Tree Climbing Ropes Reviewed

 

 

 

Video Caption File/Transcript by Arborist Industry Expert Nick Bonner and Oliver Kennedy.

Hi, I'm Nick Bonner for TreeStuff.com and today we have a very special guest, Oliver Kennedy. Ali, how are you?

Good. How are you, Nick?

Uh, Ali, I'm really excited. We've got a big video today. We're going to review together 31 different climbing lines for sale at TreeStuff.com. Can't wait to get into it.

Well, first I just want to tell our audience why you're here and why you're such a special guest. So Oliver, you're an engineer at Sterling Rope Company and you primarily design ropes for life safety.

Exactly. Yeah. So that's my main role is designing ropes not just for the ARB industry but for climb and other various industries from initial concept to basically a full product in the end. So that is my role.

That's awesome. What do you think is like the one thing that most people probably don't know about rope design that you find the most interesting?

Um, I think when people say, "Oh, you're a rope engineer." Like, it's kind of a, "Isn't that already made already?" People have made ropes. Like, but there's a lot more specific kind of criteria that guys in the ARB world are looking for that really are in the end fully engineered products that really need a lot of attention to. So, I guess just the appreciation for the complexity behind it and the manufacturing behind it.

Great. Well, I'm really excited to hear your take on this and let's jump right in. So the first thing that we're going to look at, Ali, are four different 12 strand solid braids.

Sure.

The first one that we have here on the table is XTC12 from Yale. This is a half-inch rope. You can see here on the pinch test, Ali, this one gets pretty flat and I think this has a nice hand. It's pretty soft. What can you tell us about just kind of the basics of 12 strand rope construction?

Yeah, so 12 strand is probably one of the oldest rope constructions for the AR market. Um, it's very basic—12 strands that, those strands are quite considerable in size. Um, typically 12 strand ropes are a bit more solid than as you go up the strand carrier count. Um, and generally they're—a lot of it is used in rigging applications. It's very, very heavy duty, really thick 12 strand braided cover. So there's a lot of kind of meat to go into there if you're wrapping it around a log or something like that.

Interesting. And because the strands are much thicker, they are much more abrasion resistant.

Exactly. Yeah. Obviously, you want to still look at how much you're rubbing into that cover because if you go through it, that's where a lot of the strength is in the 12 strand ropes because that's where the highest weight percentage is there. So, still keeping an eye on that is quite important. But yeah, it's generally for high abrasion resistant kind of options there.

Interesting. Uh, the second one we're looking at here, this is Samson Arborlex. You see this nice green line. This is actually a—I think it's a tracer. Ali, does this in the strands or do you think this is applied after?

Uh, that looks like it's applied after. Um, so the rope will have been braided whether they've applied a marker during as it's running off the braid or in some other process. But I guess it's to help identify people when there's twist in the line. Twist in the line can really reduce strength. Um, so it's really important to make sure there's not many hawkles or anything in the line when you're using it.

Interesting. I can definitely tell tying this butterfly knot, this one has a little stiffer hand than the Yale version. Let's take a look at the Sterling Ogre. This is a 12 strand. Were you involved in the design on this project, Ali?

This was a bit before my time. Um, but I'll take credit for it now I'm here. Um, but yes, this one I think pinches the tightest of the three that we've looked at so far.

Right. Uh, and it feels a little softer, like the strands or the plates are not twisted as tightly maybe.

Sure. And there's a few factors that affect the flexibility. One is the twist, the amount of twist in the strands or the turns per meter we call it in the manufacturing process. That's how many twists you actually invoke into the individual strand. The higher the twist, the more rigid that strand becomes and the less picky it is. The second one is also the braid angle that it's actually braided at. So the braid angle affects flexibility as well. Typically, longer braid angles, which are more vertical, make the braid a lot more loose, whereas tighter ones, more horizontal, make it a bit more stiff.

So when you're saying vertical, if we think of these like this, when he's saying vertical, he means that these V's in the rope are coming closer together at the top, whereas horizontal you'll see it wider. And as we look at some of the 24 strand carrier ropes, I think we're going to see a wider braid angle. Is that right, Ali?

Uh, you'll see a large braid angle in the 12 strands and a tighter one in the higher carrier counts.

So, this is a little—that was counterintuitive for me. I'm glad you're here, Ali. You're helping me get through this.

The last 12 strand solid braid that we're going to look at is one of the most ubiquitous ones. Uh, this is the blue, uh, Blue Streak from Samson. And this one feels a little mushier to me.

Okay.

Uh, for better or worse, but definitely I feel like I can pinch this more. And you can kind of see in this pinch test here, right, that this one really gets down quite small, right? What would lead to that? Is that less material in the rope or is it one of the braid angle twist?

It could be a combination of everything. Um, I think one thing we haven't mentioned is in the 12 strand ropes, a few of—quite—I know the Notch one, but a few of the others maybe have parallel cable cores in the middle and that kind of beefs it up, keeps it a bit rounder. Um, so there might be differences in whether the rope has that in the middle or differences in the braid and the twist, the amount of twist there is.

