Hey, Lyndon.
Yes! It's actually pretty interesting. You can cut pieces out of
climbing and caving ropes (old and retired, if not the owner wouldn't be
too happy) and dissect them.
In caving (well, vertical caving, as opposed to climbing up walls to
reach leads) we use static ropes. These have parallel fibers, all
tightly held by the sheath. These minimize spin and elongation. Falling
is not part of the game and actually you are looking for a rope that
won't make you bounce (too much) when you start to climb out of a pit.
In climbing, ropes are "dynamic," which are designed to stretch to
absorb the energy of a falling climber (falling is part of the game). In
a dynamic rope, after you take out the sheath (which is also looser than
in a static rope) you find braided strands of nylon, which are the ones
that absorb the energy.
Take care,
- Fofo
Lyndon Tiu wrote, on 11/6/09 6:32:
On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:24:03 -0700 gonza...@msu.edu wrote:
The problem with the figure 8 descender is that it twists the rope.
Since caving rope is a bunch of parallel fibers encased in a sheath,
I am not that familiar with vertical gear. So I have a stupid question:
Are you saying caving rope is different from other types of rope used in
mountain climbing, etc?
Thanks for the reply Fofo. Much appreciated.
--
Lyndon Tiu
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