Climbers Get This Wrong About Rope Specifications

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I’ve done quite a few videos breaking down sleep systems and stoves and even harnesses. I haven’t done a video talking about the features and performance of our most vital life line in climbing: the rope.

In some ways we climbers realize just how important the rope is. For example, we make fairly elaborate rappel procedures that ensure we don’t “lose control” of the rope as we head down, because if we drop it, things go bad in a hurry. We make sure we never let go of the rope while belaying. We understand that it’s our lifeline.

But in other ways, many of us only have a surface-level understanding of our ropes. Maybe we know we don’t like the extra weight of heavy and thick ropes. Maybe we know we prefer a certain hand-feel and flexibility or stiffness. And so on. However, do we know that the lighter rope we prefer may make ledgy, blocky routes more dangerous as it stretches more? Do we know that the tightness of weave of the sheath that makes our preferred hand-feel also impacts the abrasion resistance? Heck, do we know that our favorite 9.4mm diameter rope might actually be 9.6mm… or 9.2mm?

If there are equipment types that we use that might be the most important to truly understand, I think belay devices and the rope might truly be the most important. Those two pieces of equipment have the most direct impact on our ability to either reduce or accidently increase the risks we face on a climb. For belay devices, those risk factors probably relate to proper and improper use, but for ropes, I think the risk profile of the climb changes when we mismatch our rope to the risk types the climb and route are presenting.

So, we need to better understand the metrics that make up our rope specifications because they are telling a story about what risk types are lessened and which are heighted when we compare the rope to other options. Take a look!