Ep.5 Ropes - Choosing a correct Rope, How many falls can it Hold? & Why Ropes Twist?

- Whoppa, welcome to a master
class about climbing ropes.

(rope rasping)

In this video, we are gonna look

into different types of climbing ropes.

I'm also gonna explain how
many falls you can take

on a typical climbing rope and
how to extend its lifespan.

Muh.

Plus, why ropes twist and kink,

and what to do about this,

and many other tips and tricks
related to climbing ropes.

This video is part of
Belay Masterclass Series,

where I go into deep details
of climbing techniques

and safety, and each episode builds

on top of the previous ones.

So if you're a beginner,

I highly recommend to watch them in order.

Let's go.

So if you would gut your climbing rope,

you would find these white strands inside.

This is called a core and
it contributes the majority

of the climbing ropes strength,

while the sheath, which is outside,

is protecting the core

and it's highly resistant to abrasion.

Ah, beautiful.

And then in some of the ropes,

you have this plastic inside

which has extra
information about the rope,

including its production date.

It says, Sterling Rope,
1st Quarter of 2017.

While other ropes might just
have this colored thin strip.

Every year manufacturers change
the color of this plastic.

And if you ask them,

they might tell you what's
the date of production

of this rope.

So we have dynamic ropes and static ropes

and to be more precise,
completely static ropes

do not exist.

That's why on some of the
manufacturer websites,

they will be listed as
semi static or low stretch.

These static ropes normally
stretch between two and 5%

when they're statically loaded,

while a dynamic rope
would stretch about 8%,

if you would just statically
hang on that dynamic rope.

Now if you were to take
a really hard lead fall

on a dynamic rope that
would stretch this rope

up to maybe 20% while
manufacturers will list

dynamic elongation between 30 and 40%.

But that's on really hard lab tests

that are impossible to
achieve in real life.

A really cool fact about climbing ropes

is that while they are
designed to stretch,

they are also designed
to not stretch too much

otherwise during the fall,

you would just go (vocalizes)
all the way to the ground.

And on top of that,

they're are also designed
to not create impact forces

that could injure the climber.

So that means that you can
take pretty much any imaginable

climbing fall and you should be fine.

And in fact, big falls
usually tend to be softer

than small falls,

because you have more dynamic
rope to absorb that fall.

And I already made a video

explaining all of that in greater details,

so highly recommend to watch that.

And static ropes...

Well, you should not fall on a static rope
to begin with.

And they are made for applications

where minimum stretch is required,

for example, ascending the rope

If I would try to ascend a dynamic rope,

this is what happens.

(rope rasping)

Okay.

Now fighting against the bungee jump, wee!

And in the case of static
rope, this is how it looks

and I'm already sitting and I can go up.

(rope rasping)

Much less of a bungee jump.

There are three types of dynamic ropes.

First one is single ropes.

They are marked with a little
circle with number one inside

and sometimes as single.

And that just means that
you need a single rope

and you can go climbing.

And that's what's mainly
used in sport climbing.

Ah!

And these ropes range from nine
to 10 millimeters thickness.

Next we have half ropes.

They are marked as a half in a circle.

They are also sometimes
called double ropes.

They are thinner and
lighter than single ropes,

but you need two of them to go climbing.

When climbing with half ropes

you need to clip them
in alternating patterns.

So I have this one clipped
here, then I clip the next one

to another protection point.

And then I put this one here
and it's ideal if I can clip

all the protection points on
my right side with one rope,

while all the protection on my left side

with the other rope.

Like so.

This would also reduce the friction a lot

compared to climbing with a single rope,

but it can also lead to a lot of mess

when you need to deal with two ropes.

When you take fall on half ropes

the first rope is gonna
take majority of the impact

while the second rope
is gonna assist in that.

So it's gonna be something like, I fall,

this rope gets tense and after some time

this rope gets tense as well
and helps the other rope.

So most of the impact
will go to the top rope.

Climbing with two ropes
is usually done in alpine

or multi-pitch scenarios
where damage to the ropes

is more likely, so having two
of them is obviously safer.

Plus, when you need to rappel to go down,

you can tie both of your ropes together

and that lets you to
rappel greater distances.

And the last category
is called twin ropes.

They are marked as two
overlapping circles.

Usually they are thinner
than double ropes,

but same as double ropes,

you need two of them to go climbing.

The difference is that
twins like to be together

like good twins, and when
you climb with twin ropes,

you need to clip them together.

You clip them together.

(clips rattling)

Oop!

