ah hello curious human I don't know if
you ever looked into the technical
specifications of a climbing rope but it
does have a lot of mysterious numbers
that I think are there just to confuse
the new climbers and then it has a lot
of seemingly obvious things like
diameter length weight however if you
try to measure them and I have tried
that many times you will never get the
numbers that are declared so I had two
goals for this video the first one was
to visit my nerdy friends at mamut
welcome to the world of Destruction
welcome to the world of Destruction she
says and see how every parameter is
measured in the lab and what those
numbers actually mean and then I got
curious is there any difference between
different ropes meaning if I take 9.5
from one brand and then I would take 9.5
rope from the other brand will there be
any difference in technical
specifications or it's pretty much all
the same nowadays so I ended up scraping
the internet and collecting
specifications of hundreds of climbing
ropes and then building correlation
charts between different
parameters so yeah all with the goal to
make you a bit of a climbing rope nerd
or nerd
this the Holy Bible the Holy Bible
standards
so you follow the Bible when you do the
testing yes this is actually like um
short version short version yes you even
add underscores like so geeky yeah
that's instead of space he just adds
underscore Dash so I have here a classic
report an internal report in which we
have to provide numbers for a
construction diameter the weight of the
Corp and the weight for the sheath and
then of course we we sum it up and then
we get the weight per per gr per meters
okay you're overloading me already let's
go one by one one by one construction
test construction test what is that so
construction is a number that will be
tested that the consumer will never
see just make a
pric and then
I
slowly let the wait in so you just put
now 10 kg 10 kg and then now we should
wait for a minute but in the meantime I
can explain you you say Okay I want to
start from here then you follow a
straight line you come back to the same
pattern and you do this five
times one two three and five certified
ruler my minute is almost done so now I
can take my measurement this is 17 cm my
construction will be 17 cm divid 5 34 mm
this means that
every 34 mm we have a repetition in the
in the pattern in the pattern exactly
the smaller the size that means you have
more material on the same surface area
so if you have more material on the same
surface area it gets more
stiff if it's more spread out that means
the angle of the twins is a little bit
more steep mhm then you have less
material on the same surface area and
then it's softer so are you aiming to
have more material in the same or it's a
balance that you're playing with you're
trying to get the best hand feel for the
Rope Mamud ropes for example are usually
known to be a little bit stiffer so we
know what kind um of construction we
need to make in order to achieve this
this is actually very interesting if you
compare Dynamic ropes from different
Brands you can feel that some of them
can be very soft While others can be
much stiffer unfortunately as Adriana
said I was not able to find any Brands
listing construction on their data
sheets pel does have a property named
construction but what they actually list
is the number of bobbins that were used
in the making of the Rope so it's a
different parameter which is also very
rare to find on specifications but the
more B Robins used the smoother the Shi
of the Rope is going to be the cubicles
that make the Rope will be much smaller
which creates less friction and should
increase the durability of the Rope but
back to the softness of the Rope
personally I would like a uiaa soft test
unfortunately currently we only have one
test which is somewhat related next test
next test it's called notability test
it's part of the static rope test but we
do it anyways even for our Dynamic ropes
we have to do is make a simple overhand
knot so they are both overhand knots
they are opposite they're mirroring each
other 10 kg let it sit
gently for a
minute we have this uh Harry Potter wand
Harry Potter wand
do you know any
spells
uh oh that would be useful for climbing
yeah lift myself up to the next bolt
then I gently take out I only leave the
1 kilogram and now without putting
pressure I need
to make it go
in so here is roughly
seven here I go
seven so notability is a ratio between
rope diameter and magic wand penetration
the smaller the number the softer the
Rope is but it's rare to see
manufacturers providing this number for
dynamic ropes so if you are particular
on how soft you want your rope to be
unfortunately you will have to go out
into the climbing shop and touch oh next
one is my favorite one diameter diameter
exactly I've tried to measure this so
many
