Sterling Fusion Ion 9.5mm

All right, why don't more people post reviews?

I just bought an Ion 9.5mm dynamic rope at my local climbing gym. It was a good deal on a skinny rope. I have only climbed one pitch routes with it so far, but it is going on a Colorado trip with me in a couple of weeks.

Initial impression: It feels really thin compared to my 10.5mm ropes I am used to climbing on. I weigh 220 lbs, my partner is 145, so when I was leading, in the back of my mind was the thought that if I fell he would not be able to arrest my fall. Hope I'll get over that with time.

The rope itself is beautiful in appearance...don't know how they got the color pattern like that but it is great, I got the Earth colored one. The hand is a little softer than I am used to, but it presented no problem in clipping at all. Really flowed through my Trango Pyramid with ease, and my buddies ATC too, though he did mention that he had to be a little more attentive with the speed and use two hands when lowering me. I use a clove hitch to clip into the belay, and the Ion is really nice for this, it doesn't hog up the whole carabiner, and cinches down without slipping.

If you are a heavyweight like me, best not to fall on this rope too much, my tie in knot became very hard to untie after a small-ish fall on this rope, likely due to its softness and small diameter.

Overall a really great rope that looks good and feels supple and smooth. Time will tell how durable it is, but I really don't care that much, as I only climb about 40 days a year.

Thanks for the review. I'd considered doing a review of my Ion rope, but I generally prefer to wait until I've really put things through their paces before doing a write-up, and I've only been climbing on mine for a few months.

I like Sterling ropes in general and the Ion is a really nice rope. Like SlowTrad says, it's very supple and feeds quickly on lead. I originally got it for solo leading with a Silent Partner, and so far it's been a great fit for that usage. I also use it for sport climbing, but not for trad with a partner (I prefer doubles or a thicker single for that).

Knowing full well that it's not recommended by the manufacturer, I use a Grigri for sport lead belaying with my Ion, and it locks up and lowers just fine. I do use a belay glove for this though, which is especially good when lowering.

All in all, a great rope.

JL

Hey Slowtrad,

I climb with women who weigh about 120, and I am at about 215. I've taken high-factor lead falls with them, no problem. They come off their stance, but that's what anchors are for. So, you don't have to worry, especially if you're using a GriGri.

benkilgore wrote:Hey Slowtrad, I climb with women who weigh about 120, and I am at about 215. I've taken high-factor lead falls with them, no problem. They come off their stance, but that's what anchors are for. So, you don't have to worry, especially if you're using a GriGri.

Since I'm just about ready to retire my Ion, I suppose I can give it a thorough review over the lifetime of the product. Note that this is for the original ion version.

Introduction:
I bought my 60m Sterling Ion in 2008 in red. This was the original, 9.5mm version. As John Wilder pointed out, Sterling has made some changes to the new, 2010/2011 Ion2. The new version is a little thinner, but Sterling claims it's actually more durable than the original version. I, for one, believe them, but have no experience with that rope to be able to say for sure.

I hate to start a review with the the way it looks, but it must be said: this rope is damn sexy. People will see it and comment on it. This may actually be a turn-off for some who don't like their gear being too pretty. I would agree normally, but what you get in terms of performance changes everything.

This is the Natalie Portman of ropes: it's fantastically pretty, but also has a Harvard degree under the sheath.

Specs:
Please note that if you aren't familiar with what these numbers mean or how they are derived, please look them up. They can be deceiving, especially the UIAA fall test.

Thickness: 9.5mm
Type: Single Rope
Length: 60m, 70m
Dry: DryCore
Impact Force: 8.4kN
Elongation: [Static] 10%; [Dynamic] 30.8%
Center Mark: No (bipattern available)
UIAA Falls: 5
Weight: 60g/m
MSRP: $249.80

The most important thing to pay attention to here is the impact force and stretch. This is a REALLY stretchy single line. Super soft catches for sure, but if you're going to use it for long top-ropes (more on that later), your climber is going to drop quite a bit when he/she falls. This makes it not an ideal rope for TR, but if you think that any 9.5 is a good choice for a cord which will mostly be used for TR, you should consider taking up other sports.

It's also worth mentioning that it's very pricey, especially considering you would expect it to wear out faster than the average rope.

The Hand:
It's 9.5mm, and it feels like 9.5mm. That's a skinny single line, folks. If you are relatively new to the sport, this is not the rope for you. Skinny lines are inherently more difficult to control than more medium sizes. That being said. . .