So twin ropes you clip
together, while half ropes,

you clip separate.

Now a question, can you
clip half ropes together?

So is this okay to do with half ropes?

Well, in general, you
should use your ropes

only for the types of climbing
that they are certified for.

Twin ropes are designed
to be more stretchy.

So when you fall on two of them,

you will receive the correct
amount of elasticity.

While in double rope case,
as I mentioned before,

the first rope takes majority of the fall

and the second rope just
assist a little bit.

If you would clip two double
ropes to one protection point

that could result into very hard catch.

However, some ropes might be
certified for multiple uses.

For example, it might say

that it's okay to use
this rope for single rope,

for double rope and for twin rope.

In that case, feel free to use your rope

in any way you desire.

Now imagine a millimeter,
tiny, tiny millimeter.

Now imagine 1/3 of the millimeter.

It's super-tiny.

But if you were to take a
rope, which is 9.5 millimeters,

and you would take a rope,
which is 9.8 millimeters,

which is only 1/3 of the
millimeter difference,

you would feel a difference.

9.8 definitely feels thicker
and the rope will be heavier.

So we are kind of used to this 9.8, 9.5,

but think about it, it's
only 1/3 of the millimeter.

That's crazy.

I dunno, maybe it's just me

who sees joy in such things in life,.

But let's continue.

Typically a single rope will arrange

between nine and 10 millimeters thickness

and the thicker the rope is
the more durable it's gonna be,

the longer it's gonna last you.

However skinnier ropes
will reduce friction.

They go easier through
quickdraws and belay devices,

and they also feel nicer to clip.

My personal sweet spot for
outdoors rope is 9.5 millimeters.

I had couple of 9.2s in the past,

and while it feels very
nice to climb with them,

it doesn't take very long
until you need to cut them.

And anything above 9.8 already
feels very thick and heavy.

However, if you are mainly
planning to climb indoors,

then thicker rope is
actually a good option

because indoors the routes are shorter

and they have way less drag,

so thicker rope is gonna be fine

and it's gonna last you longer.

And another thing to be aware of,

if the rope is super-thin and stiff,

it might be difficult to pull on it.

For example, my friend had
this 9.4 millimeter rope

and after a few days of
climbing with this rope

my little finger was already bleeding.

I was cutting my finger every time

I was pulling on the rope.

And another super-interesting
fact about climbing ropes

is that over time they swell in diameter,

they get thicker, and
they shrink in length.

So just after first few
uses the rope might shrink

already a few percent and then
up to 10% over its life span.

And that's why manufacturers
will typically cut the ropes

a little bit longer than
what they are specified.

For example, Mammut says that they we will

cut the rope 2.5% longer.

Okay, so what length of
the rope should you get?

If you're planning to climb
mostly single pitch routes,

then I would highly
recommend 80 meters rope.

First of all, it's already
getting quite common

to find routes up to 40 meters length,

and obviously you need
at least 80 meters rope

to be able to go up and down such a route.

And also the most damage to
the ropes typically occur

at the ends of the rope.

So that's why you can
cut the ends of the ropes

and still have very usable
length of the rope left.

I'm gonna talk about this a
little bit later in this video.

And for a climbing gym, a shorter,

maybe around 40 meters
rope is gonna be enough,

but check on your gym to
see how tall your walls are.

Most single ropes will have a black marker

indicating the middle of the rope.

And this is useful in multiple situations.

For example, when you're belaying

and you see a middle marker
going past your belay device,

you should communicate
that to your climber,

otherwise he might not have enough rope

to get down from the route.

Or when you're setting up
the rappel to go down

it's very handy to know where
the middle of the rope is.

And then on some of more expensive ropes,

you might have completely
different pattern

on different sides of the rope.

So in this case, it's really easy to find

the middle of the rope

and you will never miss
that black marker again.

So cool feature, but more expensive.

Now you might find ropes
that are labeled as dry.

What it means? That they
were specially treated

to resist water.

If the rope is untreated and gets wet,

it can absorb up to 50% of its weight.

And then it gets very heavy,

it gets very difficult to
handle and in very cold

conditions, it might also freeze.

Plus wet ropes also lose their strength.

So if you're planning to climb
in cold and wet conditions,

then you must have a dry rope.

Now another benefit of a dry treatment

that not only locks the water
from getting inside your rope

but also protects from sand and dust,

and that greatly extends
the life of both your rope

and your quickdraws because
sand inside the rope

makes it like a sandpaper
for your quickdraws.