times and it's a wild west when you
measure it so show it how you arrive to
9.5 okay so 9.5 9.8 I have to measure
within one meter of sample of course
there's always a tolerance now I get my
caliper with the special flat edges oh
it's a different caliper yeah
now I have to take six measurements I'm
not trying to squeeze to get my number
but without putting pressure I need to
go around and see where it's
maximum it should be here
10.03 and then I can turn
90° 9.8 so you found the thickest point
in that spot and the thinnest
and you take the average of that
yes then here I do the
same
9.84 +
103
9.82 so I divide everything by my six
measurements then I get a 9.95 and what
was it supposed to be
9.8 so we are
015 over yes so something to know is
that by standard we have a
0.2 um tolerance for the diameter so
every rope I buy as a plus minus yeah to
factor in the various steps of
production which you cannot control down
to the 0 mm so basically whatever goes
on the package is plusus 0.2 mm anyway
measured in preloaded way exactly so
that's why pretty much every time I try
to measure it is way more more mhm so no
point in doing this at home well now now
we know now now you know how yes but
also all the samples would need to be
climatized at a certain temperature and
humidity percentage so we put it in that
big cabinet over there which keeps
23° and 50% humidity and technically
this test has to be done within a
certain time upon removal 1 minute to
hang the 10 kg then within 1 minute you
had to measure the construction within
another minute you had to measure the
diameter so you're running from there to
here yeah I try to be fast okay and you
know what always fascinates me how such
a small change can make such a big
difference if we compare 9.0 rope
against 9.5 rope you will feel a big
difference however at the same time it's
only half a millim difference now we can
do the weight per meter don't need this
I'm going to cut on the same side of the
pin I put in just to factor in that bit
of
H oh okay and also
here so this is 1 M if you put 10 kilog
yes and then here what we do is we take
the core out and measure it and also as
you can see this is another really
precise kill if I go like this
it changes so basically just little bit
of wind does change the reading yes
exactly now I
do the sheath weight now in rope
specifications you will always find
combined weight per meter and shift
percentage however if you want to know
the total weight of your rope
multiplying weight per meter by the
meters which seems obvious is not going
to be accurate at all so first as you
saw their meter is taken from the loaded
rope but also manufacturers Package 2 to
3% more length of the Rope than what
they declare on the package and that's
done because ropes have a tendency to
shrink over time so manufacturers are
being nice to us by giving more of the
Rope now obviously there is a clear
correlation between the diameter of the
rope and the weight but what is
interesting is is that the variance can
still be very big for example there are
10 mm ropes that are lighter than some
of 9.5 ropes now personally I'm not a
big fan of chasing the lightest and
smallest in everything but if the weight
is a big factor for you you might be
entertained to know that multiple Brands
claim to have the lightest double rope
on the market next test next test shift
slippage shift so now exactly so this is
your favorite room in summer for sure
when it's really hot so now this end is
open and this one is sealed cuz I cut it
with the heat cutter now I can explain
you what this
is exactly this very simple let's call
it machine is defined uh this machine is
called
machine no it's called shift slippage
machine oh sh shift shift she slippage
machine exactly so what we're going to
do here we have this uh three 5 kilogram
weights and we're going to engage them
so now this one is pulling this one is
pulling and this one is pulling so now
in here we have three standardized bolts
and they're pulling on three Direction
different directions so one is pulling
this way this one is pulling this way
this one is pulling down mhm what I have
to do I have to pull it until the end
comes within this marks that's why I
have my uh my mirror here so I can check
so I can
start and it has to be a continuous
speed and I'm
there so you pulled the rope with some
pressure from three sides towards the
Rope
yes and now you reset and pulling again
yes and I have to do this five times
so it's basically rope squeezer yeah
number
five as you see I've never touched this
part right I was always pulling and
pushing from this part now I slide it
back
again you're talking like a magician you
know of course Pini as you see nothing
happens here and now look Poof
Magic now you can actually see
here exactly where we had our Mark the
shei hasn't moved he really sounds like
a magician
