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Climbing, Adventure, Gear & Choss
Busted Climbing Myths!
Thanks to Tristan over at Daily Climbing Tips for this one.
Once you’ve been climbing for a while, you tend to hear the same myths over and over again, from a variety of sources:
You should retire a carabiner that gets dropped off a cliff because of microfractures.
The Euro Death Knot is very unsafe and unreliable.
Daisy chains are good to use for anchoring in on multipitch climbs.
And then at some point you hear why these are false, but maybe can’t remember the specifics of why. Well, thankfully these and several others have been posted online for all the world to see at this site. There’s even some good tests and research that went in to backing up the claims, more than the “Well I’ve never heard of that happening” response.
I do, however, take issue with the last one, saying that using a GriGri makes it more likely for your gear to fail during a trad climbing fall. His test results show higher impact forces, but he doesn’t mention if they were giving a soft catch during those falls. Most experienced sport climbers know that when the leader falls, you let the rope pull you up to give them a softer catch. I have to think this would also lessen the force on the piece that held the fall as well.
Also, there’s another site I found that’s geared more toward the industrial rope user, but it debunks one of my favorites:
Walking on a rope is bad for it.
We trust our lives to these things and you think a few particles of dirt in there are going to compromise that? This is America, we sue people over spilled coffee, I’m sure our ropes are just about indestructible.
So check out the sites, maybe your favorite is on the list as well, enjoy!
8 Responses to Busted Climbing Myths!
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The problem with myths is they don’t die, no matter how many times they are debunked. I dealt with most of those ages ago at R&I.
Speaking of myths, the spilled McDonalds coffee law suit is a classic. Urban legend says it was frivolous. The truth is pretty much the opposite. Look it up.
Myths DO die hard. When I first started climbing, someone told me not to step on ropes…and I still find myself going out of my way not to do it, even though I know it’s not a big deal.
“Speaking of myths, the spilled McDonalds coffee law suit is a classic. Urban legend says it was frivolous. The truth is pretty much the opposite.”
The frivolity of the lawsuit lies not in the severity of the defendants injuries, but that she was completely at fault for using her nether regions as a cup holder in a moving vehicle with coffee near boiling point that was inside a potentially leaky and breakable to go cup. She was courting disaster whether the coffee was 180F or 140F.
What idiot would suggest walking on any climb rope , static or dynamic is an ok practice??? Anything with the potential to weaken your safety margin like that is plain dumb. Would never want to climb with this guy.
Well Ash, apparently most climbers are idiots, because most know that a rope which can withstand thousands of pounds of force and the abrasion of being dragged across coarse rocks over and over is not going to be weakened in the least bit by 160 lbs person walking on it. Maybe if you are wearing crampons, but otherwise the “harm” is negligible. One of the mags even did a test years ago where they submitted ropes to all kinds of things like chemicals, gas, acid, etc, and even then they found that the only thing that really compromised the strength of a rope was acid. Now of course walking all over your ropes all the time will probably leave them dirty and unpleasant to touch, but don’t sweat it the next time someone accidentally stands on your cord, it’s all good!
BJ,
It is irresponsible to suggest a rope can handle exposure to chemicals or acid. Physical wear and dirt are dramatically different issues. See here for the consequences of accidentally acid exposure. If your rope has been exposed to acid, retire it!
http://www.caves.org/section/vertical/nh/52/RopeBreakagefinal.pdf
Keith, when I saw this come through I was a bit confused, but I see how you could get that from my comment and have edited accordingly. They are finding the link for me, but like you stated, basically they found that only acid weakened a rope so much as to make it dangerous. Thanks for clarifying that!
i still dont step on my rope but only cause it just gets it dirty faster