How To Get More Miles Out of Your Rope
What do you do when your rope is in great shape, but it gets worn near the end? If you’re not ready to repurpose or retire your climbing rope, you can shorten it, clean it, and make a new middle marker and you’ll have a nice spiffy rope with a lot more miles on it! My favorite rope is the Mammut We Care, partly because it’s made with remnant yarns and keeps them out of landfills. My old ropes get used for other things for literally decades and will probably never make it to the landfill, but I really like to keep them going as long as I can! Here are my tips to give your rope a refresh and a new life:
Typically the rope gets worn close to one end, where you’ve taken the most falls or done a lot of hanging. If the rope is 70 meter, you can take one of your other 60 meter ropes and measure the rope against the 60 meter. With some luck, the offending worn area will be in that 10 meter section, and you can trim the rope to 60 meters. If you’re starting with a 60 meter, there’s a good chance you can trim the rope to 50 meters, or possibly 40. A 40 meter rope can be very nice to have for gym climbing, and many climbing areas are on the short side and a 50 meter can be adequate to use. No matter what length you get, there’s probably a great use for a shorter cord that’s still in great shape, but try to keep it within the standard climbing lengths (40, 50, 60, 70 meter).
I carry a very small serrated knife (a Spyderco serrated Ladybug which are weirdly hard to find, but you can almost always get one on Ebay) on my climbing harness, and this is a perfect knife to make your cut. Once you’ve cut the rope, burn and shape the ends on both pieces to make sure they won’t fray. (You can use the old 10 meter piece for a dog leash or for any sort of non lifesaving rope use.) Alternatively, you can mark the spot you want to cut and take it to your local climbing shop–they will have a hot knife that will make a clean, straight cut and burn it at the same time.
Now it’s time to wash your rope, which is a great thing to do from time to time even if you’re not trimming it, to get all the sand, grit and aluminum cleaned off of it. I find both ends and make a loose daisy chain of the entire rope (this saves me from detangling when it’s done washing), and then put it in a front loading washing machine. I use a little bit of bio detergent and wash it on quick cycle with cold water. I always throw my rope bag in too. When it’s done, I undaisy the rope and let it sit in a loose flake in full shade until it’s dry.
Now it’s time to make a new middle mark–usually the factory mark has faded a lot by the time I’m at the point of trimming a rope, which is great as it no longer stands out with a lot of contrast. I asked my friends at Mammut if there’s any safe way to make a new mark on a rope, as I’ve been cautioned against using just any permanent marker on a rope. They told me that the Edding 3000 has been tested for safety on ropes, and it is the one sanctioned rope marking pen they can recommend. I ordered a purple one from Amazon because I like purple! and it also stands out well.
Starting with both ends in hand, find the new middle of your rope and make a good bright mark in the center with the Edding 3000 marker.
Et voila! You have a refreshed rope that looks and feels like new again!
