How to choose a Mountain Climbing Rope

Mountain climbing is a increasingly popular sport, it’s vertical challenge promises great experiences and stunning views. It’s perfect to improve teamwork and family bonding, it also develops problem solving abilities. However mountain climbing most interesting forms are considered a extreme sport and as such it most be done very carefully and with the right equipment. Mountain climbing gear is a varied as mountain climbing itself but the basic that you have to use in most of the forms include ropes, shoes, Crampons and harnesses. The most important of these are the ropes as they don’t only help making the climbing more easy but it also is the system that would safe you if you accidentally fall.

Mountain ropes need to be very strong and resist the weight easily and must of all reliable. Also they must be very light as the extra weight can make you return due to fatigue before you finish your goal. Making a rope with all these characteristics requires of great advances on engineering and design, most of all they require a rigorous testing system as a failure in a rope can cause death in the worse case. All these makes mountain climbing ropes a lot more expensive than regular ropes. You really must not use regular ropes for mountain climbing. A basic mountain rope cost around $100 for 50 meters and is enough for the typical enthusiast, for competition you may want to spend extra money for lighter ropes as they make a lot of difference.  Half ropes are designed for this purpose, they are thin ropes with a 9mm diameter but with special patented treatment that makes them more resistant. The prices for 60m - 70m can be around $150 to $300.

The type of mountain rope that you need depends a lot on what type of climbing you are going to do. A 60 meter long and 9.8 to 10.2 millimeters as diameter rope can be very versatile, specially if it is a dry rope. Dry rope are a type of mountain rope that comes coated with a plastic finish that lubricates the rope and keeps the moisture off the rope, they are also known as hydrophobic treated ropes. The cost of a dry rope is around $150 to $200 every 50 meters.

To understand this you should understand their kernmantle construction, this is the most common type. It consist of a core and a sheat. The sheat is the protecting cover that adds strength and resistance to cutting and abrasion. The core is the inner part of the rope, ti is form by bundling yarns. Yarns are made of four to six filament twisted together.

The most common varaities of mountain ropes are mentioned bellow. Work house singles are made for extreme use and long term resistance by using a large diameter but this also causes them to be too heavy to carry. All- round singles have average weight and diameter, they have a wide variety of uses including traditional and sport climbing. Static ropes are made for repelling and big wall ascending where you don’t want the rope to stretch.