Did I buy a bad rope?

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to set up some top rope anchors similar to how this guy does it in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TeqyTaTN98

I saw this rope on geartrade, it was new and I picked it up, but now that I'm looking a the label, it says impact force of 5.6 KN. Did I buy a bad rope for setting up this kind of top rope anchor?

https://www.singingrock.com/static-105-1

thanks in advance for helping to keep me safe.

p.s. the rest of the label:

strength: 31.5 kN

Knot breaking force 19.8 KN

stitched eye breaking force 27.7 KN

strength with termination 15 kN

elongation 3.4%

impact force 5.6kN

weight 72g/m

sheath slippage 0%

shrinkage 1.1%

mass of core to outer 64% to 36%

knotability 0.8 (idk what this means)

diameter 10.5

material PA

number of falls > 15

Did you buy that for your climbing rope? Or your anchor rope? Static lines are great for building anchors and a plethora of other uses. They generally aren’t recommended to use for a traditional slingshot TR set up. You can use it but you have to be extremely careful not to let slack build up in the system (keep a really tight belay at all times). Dynamic ropes are generally better to climb on. 

You dun fucked up..sell it and buy a dynamic rope.

The rope you bought is fine for constructing the anchor (the red rope in the video you shared)

you still need a dynamic rope to actually tie into an climb on (the gray rope he started throwing down at the end)

You bought a rope with a "stitched eye"? Not a rope you want for climbing.

You could feasibly use this for either rope in that video (anchor or climber rope), but it's not ideal for either. You bought a semi-static rope, meaning it stretches a little bit but not enough for lead climbing. Typically anchor ropes are true static (almost no stretch), and climbing ropes are dynamic (around 30%). 

I would caution to not have more than a few feet of slack if using it as a climbing rope. More than this and you are likely to get internal injuries in a fall. Otherwise have fun and remember to inspect your ropes regularly!

P.S. impact force is the force measured at the "climber" end during the testing process. Interestingly, this has a very low one, which makes me think it was not tested in the same way a dynamic rope would be. Anybody have thoughts?

FrankPS wrote:

You bought a rope with a "stitched eye"? Not a rope you want for climbing.

I don’t see what the big deal is if the rope has stitched eyes

that said, I personally just buy rigging rope by the foot (Samson stable braid 3/8”) since I don’t use it for anything else. Cheap and bomber and not carrying not than you need

J E wrote:

I don’t see what the big deal is if the rope has stitched eyes

that said, I personally just buy rigging rope by the foot (Samson stable braid 3/8”) since I don’t use it for anything else. Cheap and bomber and not carrying not than you need

I use this rope at work constantly and am insanely impressed with it's strength and weight. Does it compare well to other more climbing focused ropes? Also what length do you go for?

Zach Baer wrote:

I use this rope at work constantly and am insanely impressed with it's strength and weight. Does it compare well to other more climbing focused ropes? Also what length do you go for?

I have one 100’er. It’s exceptionally light and solid. I never even bothered with the climbing marketed static ropes because they’re often more pricey and/or too long.

To clarify, I intend to use this to build the anchor

I use the Dynamic Edelrid Boa Eco for my climbing rope

@FrankPS @JaredE, I'm not sure why it lists the stitched eye as a thing on the tag, the rope did not come with a stitched eye

@Zach Baer Right out of the box, I was impressed with the weight, but the other rope I have, Boa Eco is not at all a performance rope. I wrote comp.to for the Singing rock rope values on some

This is the Edelrid 11mm static line:
Core proportion: 59 % comp. to 64%
Diameter: 11 mm
Knotability: 1 comp. to 0.8
Sheath proportion: 41 %
Schrinkage H20: 4,10 %
Weight per meter: 79 g/m comp. to 72g/m
Minimum breaking strength: 34 kN comp. to 31.5
Static elongation: 3,4 % comp to. 3.4
minimum breaking strength with standard sewn terminations: 24 kN
Minimum breaking strength in figure-of-eight knot: 22 kN comp. to 19.8 (assuming the knot singing rock used is a figure 8)
Certification : EN 1891 Typ A
Material : Polyester / Polyamide comp. to PA
Rope Type : Static A

Which honestly stacks up closely

John, you bought a fine rope that is more than robust enough for building anchors out of. I'll try and summarize some points below. 

