How to get more miles out of your rope
What should you do when your rope is in great condition, but is wearing out towards the end? If you’re not ready to reuse or remove your climbing rope, you can shorten it, clean it, and create a new center marker and you’ll have a nice, sleek rope with many more miles! My favorite rope is Mammut We Care, partly because it’s made with leftover yarn and keeps it from ending up in landfills. My old strings have been used for other purposes for literally decades and will probably never make it to the landfill, but I really like to keep them as long as possible! Here are my tips for giving your rope a refresh and new life:
Typically, the rope will wear out near one end, where you have had the most falls or done a lot of hanging. If the rope is 70 meters, you can take one of your other 60 meter ropes and measure the rope against the 60 meters. With any luck, the offensive range range will be within this 10 meter section and you will be able to cut the rope at 60 meters. If you start with a 60 meter rope, chances are you can cut the rope at 50 meters, or even 40. A 40 meter rope can be very nice to have for indoor climbing, and many climbing areas are rather short. and a meter 50 may be enough to use. Whatever length you get, a shorter rope that’s still in good condition is probably very useful, but try to keep it within standard climbing lengths (40, 50, 60, 70 meters).
I carry a very small serrated knife (a Spyderco Ladybug serrated which is strangely hard to find, but you can almost always find one on Ebay) on my climbing harness, and it’s a perfect knife for doing your cutting. Once you’ve cut the rope, burn and shape the ends of both pieces to ensure they don’t fray. (You can use the old 10 meter piece for a dog leash or any type of non-life-saving rope.) Alternatively, you can mark the spot you want to cut and take it to your store local climbing club – they’ll have a hot knife. this will make a clean, straight cut and burn it at the same time.
Now is the time to wash your rope, which is a good thing to do every once in a while, even if you don’t cut it, to remove all the sand, grit, and aluminum. I find both ends and make a loose garland of the whole rope (this saves me having to untangle it after I’m done washing), then put it in a front loading washing machine. I use a little organic detergent and wash it on a quick cycle in cold water. I always throw my rope bag in there too. When it’s done, I untie the rope and let it sit in flakes in the shade until it’s dry.
Now it’s time to make a new center mark – usually the factory mark has faded a lot by the time I’m about to cut a string, which is great because it no longer stands out with much contrast. I asked my friends at Mammut if there was a safe way to make a new mark on a rope, as I was warned against using any permanent marker on a rope. They told me that the Edding 3000 had been tested for safety on ropes and was the only approved rope marking pen they could recommend. I ordered a purple one from Amazon because I love purple! and it stands out just as well.
Starting with both ends in hand, find the new middle of your rope and make a good light mark in the center with the Edding 3000 marker.
And there you have it! You have a refreshed rope that looks and feels like new again!