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marking a rope

tommy

7-Feb-2007
12:48:18 PM

hi there,

I’ve just bought my first rope and want to mark the halfway point on it but thought it might be a good idea to find out
if a permanent marker is bad for the rope before I do anything. Any ideas??

cheers
tom

dalai

7-Feb-2007
1:03:17 PM

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=Display&ForumID=1&MessageID=42297&Replies=1

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=Display&ForumID=6&MessageID=60&Replies=1

Paul

7-Feb-2007
6:04:04 PM

You can buy special rope marking pens, blue water used to make them, I think they are xylene free and maybe free of some other nasty chemicals as well.

muki

7-Feb-2007
8:39:07 PM

On 7/02/2007 Paul wrote:
>You can buy special rope marking pens, blue water used to make them, I
>think they are xylene free and maybe free of some other nasty chemicals
>as well.

yes blue water do make this item, but I find that you will have to repeat the marking every so often as it
fades quite quickly.

Sabu

7-Feb-2007
11:02:31 PM

and to clarify, using tape (ie electrical or ducktape) is actually bad because of the adhesive?

shmalec

8-Feb-2007
12:45:37 AM

just thread a couple of bits of coloured fluffy thread/wool through the sheath. Dunno how long it will last but its cheap and easy to do.

climbau

8-Feb-2007
3:29:06 PM

On 8/02/2007 shmalec wrote:
>just thread a couple of bits of coloured fluffy thread/wool through the
>sheath. Dunno how long it will last but its cheap and easy to do.
What a great tip. Cheap, easy, and can be re-threaded with every "rope length adjustment".

muki

8-Feb-2007
4:56:43 PM

On 8/02/2007 shmalec wrote:
>just thread a couple of bits of coloured fluffy thread/wool through the
>sheath. Dunno how long it will last but its cheap and easy to do.

It's a standard feature of more modern climbing ropes (metolius 9,8mm monster) found in "climbing
golden piton issue fith anual"
failing this quick n easy modification, you can always do what I do, feed it through the chains or rings
then tie the rope together at the ends, then feed it down slowly keeping both ropes together, then you
automaticly have the middle, no matter how long it is!

climbau

9-Feb-2007
8:50:53 AM

On 8/02/2007 bomber pro wrote:
> you can always do what I do, feed
>it through the chains or rings
>then tie the rope together at the ends, then feed it down slowly keeping
>both ropes together, then you
>automaticly have the middle, no matter how long it is!
I have had mega rope twist doing this in the past (was using standard Tube brake style device) and found it easier to tie knots in each end and keep them seperate. However this requires extreme vigilance while abseiling, therefore I believe marking the rope in some way is simpler for identifying the rope's middle. I also like to have the rope marked so I can gauge more easily whilst belaying on multi-pitch climbs how much rope the leader has to play with. This is especially important when doing ground-up ascents of new routes IMHO.

muki

9-Feb-2007
1:11:03 PM

Yeah the twist can be prevented by tying a knot in each rope seperatly then lower the rpoes down
together, as per the previous post.
The leader rope referance you are talking about would probably benefit from the thread in the mantle
system discused here, but at about 5 or 10m instead of 25 or 30m, this would be of more advantage to a
leader on ground up new ascents, as the amount of rope left to find and make a belay is easier to deal
with if it's 5/10m rather than 25/30m.
You could use two different colours, one for half way, and one for leader/anchor rope warning

climbau

9-Feb-2007
3:14:03 PM

Yeah definately having the thread at closer intervals to the end would be much more advantageous, but I have always just guessed according to mid rope tape marker (which was definitely not as accurate as it could be). I'll definately be using a thread marker on my next trad adventure.
The Bomb wrote -"You could use two different colours, one for half way, and one for leader/anchor rope warning "
Great Idea BP

There are 11 messages in this topic.