Do Rope Specs Matter? Every Test and Parameter Explained

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