now you want some some poof trick number
one I know this is actually something I
I really really like uh shift slip is
zero that's why we declare zero so what
you could expect usually is to have your
core to be now it's just out and then
you would have to measure like this this
will be 6.77 mm and this we will call
minus 6.7 cuz it goes out so what I had
happened where I cut the rope even
though I burn the end but maybe I don't
burn it very well and I go climbing and
sometimes some of the core starts coming
out is this related to this yes so with
this rope which is declared as zero
sheep slippage the core would not start
coming out of the if one end is sealed
if one end is sealed and if both ends
were cut then the core is free to move
it's like a snake in a tube it just goes
back and forth if you wants I've done
this many times I still sometimes find
it difficult to burn the end well you
might burn a little bit and it's there
is still visibly big holes then you
start burning more then it all goes on
fire and then the big Clump happens well
what I do sometimes times but this is
you hit the knife no I I use I use a
stove you make it really hot and then
try to tension it as much as much as
possible and use bars going through the
you know the gas burning use that one as
a knife oh so it it it will look like
this and then you have that fume of
plastic coming out of your stove for how
many days that's not safe maybe because
you're burning plastic but this is not a
m Cor recommendation this is a a
recommendation okay now when it comes to
shift slippage unfortunately not all the
brands list that information on their
websites and in some cases they list
only on some of the ropes so if it's
zero they list zero if it's not zero
then who knows and according to the
standard this information should be on
the packaging however if you're shopping
online then good luck knowing now we
have to do static elongation so these
are reflected tapes and I'm putting it
just a little bit above my clamps one at
the bottom one here at the top now sorry
I go in only while the machine is not
running just because I have to play with
lasers of course exactly I can
start only while the machine is not
running
instead so it went into a pre-tension
phase and now I need to check that the
laser is actually in place so I read the
first one because you saw it stopped and
beep and blinked now we'll reach the top
one and blink
again let's just close this
one so as you can see the the lasers are
going up ah so your markers are going up
and the lasers keep following them
exactly and we have our holding time of
3 minutes and it keeps holding exactly
80 kg as the Rope is relaxing it keeps
pulling more that's why you can see here
D L elongation of the sample compared to
the starting position yeah see it keeps
increasing so if I stand here and the
laser misses the marker it shines
straight to my eyes yeah and then you
get to stay home from
work I just smiling saying
thisas okay so machine completely
relaxed yes and your lasers went down
yes and you got the results
5.71% so static elongation is basically
imitating you sitting in the Rope or
taking a top rope fall and for most
dynamic ropes it's between 5 to 10%
where 10% is the maximum allowed by the
standards let's say you want to top rope
a 30 m long route and the climber takes
a fall close to the ground so so we have
total 60 M of rope in the system Let's
ignore all the potential zigzags
friction and maybe slack and let's say
that we are using a rope with 5% of
static elongation so such Fall Would
stretch the Rope for 3 m but if our
static elongation would be closer to 10%
then the fall or the stretch would be up
to 6 M and that would be really bad for
top roping with such rope at the same
time it would also be a bad rope for
projecting cuz every time you would pull
on the Rope you would be just stretching
it like a rubber band but I'm going to
come back to this topic after we see how
Dynamic elongation and impact force is
measured so so yes welcome to the fancy
drop tower exactly super fancy that it's
all kind of automatic I see it's doing
its thing and you're doing nothing yeah
yeah yeah besides running up and down
the
stairs so now basically just went up
checked all the positions now I have to
tie in the
sample secure it one two so there is no
knot at this end
no ah so it's friction but in the end
there is still some kind of clamp yes
and what we do here with these three
turns is to not have the force of the
Fall absorb here yeah it would break it
that spot exactly it would just
basically choke it and cut it so our
goal here is to simulate a really high
factor fall for example you're
multipitch climbing and you start off
you always you know back up at the
anchor cuz you don't want to fall
directly into the blade device so this
is your blade device then the Rope goes
