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damaged 9mm rope analysis 2-Feb-2015 At 7:56:49 AM Superstu

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I climb on 9mm double ropes a lot. The 50m rappability is nice, also the safer clipping. The downside is that when you get a slightly damaged section along the rope you get super paranoid with such a thin rope. I found one such fuzz the other weekend and running two pinched fingers along the rope confirmed a narrowing "flat" spot which spooked me no-end. Being only 1.5m from one end, the rest of the weekend was spent jostling with my climbing partner for who gets to tie into the "dodgy end", antics with tie-ing in short and so on.

Back home it was time to chop the end and make a less practical but more re-assuring 45m rope. I thought I should open up the rope after the chopping to see what was actually going on under the sheath. From the photos the fuzz on the sheath does not look that serious but you'll just have to run with me here as it definitely "felt" very flat (or at least permanently compressed) at the point of concern, which is the normal way I determine whether rope damage is superficial or serious.

The result seems to show no actual damage to the core. Interesting to look at the inside cores anyway which look a lot more compressed and flaky then I was expecting. In hindsight I should have asked mikl if he's up for dropping a beginner off an edge with this rope and see if we can break it under the appropriate strains. I'll have to wait until I get another scarey fuzzy compressed section in the rope again.