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Marking the Halfway Point

Sticky

15-Oct-2003
5:39:36 PM

I was climbing a four pitch route on Crown Mountain (NSW) on the weekend with my mate's brand new sixty metre rope. We both stuffed a couple of simple things up (okay, mostly me, i think), turning the mutlipitch abseil back down into a bit of an epic, timewise, if nothing else. It all started with the Texas Rope Trick...

Anyhow, one of the reasons things didn't get out of hand is that we were able to easily find the halfway point of the rope. Of course, that marker tape is going to come off soon enough. So - does anyone know of a proper marker pen that you can use on rope without damaging the fibres? Or is there another trick that people use to mark the halfway point of a rope wihtout damaging it?

Cheers
Kyle

joemor

15-Oct-2003
5:50:02 PM

either get a rope pen from an outdoors shop..... or ive also seen people sewing or more weaving bright threads into the mid point...

tmarsh

15-Oct-2003
10:36:18 PM

Up until about 10 minutes ago, I thought that "Sharpie" brand markers were rope safe. then I plugged "sharpie rope middle" into Google and got some interesting results.

Check this out.

I've always used a marker to do it. Dunno if I'll continue to.

tim

Pei

15-Oct-2003
11:09:45 PM

On 15/10/2003 tmarsh wrote:
>Check >this out.

Thanks for the link, the article was very interesting. Personally I don't need to mark my rope as I've got one of those bicolour ones, which is pretty good. Except if I ever need to cut the end off or something! Anyway here is another link that has a few suggestions: Tradgirl FAQ

Sticky

16-Oct-2003
12:22:51 PM

Thanks heaps everyone for the (scary) replies.

Andy has decided to use some sort of tape to mark the middle of his 60m. And I don't think I'll mark my (shorter) rope at all. Just wouldn't quite trust a pen after reading those threads...

Yeah, top idea - the two coloured rope. Saw it on a brochure from mec.ca. Definitely the next rope purchase...

Rich

16-Oct-2003
5:23:33 PM

yeh i just got a mammut 10mm 70m bi-colour.. nice!

Scratch

16-Oct-2003
5:35:07 PM

As rich knows, I got stuck on a bit of tape on a rope.. I was passing a knot on abseil, and my top prussic got jammed against the tape.. I thought I'd be able to push it past, but alas, the tape got stuck inside the prussic knot, and I wasn't able to make the prussic budge at all. So I unweighted the prussic, and even though I could now make it slide up and down the rope, the tape was still inside.. so there I was, 30m off the deck, busily chewing my rope..... I had to bite the tape off :-) Anyway, this was on a mates rope, and I promtly took the center-tape off my rope!!

Mike

17-Oct-2003
11:10:30 AM

On 16/10/2003 Scratch wrote:
>As rich knows, I got stuck on a bit of tape on a rope..

Hehehe. Classic! Now if we were organised one of us could buy a rope marker pen (Beal, Blue Water, whoever makes them), and bring it to the gathering tomorrow, and defray the cost of the thing by charging for it's use, 50 cents per rope or something.

tmarsh

17-Oct-2003
11:29:33 AM

Mike, you might want to read the results of the google search I posted above. It seemed to suggest that even the 'rope safe' pens sold my rope manufacturers resulted in a reduction in the number of falls the rope would hold.

tim

Mike

17-Oct-2003
11:39:05 AM

On 17/10/2003 tmarsh wrote:
>It seemed to suggest that even the 'rope safe' pens sold by rope
>manufacturers resulted in a reduction in the number of falls

Ouch! Thanks for the heads up Tim. I haven't marked any of my ropes, but had been thinking about it now and then. I've seen the Beal marker:
http://professionalropes.com/anglais/corde_pro2.html
For instance, but now having read that word document you posted, I'm put off the whole idea.

Cheesehead

19-Oct-2003
5:19:09 PM

I was thinking about this one for a while, but I realised that I'm not really inspired to mark the center of my rope anyway. I'm usually happy enough to look at the size of the pile on the ground, etc. Feel free to shoot me down if I've been bouldering too long to remember really good reasons why we'd bother.

Mat

Peter

20-Oct-2003
11:20:44 PM

I thread natural cotton along the weave at the halfway point, does anybody know if this reduces the strength of the sheath???

Rich

21-Oct-2003
12:27:32 PM

not if you are only threading the sheath, it probably would if you threaded it through the core though.

joemor

21-Oct-2003
12:48:34 PM

it shouldnt as long as you sew or thread so as to not damage any of the strands of the sheath or core...

joemor

21-Oct-2003
12:55:09 PM

http://ulrichprinz.com/alpin/equipment/selfmade/#ropemid

theres a linc its in german tho the pics give u the idea

Peter

29-Oct-2003
3:21:50 AM

Hey cool Joemor, thats about what I did, I tell you, I feel a bit better now

runnit

17-Feb-2005
2:15:15 PM

i wonder if food dye would work? i guess if you can eat it it should be ok for your rope

niftydog

17-Feb-2005
2:47:10 PM

I said whip it, whip it good!

You can get purpose made whipping twine, but I'm reliably informed that dental floss works a treat! Make it pretty tight and neat though, because you want to lessen the chance that it'll come off in your descender.

gfdonc

8-Feb-2006
9:42:58 PM

(bump)
I chanced across this article which doesn't seem to be mentioned earlier:
http://www.uiaa.ch/article.aspx?a=78&c=1

The relevant bit follows: (quote)
Notification Concerning the Marking of Ropes

Tests done by the UIAA Safety Commission and some rope manufacturers have shown that marking ropes with liquids such as those provided by felt-tipped pens can damage them; even with those markers, sold specifically for marking ropes. The test results have shown a decrease of up to 50% of the rope strength, more correctly: of the energy absorption capacity of the rope (expressed by the number of falls in the standard test method in accordance with the UIAA Standard101).

Therefore the UIAA Safety Commission warns against marking a rope with any substance that has not been specifically approved by the rope manufacturer of that rope.
(unquote)

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