And on top of that,

dry treatment also makes
the ropes smoother.

So not only it's gonna
run through quickdraws

and belay device with less friction.

It's also good against abrasion.

Here is Mammut's untreated
rope compared to a dry rope

after the same abrasion testing.

Okay, so I feel that I
sold dry treatment already

and I have to say that the
downside of dry treatment

is it's price.

Dry ropes are significantly
more expensive.

If you're planning to use
your rope mainly indoors,

then you definitely do not need dry rope.

Now if you're planning to
use your rope outdoors,

but you're not planning to go
into cold and wet conditions,

then some manufacturers produce ropes

that are only sheath dry
treated, while the core is not.

That gives extra durability
compared to completely

non-treated ropes.

It's cheaper, but it's not as
durable as fully treated rope.

So the famous question,

how many falls you can
do on a climbing rope?

If you look into the specification
of dynamic climbing rope,

you will find UIAA fall ratings,

and it's gonna be between
five and 10 falls.

And this number confuses a lot of people.

For example, I was watching
some fun climbing fail videos

from Joshua, from YouTube
channel, "BetaClimbers".

- Holy crap!
- Holy fudge!

- Yeah.
- That's how you're-

- And if you like seeing people fail,

you should check him out,
it's quite ridiculous.

And then Joshua said this,

- And you're only supposed
to fall on your rope,

I think, 10 times,

and that's what the manufacturers say.

- So that's not true.

And let me explain what
this UIAA fall ratings mean.

When ropes are tested for this standard,

they attach 80 kilograms of
mass and keep dropping that mass

with five minutes in between the drops

(machine clunking)

and see how many falls
the rope will survive.

If you are a nerdy person,

here are more details about that test.

If you're not, don't worry about this

and here is what actually matters.

The impact during that test usually begins

around nine kilonewtons on a first drop'

and then way over 12 kilonewtons
on the repeated falls.

If you would replace
that 80 kilograms mass

with the real climber, and
the body of the climber

would absorb a lot of the impact himself,

plus make sure that the
other end of the rope

is not tied in to
something, but its belayer

which will move up during the fall,

you would get forces that
are significantly lower

than what they achieved
during these lab tests.

In real life scenarios,

the forces are usually around

two kilonewtons on average falls,

or four kilonewtons on
some extremely hard falls.

And that means that in real life,

if you're not doing something
really crazy stupid,

it's pretty much impossible
to generate forces

that would be even close
to what they're getting

in the lab tests.

And that also means that if your rope

is not cut or damaged somehow

it's literally impossible to break it

on normal, real life falls.

But still how many falls you
can do on a climbing rope?

So this is an example of the rope

that I have for two years so far,

and I've been climbing around every second

or every third day for these two years.

So I could estimate that I
had about a thousand falls

easily on this rope so far,

and this includes some small
falls, big falls or whippers.

So falling almost every climbing session

and this rope's seen a lot of that.

Wah!

So what normally happens

is that your end of the climbing rope

will wear down way quicker
than the middle of the rope,

because you will be falling
on pretty much the same spot

again, and again, and again,

and that creates very tight
radius over the quickdraw,

and with repeated falls,

your ends of the rope will get worn out.

It usually happens about one
to two meters away from the end

because that's the spot which
gets hit on the quickdraw

on every fall.

A test that you can do to
assess the damage of the rope

is by rolling the rope like this,

and trying to find a part
of the rope where you can

completely squeeze the rope like this.

And then it's a good
idea to compare that to

undamaged part of the rope.

You can see if I try to squeeze
undamaged part of the rope,

it's like big angle,

and it's very nice radius of the rope.

However, if I go to the part
which is already damaged

and soft, this is not good anymore.

At this point, I would already
cut the end of this rope.

If not, you might take few more falls

and then this would happen

where the robe got completely wrecked.

It's super, super bad.

I never seen a rope,

fucked so hard.

And the funniest part that
it happened in two spots

during the same climb.

So a climber was projecting
and he kept falling,

and falling, and falling on his project,

and he didn't even notice

that his rope is like this already.

This is crazy, and this
is super-dangerous.

So don't wait until this happens to you.

So your end of the rope is
damaged and you want to cut it.

Here's how.

Step one, take a piece of climbing tape

and wrap it around your rope

at the part where you will be cutting it.

Then take a sharp knife
and carefully cut the rope.

(saw grinding)

And gently melt the tip of the rope

to prevent the core from running away.

And this is a little life hack.

Take a ruler and measure one meter,

starting from the tips of your fingers,

to where it ends on your body.

