Rope is one of the essential equipment for mountain climbing. What is its purpose?

Climbing rope is the most important equipment in mountaineering in history and today. Climbing rope is the center of all climbing techniques, such as climbing, descending and protection. Many mountaineering supplies, such as iron locks and safety belts, can only play a role if they are connected by climbing ropes. The early mountaineering rope was made of cotton, and later it developed into hemp rope. After 1950s, it became nylon fiber, showing excellent tensile strength, durability and wear resistance.

Modern mountaineering ropes are designed and produced according to the requirements of modern mountaineering. Climbing ropes are all braided ropes, and there is an outer net outside several twisted braided ropes instead of ordinary nylon ropes. According to different requirements, there are mainly two kinds of wear resistance and friction. The outer net of mountaineering rope is also divided into single yarn and double yarn. Generally speaking, the mountaineering rope with single woven outer net has low friction and good wear resistance. Climbing ropes come in many colors. Generally speaking, the ropes used by different members of the same mountaineering team are best distinguished by color to avoid losing property during technical operation.

Ordinary climbers always think that the tension of climbing rope is a crucial technical parameter. In fact, mountaineering ropes are generally not marked with the maximum pulling force, but with the parameters of impact force, pulling force and UIAA force. Let's first explain the requirements for climbing with climbing ropes. We know that the pulling force to stop falling objects is far greater than its own weight, and climbers ultimately rely on the pulling force of climbing ropes to stop falling, so the pulling force of climbing ropes on human body is great, which is an important parameter related to the safety of climbers.

UIAA (International Council) requires that the impact force should not exceed 12000 N (about 1.2 ton), beyond which the seat belt may break the waist of the climber. The magnitude of the impact force largely depends on the ductility of the climbing rope. Climbing rope is widely called power rope abroad. Only this kind of rope can cope with the possibility of falling when climbing. The ductility of this kind of rope is usually between 6% and 8%.