Rope care

[Climbhigh]

was climbing on some Tendril today and having problems with binding on the descent. In checking things out I noticed the rope diameter bellow my hitch was about 50% bigger. So went to ground and cut off the factory tape job on the tail and milked off 4 feet of cover. I never really paid much attention to this before but it might explain some random problems I have been having particularly with mechanical devices. I am going to do the same with all my ropes. Is this normal?

 

[ch74]

My blaze rope milked like that , I just cut it out n keep going. Also keep using from same end, I didn't switch.

 

[Burnham]

Depends on the rope. Some are bad to do that, some not at all. Sherrill has a nice spreadsheet sort of data page in their catalog on all the climb ropes they carry that includes milking info. Not every rope made of course, but a good place to look when you are considering a particular rope.

 

[chris_girard]

The best thing to do when you get a new rope that tends to milk a lot, is before you even use it, tie one end off to a small dia. post or tree. Then take a small dia. cord and tie a 3-wrap,6-coil prussic on to the end of the line attached to the post. Cinch it down and clip a biner to the prussic cord. This will allow you to milk the entire line better than just holding it by hand. Cut off the excess when finished. You can even repeat from the other end to really balance the line.

We do this all the time, especially on our double braid rigging lines. You have to remember, that rope comes off of large factory spools that don't always balance the rope all the way through, so it's a good practice for climbers and riggers to get into a habit of checking this before the initial use.