In my case, it's here.

So now for the rest of my life,

I have pretty precise one
meter measurement on my body.

So now I can take the rope
piece that I just cut off

measure it, it's one, two meters.

So my rope was 80 meters, now it's 78.

I can write down so I
don't forget about it.

In this case, I was just
writing with the marker

on the tip of the rope,

but you should know that
it's not okay to write

with the marker directly
somewhere on the rope.

That might damage the rope.

There are special markers
that are okay to use

for the ropes, but in general,

there is absolutely no point to do that.

One thing to keep in mind
with the center marker

on this rope is not in the center anymore.

So to fix that, you could
cut the other end as well.

However, I don't really
care on this particular rope

for my center mark to be very precise.

And I know that in the near future,

I will be cutting the other end as well.

And then I will make sure
that the center marker

will become in the center again.

For example, on this rope,

I would like to cut both ends of the rope

and make the center marker
exactly in the center.

So I find the center marker,

which is almost invisible
on this rope, which sucks.

Anyway, so you grab the center marker,

and you keep dragging
two strands of the rope

through your hand.

And funny enough,

my center marker was almost
in the center already.

Probably I cut it in the center last time.

However, as I said, rope
tend to shrink over lifetime

and probably one side
of the rope shrank more.

That's why I have this misalignment.

Anyway, my ends of the
rope are quite fuzzy

so I'm gonna chop about this
amount on both of the ropes.

And then I will know that my
center marker is in the center.

Good, so my rope is safe to
climb again, just a bit shorter.

But I can still climb even 40
meters routes with this rope

because when I will go down,

the rope will stretch
and it should be fine.

(hands clap)
And at some point

you will cut your rope so much

that it's gonna be too short to climb,

or maybe you will get damage
in the middle of the rope,

or maybe simply your rope is just too old

and it doesn't give
you confidence anymore.

In that case, if you are in
Switzerland, for some reason,

you can drop your rope in
one of the collection points

and Mammut will collect those
ropes, send for recycling,

and then your rope will
become some other product,

which is super-cool.

You can also send your rope
to them free of charge.

However, it's also limited
to Switzerland at this point,

but we said that we are
gonna expand to Germany

and Austria very soon,

and then to more Europe
countries in the future.

So I will put more information
in the description,

depending on when you're
watching this video,

you can find the most
up-to-date information.

Mammut actually makes products
certified by bluesign,

which is the strictest textile standard

for protecting the
environment, the consumer,

you, and their workers.

From raw material
extraction to air pollution,

to waste waters, to energy
used, and chemicals.

And speaking about chemicals,
all Mammut's ropes,

and many other products, are without PFC.

This crap is often used in
water repellent products

and it leaches into environment
and your body very easily.

And that helps you to get tumors

and disrupts your hormone system

and probably a range of other problems

that we are not aware of yet.

So if you don't want all of that,

support companies that
share the same mindset.

And as awareness is growing,

hopefully this list of companies

is gonna be growing as well.

And I'm gonna put the
link into the description

where you can check if
the company you care about

is on this list.

And if it's not, then
support somebody else.

Now if you want to extend
the life of your rope,

here are a couple of tips.

First, keep your rope clean.

Don't just throw it on the dirty ground.

Also, don't step on your rope.

And if you're walking along the crag,

avoid stepping on somebody's else ropes.

This is very, very mean.

As I already mentioned before,

dust and dirt will damage your
rope and will chew through

your quickdraws like a sandpaper.

And the best way to keep your rope clean

is to have the rope bag,

because every rope bag also
acts as a tarp for your rope,

so you don't need to place
your rope on the dirty ground.

And the best part about rope bags

is that you will never need
to coil your rope again.

You simply tie one of your
rope ends to the rope bag,

stack your rope like a bungee jump,

and you're ready to climb.

After the climb,

simply stack the bungee jump back

and you're ready to climb again.

Or if you're done for the day,

simply tie your end of the rope

to another loop on the rope bag.

Normally rope bags will
have different colors

of these loops

and I like to tie the bottom
of my rope to the red one

and the top to another color.

If your rope bag doesn't
have these colors,

it's a good idea to just
tie a different knot,

for example, on the bottom,
I like to tie a stopper knot

and then on top, I just tie
two simple overhand knots.

And since both of the ends of the rope

are tied to the rope bag,

it's impossible to get
a knot in your rope,

no matter how you pack it.

This rope bag is very easy to pack.

It simply rolls like a burrito.