to the anchor and then you take 2 m and
a half yeah more or less and then you
climb all the way above it yeah and you
take a massive whipper and you are a
still Monas of 70 kg 80 80 kg steel Mass
falling in in a in a freeway there's no
friction you don't slam in the wall so
it's falling
vertically I am it's preloading what
what just happened we tied the top I did
an eight knot at the bottom and now we
are elongating the Rope 80 kg are
sitting in the rope and just you know
okay so before the drop it's already
elongating for one minute I usually say
that this kind of activates the
Rope my minute was gone and now it's
going back
up opening again the clamps because now
we need to calibrate to measure the
exact length so at first you put some
weight on the Rope so it stretches to
certain degree yeah and only then you
are calibrating the length yeah so now I
put this two
then I let 10 kg
in so by doing this we make sure that
from here to there there will always be
the same sample length but it's not like
I am pulling here to to get it as tight
as possible and then comes another
tester and they maybe pull a little bit
more than me a little bit less then here
I'm just basically doing a mark with my
adding 3,000 and I'm not sponsored by
adding but it's just this is the marker
that you need to use for your ropes cuz
it doesn't hurt them it's very important
to Mark the Spot to see that the Rope
remained in the same position because if
it would slip somehow then you would
always deliver more or new material to
the deflection Edge you would get ah cuz
you are trying to hit always exactly the
same spot in every fall yeah if you have
a rope slippage in the clam then it's
enough un
result so now what it's hanging again
now it's hanging again again and I
thought you just going to drop and
that's it but like entire preparation
procedure and now this is actually the
most important part because after this
one we will read exactly the SLE sample
length so the the machine takes a
measurement of the length yes down to
the 01
mm so now it's just going to go Kaboom
yes oh man that's a big whipper on
this like okay so now this is our rope
as you see yeah it's like completely
going up you see there's no more there's
no stretch right okay so pretty much
every all the rope that you had is going
up there
yes wow that is like still a big bang
big bang
yeah imagine when it rips then it's a
real big bang so we had a 30% elongation
and Max Force was
8.85 K all right let's start with
elongation I thought that a stretchy
rope is a stretchy rope meaning that if
it has high static elongation it should
have high Dynamic elongation and while
there is a correlation at the same time
there are ropes with high Dynamic
elongation but low static and there are
ropes with high static elongation but
low
Dynamic interesting and actually what it
is really interesting to see is this
one that wasn't there 20 cm maybe 15 cm
yeah of just you know elongated rope now
we have a 5 minute waiting time and a
little bit of this elongation will go
back into place mhm but uh some part uh
will stay let's say stressed forever now
the second parameter we got from the
first drop is the impact Force which
according to the standard should not
exceed 12 kons but most ropes nowadays
will be between 7 and 1 half to 9 kons
anyways however Bill stood out with a
lot of low impact ropes so I was
wondering why and the answer Bec visible
once I plot elongation versus impact
Force turns out they make much
stretchier ropes so if you make a rope
which stretches more obviously that
helps to reduce the impact Force however
as I already explained more stretch is
not always better so a perfect rope
should minimize both elongation and the
impact Force now since I have this huge
database of rope specs I got curious so
which ropes do have the lowest
elongation and impact Force combined I
filtered out all super skinny and super
thick ropes since I don't like them and
voila a list of ropes with the best
Dynamic properties on
paper now are you going to feel the
difference if your rope is 10 to 20%
softer would be interesting to do maybe
some human testing to figure out but the
big elephant in the crack is that all of
those specs are taken from the first
fall only who knows how all of these
ropes are going to perform after
hundreds of Falls maybe softer ropes are
going to lose their Dynamic properties
even faster unfortunately at the moment
there is nothing in the standards that
would test long-term performance of
climbing ropes which is
sad so
UAA but let's continue with our tests
after five minutes rest we have another
drop and this rest drop process is
repeated until the Rope finally breaks
you already see this is like a super
harsh condition this is something that
even in reality is hard to replicate and
then in this s scenario we do this drop
over and over again only with a break of
