Climbing Ropes

If you?re looking to do any sort of climbing aside from bouldering or free-soloing, you?re going to need a climbing ropes. Though the first rock climbers rarely trusted their ropes, this is mainly because their ropes were attached to the rock faces through knots wedged into cracks or slings tied around rocks, which were then wedged into cracks. These climbers never fell, since if they did fall their protection probably wouldn?t hold. Instead, it would rip out, causing both the climber and his belayer to plummet to the ground. Today?s climbing protection is fortunately much better, and most climbers, indoor and out, will regularly fall on their ropes and their protection while trying newer, harder routes. Since you?ll be falling on your climbing rope you?ll probably want it to hold you, avoiding that whole plummeting-to-the-ground issue.

Since most rock climbs are protected with numerous pieces of protection, it?s sometimes possible for one or two of these pieces to fail without producing a fall that will injure or kill you. Granted, on some climbs if a piece of protection fails it does mean a ground fall, in some areas, especially on high multi-pitch routes, protection can fail without being lethal. However, if your climbing ropes fails, you will fall down and you?re going to hit the ground. The trick is choosing a climbing rope that isn?t going to let you down.

First and foremost, never buy anything than a rope that is made for rock climbing. This is not a place to cut corners. Climbing ropes are divided into two general categories: they are static and dynamic. Static ropes have little or no stretch in them. They?re usually cheaper than dynamic ropes, but they can only be used for hauling gear and for some top-rope setups. If you only have one climbing rope you?re going to want a dynamic rope. These dynamic ropes have an amount of stretch built into them. If you take a big fall the rope will stretch as it catches you, therefore it won?t jerk as hard when the rope becomes taut. These ropes usually come in fifty and sixty meter lengths. Though a fifty meter rope used to be the standard, some new single-pitch routes require sixty meter climbing ropes, so most new climbers would be advised to buy the longer ropes.

The diameter of a rope is also important, as it dictates how your rope will handle and how it will wear. The best diameter rope for a first climbing rope is a single rope probably with 10.5mm single rope. This balances the strength of a thicker rope with the ease of use of a thinner rope and avoids the hassles of double ropes, which are usually used for ice climbing, altogether.