Slings, Prusiks, and Cord I Have Added to My Climbing Rack
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Is it simpler to have one thing - a process, a procedure, a piece of equipment, whatever - that can be used in many circumstances but which doesn’t perform “the best” in any one of those circumstances, or is it better to have a series of “things” that specialize to a given circumstance and which handle that circumstance very well?
It isn’t a simple decision in any context, and climbing is no different. If I have gear that is overly specialized, eventually I am carrying a lot of gear that adds up to a lot of weight. In addition, I have to be an expert on each piece of gear’s strengths and weaknesses. Just as one example, a Dyneema sling is incredibly strong, able to withstand 22 kilonewtons of pulled force. But that same sling will potentially break if you attach an 80 kilogram weight to one end, anchor the other end, and extend that weight as high as you can before dropping it. In climbing terms, this is a “factor 2 fall,” meaning that the fall distance is twice the length as the length of the sling. (The 80 kg falls from its raised position down to the anchored end and then past the anchored end the full length of the sling).
So, if you have a very, very static Dyneema sling (static meaning no stretch in the material), being above a climbing anchor and then falling to below the climbing anchor can be catastrophic.
But…
We use Dyneema in the quickdraws that we attach to the mountain and then clip the rope through. Why doesn’t that break when a climber falls from above the quickdraw? Well, the climbing rope in the system is dynamic (stretchy) and dissipates the energy of the fall, reducing the load on the quickdraw.
And that’s just one consideration about one piece of gear. It turns out Dyneema is also slippery. That slipperiness helps the material be very abrasion resistant since it will tend to slid over grainy material, like rock edges, more than other material types. But that same slipperiness means that we don’t want to use Dyneema for friction hitches on the climbing rope if we can help it.
Plus, Dyneema has a very low melting point temperature, meaning that the rope running through a Dyneema friction hitch could cause the Dyneema sling to melt.
And…
And…
And…
Just one piece of gear.
That being said, though, I do take out a few different materials when I go climbing, as the video points out. Specifically, I go into a bit of depth on:
Each of these soft goods have some appropriate and inappropriate uses, just like the Dyneema example I gave. I guess, for me, it strikes a balance to have a few things that can shine in particular circumstances but not so many that I can’t both understand and remember each’s dangerous misuses.
Take a look at the video, see some of the pros and cons, and decide for yourself where your line is between specialized versus universal (but not universally great) gear. After seeing what each item is particularly good for, maybe some of these are items you like to add to your rack.
… But maybe these are items you’d choose to avoid.