5 minutes in between drops so the Rope
doesn't really have time to recover and
what you also need to think about that
you're dropping into the exact same
position each each time so the number of
how many of these false the rope with
stood is written on the packaging and
that number is there mainly to confuse
the new climbers into thinking that you
can only fall for let's say five FS but
in reality we never achieve such hard
Falls and you can fall for hundreds of
times before the ends of your Rob starts
to wear down also while on average fer
robes do have higher UIA full rating
some brands use bare minimum of five
Falls even for their beefy ropes so as
it stands for now this fall rating is
only an indicator that your rope is safe
rather than how long is it going to be
safe next test uiaa water test same
setup as before for the shift slippage
same machine the only thing that we're
going to change here is that we're
putting new bolts every single sample
that we do so it's a onetime use product
unfortunately not very sustainable but
if you wouldn't do it the inside of the
bolts would change over time because of
the abration of the Rope so these are
some of the the used ones so it's full
of fibers so the Rope goes through the
bolt yes and then as before you have
three bolts one gets pulled down this
one gets pulled this way and this one
gets pulled this way one goes that way
one goes that way and one go this one
goes down so now you and I have to pull
this back and forth oh and and me as
well yeah of course how do you do this
alone I just run back and forth so I
pull yeah oh W try to keep it as level
as possible stop and now follow
me
yeah this is a warm up for
climbing know what would be funny m
[Laughter]
I expected
it so now we have more fluffy rope yeah
and we do this to simulate a a rope in
normal use we do not want to do this
water test on a brand new rope because
it would not be
realistic and then oh the fumes are
delicious now 24 hours 23
50% humidity another time sensitive
Endeavor yes so now I'm going to take a
sample the one you and I prepared
[Music]
yesterday let's
go basically it is important to to be
fast on this one okay so put my C in
and I make sure that there's water
running on top of it now I start my time
I'm checking the water flow per minute
so it is not submerging the Rope
completely under water 2 L per minute
plus - 02 and then the water is running
on top of our fuzzy prepared rope and
you see here it's really important that
your ends are sealed otherwise the water
will just you know go in
rather than stay outside with a dry
treatment it looks like the end of the
Rope is pissing a little bit yeah a
little bit and it's going to take now 15
minutes so we can 15 minutes we can go
for a
coffee okay now our 15 minutes are done
I need to take it off place here and
just drop
it that is funny three times that is
very funny change
do the
same on the other side now I place it
here and now we it's time to weigh it so
what are you aiming for we usually are
around 1% maybe a bit less to claim that
it's a dry rope when you do this
test she's good at this what she's
really good at this are we ready to go
to the weekend
are we ready to go to the weekend we're
talking about the dry limits sorry so
yeah usually to declare that your
water now while digging through all the
different manufacturer websites I found
out that there are a lot of different
dry treatments with different labels
sometimes the treatments are added only
to the Shi sometimes both the sheath and
the cor and sometimes they are better
for our planet and labeled as PF F C3
but just because the Rope is treated
with something it doesn't mean that it's
past UIA water repellent test to have
UIA water repellent label the Rope needs
to absorb less than 5% of water and if
you want to learn more about what
happens when the water penetrates the
Rope I have made a video showing exactly
that both in theory and in
experiments [ __ ] there's the lad coming
out and as a side note dry treatment not
only blocks the water from entering but
also the dust which can greatly increase
the lifespan of the Rope we also tried
washing the rope and see if that helps
so yeah that's another Shameless plug of
my previous videos what the
hell yeah she's using the
heels hi Mobility people hi Mobility you
have shorter legs hey no no leg short
leg
shaving you can't even put your legs on
the
[Music]
pedals
wo I just did a wheelie I'm just doing a
wheelie do this I need to Le more
forward so I
didn't I'm going I'm going I'm going
he's going so sometimes I get U
impressed by the amount of people who
watch my videos when I'm making and I'm
filming I'm just here alone and it's so
hard to imagine so many of you watching
this so thank you I appreciate it it's
super nice and thank you for mammut for
sharing all of these geeky topics with
us yeah