The Ion is supple, but tight. You don't get that "squishy" kinda feeling that a lot of more supple ropes have. It feels like the core and the sheath are one cohesive, interconnected piece. I have personally never had any issues with sheath slip on this rope.

The sheath texture itself is also really nicely balanced. It's very similar to other ropes in Sterling's fusion line. Basically what you get is a moderately textured feel flowing through your hand. The sheath doesn't have that coated, slick plastic feeling, helping it stay under control. At the same time, it doesn't feel like sandpaper. The result is a surprisingly controllable feel through your hand, when you want the control, but also the lightening quickness of a very skinny single when you want to whip out rope.

Belaying:
LOVE IT! Super fast payout, but you have to be very careful to match the device to what you're doing. The wrong belay device here and you're gonna know it fast. Again, this is a really skinny line, and therefore inherently harder to control. I strongly recommend something like the Cinch for sport, as it just makes life that much easier. Everything else, any version of the two standard toothed tube-type devices (ATC XP/Guide, Reverso3/Verso) works pretty damn well. I suspect that the GriGri2, whenever that comes out, is going to be pretty much perfect for a line like this.

I've used the Ion with an ATC-Guide, Reverso3, regular ATC, GriGri, and Cinch. Works great with both the ATC-Guide and Reverso3. I wouldn't recommend using a regular ATC, since you just don't get enough friction to be comfortable. It's worked just fine with a grigri for me, though since it's skinny it can creep under really heavy load (I have never had any significant problem with this), and tends to be a hard to get the right tension to lower someone. The combination of the Ion and the Cinch is just brilliant. Really, you wouldn't believe how fast you can whip out rope with that combo. Locks down perfectly in a fall, and releases just as easily. Lowering is a bit of a PITA, but that's mostly just because it's a cinch, and its always a bit of a pain.

Climbing
This is where the Ion really comes into its own. It just feels like it doesn't exist when you're on the sharp end. I know what you're thinking: 60g/m isn't that lightweight compared to most 10.2mm ropes, which weight in at 65g/m nowadays. Technically, that's right, but that's missing a key factor: this is a true 9.5mm rope. There is a MASSIVE difference in rope-drag between something this skinny and a 10.2. The net result is a huge drag difference.

It's actually lightweight enough that I have used this, in conjunction with a friend's ion in green, as doubles/halves in a pinch, though obviously a pair of true doubles is better for this purpose.

Clipping the rope is fantastic and fast. It seems like just the right size and suppleness. Any smaller or squishier and it would be hard to shove into a gate.

Durability
Aaaand the question everyone actually wants to know. I have good news and bad. Bad news: it's not particularly durable as far as standard single ropes go. Good news: it's RIDICULOUSLY durable as far as what you'd expect a 9.5mm rope to do.

For some background, I've been using this as my primary rope for pretty much every sport or single-pitch trad day for the past two years. I'd give it maybe 70 full days of use, always outdoors. It's also been used for TR quite a bit at the crags.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that 9.5s, when it comes down to it, just aren't all that durable. A month after I bought the thing, I was cleaning a sport route on TR. The route runs dead vertical for 35 feet, dead horizontal for 15 feet, then dead vertical again. Had a lot of trouble with a move on the horizontal section, falling maybe 15 times. Big surprise, the sharp corner wore almost the whole way through a nearly new sheath. Had to cut 10 feet off the end. Lesson learned.

That being said, this thing has taken a real beating over the past few years. It's honestly held up fantastically. It's durable enough that I don't mind using for TR at all from a durability perspective (though from a stretch perspective, it's different). If I know I'm going to mostly be TRing that day, I'll use my 10.2 beater, but if I'm not sure or if it's like 75% of my cragging days nowadays, the ion is the rope of choice. As expected, most of the sheath damage is about 10-15 feet from the ends, where it's REALLY fuzzy. But honestly, it's earned the fuzz. I am an abusive owner. I fall A LOT.

The Bottom Line:
The Ion has been my favorite rope ever for sport, single pitch trad, and light 'n fast trad. I will gladly be paying the premium and buying the new one when I finally decide to turn this one into a floor mat. Bonus: it'll be the prettiest rope floor mat of them all.

Disclosure: I bought this by pro-deal with my own money. I have not been payed or coerced in any way by Sterling or any other rope manufacture. We don't even sell this rope where I work.