Uh,

there's two uh wow you call it

cut.

There's two strips that measure the

material deformation.

When you pull this you can't see

but the material stretches.

And these strips measure that.

And the electronics convert that

through a voltage that changes

through the stretch of the strips.

And so if you press

you also deform the material.

Just in a different way but

the strips just register
material deformation.

So you can go like this
or you can go like this

It's the same.

So basically long story short.

What are we gonna do with this now?

Oh, we're just gonna play a game with

who gets the highest number.

Number is irrelevant,
doesn't mean anything...

But...

Oh yeah it does. If it's the highest

you're the best.

Okay let's see. Go!

Me?

Of course!

Uh, zero.

All right.

So don't show my hand behind...

A scream at 0.4

You can do better,
do this.

Yeah but I use only three fingers,
so um...

No, do it again...

No let's give it fair.

I'll try a left hand.

No-no, just do the strongest best.

Give it your best

No way, no chance.

This is for two.
Yeah, but it wasn't me...

Who was it?

Look at the big guy.

Look at this guy.

Once again.

Wait, wait! We haven't
even seen the result.

Well, at least you're getting red.

0.68

That's for a right-hander
who works in the office.

Yeah.

But he just did with left hand.

Yeah, but he's right now the right hand...

76

Oh, no!

Oh, no-no.

What does it mean: 'Oh, no!'?

64 We'll try again. We'll try again.

Oh.

Oh, no.

59 59 That's not possible.

Once again, once again, once again

What was yours, I forgot?

76

So who is going to beat his record?

Try again, try again, beat him.

Oh no, it's not getting any...

You should either try passad

I didn't scream like 'a-a-ah'.

Go, go with scream, let's see if it helps.

No, it's not getting any higher.

No, it has got lower.
And don't put that in the video!

No, I won't.

This is not in the video that
you're watching now...

No, no, no.

Let me try.

Wait, wait! It says 0.01 already.

So I'm winning already by...
karma.

Let's see, it's already...
He's scared of it.

Let's see how should I go like full hand

or just the finger.

Yeah maybe it's a technique thing.

He's not really strong.

He's just got the best technique.

OK.

It was a bigger scream than the result.

Yeah.

OK.

71. I still need 0.3 to match him.

How hard do you climb?

Sorry? How hard do you climb?

Very hard...

Very hard?!

I've found the trick.

Oh, no.

Oh, no. Wait, you did it behind your back.

What was it?

No way!

What? No, I feel that i'm cheating.

So the trick is that

before what i was trying was this.

Yeah, right. So what else?

But now I did this.

And that gives me way.

Wait, oh...

Yeah...

I am, thanks...

But what if you twist it even more?

So you go from corner to corner.

So basically my grip is strongest

in this position.

That's why i get more. Yeah.

Yeah, he's getting
seven something already.

OK, let's go.

Are you ready? Zero...

OK, so...

This.. let me...

Let me just show mine.

No.

That's good compared to before.

You were talking about challenge.

And, uh, we could do that challenge.

And LineGrip corporation would sponsor

two thousand dollars

for the challenge winner.

Can i get it?

I've won already. No?

So let me get this straight.

Like if I travel around

and give this to people?

Yeah. Does that count or no? Yes.

It counts? Yes, it counts.

OK.

Because so far i'm winning...

Most of all,

you're like the guinness book juror.

You check that they don't cheat.

So, so far i'm winning. Right?

If nobody presses harder than this

I get 2 000 euros.

True. Nice.

OK, I know that you want to try.

Do you want to try double?

That's not gonna work.

I like his power sсream.

What's your power scream!

Tsss

Adam Ondra was my coach.

Alright, now I have to

go and edit the part two of this video.

So I'm just gonna leave you
with this link here.