• Impact Force, in this case, is the max force generated during the drop tests as defined by EN 1891 (the European standards for low-stretch kernmantle rope, which the rope in question falls into). To meet EN1891 standard, the peak impact force can't exceed 6kN on a factor 0.3 fall (60cm fall on 2m of rope).
• The term "Static" rope is a misnomer. They are "Low Stretch" ropes, with some amount of stretch in their nature due to their materials and construction. They're often referred to as "semi static". Within the bucket of low stretch ropes, there are those that are less stretchy, and those that are more. The key is that they don't exceed 5% static elongation given the test parameters of EN1891. But under increasing loads, they will stretch more, often more than 5%, but still nowhere near a dynamic rope rated for climbing.
  • There are types of rope that are darn-near static, but these tend to be made from UHMWPE, and are for very specific purposes where dynamic events are not expected.
• A Low Stretch rope is perfectly fine for snug top-roping. A small fall on a low stretch rope would likely be inconsequential in terms of impact force, given a lower fall factor. Drop testing confirms this. A high fall factor on a low stretch rope would be no fun, however, and could produce injuries due to increasing impact force on the climber. That's why we don't lead on low stretch ropes.
• Low stretch rope is used all the time for building anchors in rope rescue and recreational climbing. Its use as an anchor material is completely appropriate. 
• Dynamic ropes and low stretch static ropes are drop tested in different ways, mainly due to their intended use. These drop tests are defined by EN 892 (standard for dynamic climbing rope) and EN 1891. 

Hope that clears things up for you. Happy climbing.

BenCooper wrote:

John, you bought a fine rope that is more than robust enough for building anchors out of. I'll try and summarize some points below. 

• Impact Force, in this case, is the max force generated during the drop tests as defined by EN 1891 (the European standards for low-stretch kernmantle rope, which the rope in question falls into). To meet EN1891 standard, the peak impact force can't exceed 6kN on a factor 0.3 fall (60cm fall on 2m of rope).
• The term "Static" rope is a misnomer. They are "Low Stretch" ropes, with some amount of stretch in their nature due to their materials and construction. They're often referred to as "semi static". Within the bucket of low stretch ropes, there are those that are less stretchy, and those that are more. The key is that they don't exceed 5% static elongation given the test parameters of EN1891. But under increasing loads, they will stretch more, often more than 5%, but still nowhere near a dynamic rope rated for climbing.
  • There are types of rope that are darn-near static, but these tend to be made from UHMWPE, and are for very specific purposes where dynamic events are not expected.
• A Low Stretch rope is perfectly fine for snug top-roping. A small fall on a low stretch rope would likely be inconsequential in terms of impact force, given a lower fall factor. Drop testing confirms this. A high fall factor on a low stretch rope would be no fun, however, and could produce injuries due to increasing impact force on the climber. That's why we don't lead on low stretch ropes.
• Low stretch rope is used all the time for building anchors in rope rescue and recreational climbing. Its use as an anchor material is completely appropriate. 
• Dynamic ropes and low stretch static ropes are drop tested in different ways, mainly due to their intended use. These drop tests are defined by EN 892 (standard for dynamic climbing rope) and EN 1891. 

Hope that clears things up for you. Happy climbing.

Thank you so much Ben! My big worry was the impact force rating being so much lower than the rest of the forces, but it sounds like that didn't raise anyone's red flags.My guess is that both the dynamic rope absorbs most of the "impact" of falling, and even then, I would guess 5kN is high for top roping.

I'm going to lock this thread to let it die Thank you everyone for your helpful information! Happy climbing.