UKH

Ever wondered how climbing ropes are made? Earlier this year Mick Ryan paid a visit to Sterling Rope in Biddeford, Maine to find out.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=3840

In reply to UKC Gear: Interesting article. Would be good to know a bit more about QC / testing procedures.

3-6 months to retire a rope after 'heavy sport use' seems excessive. What's heavy use: something like 3-4 sessions a week, 5-10 low factor falls per session or similar?

In reply to ksjs:

In another article we will be looking at testing in more detail, using another manufacturer as an example.

There are five areas of testing; Construction, Sheath Slippage, Static Elongation, Impact Force on first fall, and Number of falls held.

Sterling test in house and...

'An outside body, or third party, certifies all of our life safety products to the applicable standard. Outside testing guarantees a superior level of quality for each and every Sterling product. At Sterling, we utilize two testing agencies. Our dynamic ropes are tested and certified to UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d' Alpinisme) and CE (Certified for Europe) standards by any one of the three UIAA approved testing facilities.


Yes, and it does depend on the rope, its diameter and specs.

We need to look at that more closely too and will be doing a Q+A with an expert.

In reply to Mick Ryan - Senior Editor - UKC:

We will also be look at some proprietary processes like Beal's Unicore Process and their new Diablo dynamic rope.

In reply to UKC Gear:
Nice article and good to see a company so open about it's processes especially in the world of textiles.

In reply to ksjs: I was thinking how good it was to hear a rope company saying this. Most the poeple i know who sport climb a lot get about 1 year out of a rope, and that is after several cuts.

Rope starts at 60/70m when new, ends up about 35/40m and knackered about a year later.

In reply to UKC Gear:

nice - good read that!