Oh man, (hand slapping)

that's why you need the rope bag.

Done.

And you have a bagpack.

And the next time you come to climb,

you simply unpack the burrito,

it unrolls,

you unfold it,

and your rope is nice and shiny.

Untie your top end of the rope
and you're ready to climb.

There is no need to coil anything.

So rope bags, amazing, cheap

and gonna outlast all your ropes.

This particular rope bag is from Mammut

and I have it already for seven years,

and I'm actually surprised

that absolutely nothing is broken,

having in mind how strongly I abuse it.

And one more tip, which
extends the life of your rope.

Don't climb on the same end
of the rope all the time,

change it.

And it's very easy to do that

after you just finished
climbing your route.

Sometimes people buy new climbing ropes,

climb just for a few times,

and then they get surprised
that the rope is already dirty.

The common problem could
be your belaying device.

For example, Grigris are
notorious for collecting dirt.

Look at this one.

So clean it.

And if your rope is
dirty, you should wash it.

And it's totally fine to do
that in a washing machine.

Personally, I just shove
it in and that's it.

Some people like to daisy chain
their ropes before putting

inside to prevent tangles,

but I actually almost
never got any major tangles

after washing my ropes, so
I don't bother about that.

You can buy special detergent
for washing climbing ropes,

but I personally just
run it on water only.

The best program to choose
is either wool or delicate

on 30 degrees and disable spin
drying and do not tumble dry.

And it's also a good idea

to wash the detergent
drawer before you hit start.

(machine beeps)

Once it's done simply lay your rope,

don't hang it and don't dry in the sun.

Okay, now this tip is
not only gonna extend

the life of your rope,

but it's super-important for your safety.

Imagine that you're lowering your climber,

and now imagine that your
climber is about to swing

and the rope will be going
against the sharp edge.

Let's say this is a sharp edge.

In that case, don't stop lowering.

If you stop lowering during the swing,

the same spot of the rope will
be running against the sharp

edge and it's super-dangerous,
the rope might get cut.

On the other hand,

if you keep lowering,
the new spot of the rope

we'll get in contact with the sharp edge.

This is so much safer.

Now I have mentioned this already
in the video about slings,

but you should definitely avoid friction

between two soft materials.

So for example, rope
running against another rope

is a really bad idea.

Same goes with rope
running against the sling

or sling running against the rope.

It might damage your
equipment or in some cases,

even cut it.

(rope rasping)

Now the bonus question.

Why do ropes do this, why
do ropes twist and kink?

It's super annoying when you're belaying

and suddenly a twist in the rope

gets jammed in your belaying device.

So why does this happen?

The first reason is
similar to a ribbon effect.

If you have a ribbon and you
run it across a very sharp edge

(knife scraping)
multiple times, like so,

it will curl and that can
happen to the rope as well

if it's running over a very tight radius.

For example, if your quickdraw
has very, very deep groove,

then during the fall,

the rope will be forced
over super-tight radius,

which might twist the rope.

So that's another reason to
avoid very worn out quickdraws,

but this is only a minor issue.

The bigger issue is this,

if you have an anchor with
two not connected points,

and you would try to lower
yourself of such anchor,

like this, you would just go down.

This would create a lot
of twisting in your rope.

So here you can see
the twisting in action.

Notice how the little
piece of tape that I put

is rolling around the rope.

So if you encounter such anchor

and you want to avoid rope twisting,

the best idea is to rappel
using a tubular device

on both strands of the rope.

So in this case,

the rope is not running
across the anchor under load.

And when you get down,

you pull out the rope

and pulling the rope through such anchor

without the load should avoid twisting.

Okay, so let's say your rope is twisted

and you want to untwist it.

One method is to take your
tubular belaying device,

connect it to the anchor, the tree,

or your friend, set up
a top rope belaying system

and keep pulling your rope through it.

Then you will need to kind of
work the tangles as you go.

(rope rasping)

Like so.

And that was actually
enough for this rope.

If your rope is super, super twisted,

you might need to repeat
this multiple times.

And another way to untwist your rope,

which is even better in my opinion,

and that's what I do most of the time,

is to find the route
which has a proper anchor,

with one equalized center point,

and then you pull entire
rope through that anchor.

It helps if the route is
a little bit overhanging.

And then when you're pulling,

you want to give the
rope some help to untwist

and shake it a little bit, wee.

And that's it.

If you do this multiple times
after a few routes

your rope should be free of twists.

And that's it. (hands clap)

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So thank you for that and
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Enjoy climbing.