Interesting. I don't see a core inside of this one. I think this is without and maybe that's why it's a little mushier. So, this would flatten more in use. You would see going around a porter wrap or something like that.

Sure. Sure.

All right. Well, let's step it up a little bit. Uh, the next thing that we're going to look at are 16 strand ropes. I started climbing on a 16 strand rope. And coincidentally, I also started rigging on a 16 strand rope. And it's not uncommon for people to use the ropes that we're going to talk about in these next five as light rigging lines. And I also know a lot of people that once the rope kind of becomes less than desirable as a climbing line will kind of transfer them over to light rigging. So, with that, let's look at the first one. The first 16 strand that we're going to look at, Ali, is Arbor Freak. This is a new rope from Samson. They're really excited about this and I really like it. It is, to me, functionally kind of the same as their Arbor Master rope. Uh, and it really feels like it's got that good density. You can see it does pinch a little bit, but unlike the 12 strands, it will hold a little more of an eye there at the end. Um, but these are really dense ropes and all these 16 The plates are not twisted as tightly maybe.

Sure. And there's a few factors that affect the flexibility. One is the twist, the amount of twist in the strands or the turns per meter we call it in the manufacturing process. That's how many twists you actually invoke into the individual strand. The higher the twist, the more rigid that strand becomes and the less picky it is. The second one is also the braid angle that it's actually braided at. So the braid angle affects flexibility as well. Typically, longer braid angles, which are more vertical, make the braid a lot more loose, whereas tighter ones, more horizontal, make it a bit more stiff.

So when you're saying vertical, if we think of these like this, when he's saying vertical, he means that these V's in the rope are coming closer together at the top, whereas horizontal you'll see it wider. And as we look at some of the 24 strand carrier ropes, I think we're going to see a wider braid angle. Is that right, Ali?

Uh, you'll see a large braid angle in the 12 strands and a tighter one in the higher carrier counts.

So, this is a little—that was counterintuitive for me. I'm glad you're here, Ali. You're helping me get through this.

The last 12 strand solid braid that we're going to look at is one of the most ubiquitous ones. Uh, this is the blue, uh, Blue Streak from Samson. And this one feels a little mushier to me.

Okay.

Uh, for better or worse, but definitely I feel like I can pinch this more. And you can kind of see in this pinch test here, right, that this one really gets down quite small, right? What would lead to that? Is that less material in the rope or is it one of the braid angle twist?

It could be a combination of everything. Um, I think one thing we haven't mentioned is in the 12 strand ropes, a few of—quite—I know the Notch one, but a few of the others maybe have parallel cable cores in the middle and that kind of beefs it up, keeps it a bit rounder. Um, so there might be differences in whether the rope has that in the middle or differences in the braid and the twist, the amount of twist there is.

Interesting. I don't see a core inside of this one. I think this is without and maybe that's why it's a little mushier. So, this would flatten more in use. You would see going around a porter wrap or something like that.

Sure. Sure.

All right. Well, let's step it up a little bit. Uh, the next thing that we're going to look at are 16 strand ropes. I started climbing on a 16 strand rope. And coincidentally, I also started rigging on a 16 strand rope. And it's not uncommon for people to use the ropes that we're going to talk about in these next five as light rigging lines. And I also know a lot of people that once the rope kind of becomes less than desirable as a climbing line will kind of transfer them over to light rigging. So, with that, let's look at the first one. The first 16 strand that we're going to look at, Ali, is Arbor Freak. This is a new rope from Samson. They're really excited about this and I really like it. It is, to me, functionally kind of the same as their Arbor Master rope. Uh, and it really feels like it's got that good density. You can see it does pinch a little bit, but unlike the 12 strands, it will hold a little more of an eye there at the end. Um, but these are really dense ropes and all these 16 strand ropes. Is the strength in the cover or in the core? Raleigh.

Um, the majority is in the cover. As we go up in strand count and ropes, we reduce the cover material that goes up. So, from 12 to 16. Um, you'll probably find in a 12 strand, you could be up to 70 to 80% of the material is in the cover. Um, a little bit less will be in the 16 strands, but there'll be a bit more material in the core to keep it round. Often in these ropes, it's parallel cable cores as well, similar to the 12 strands. Here's the butterfly knot in the Arbor Freak. Uh this is a really good half inch line. Uh whether you're using it for, you know, kind of MRS climbing or like we mentioned for light rigging. Uh another thing I want to talk about with 16 strand is that if you're climbing and you're not using a friction saver, 16 strand ropes are going to be really where you want to focus and go to. These 12 strand ropes that we looked at are grandfathered in, I would say. Uh you don't see a lot of people starting to climb on these, but there's still quite a lot of climbers that are starting out on 16 strand. It's a really good choice. Uh this is Yale XTC uh 16 uh in the fire color. You can see here, Ollie, this one has uh the most resistance to kind of forming an eye, I think, that we've seen so far. And I know I know specifically that Yale uh when they do their Yale splice, they use a hydraulic press to do the splicing, which is pretty interesting. Um but this is a nice rope. It feels really good in the hand and it's going to tie our butterfly knot. Pretty nicely there.

The next 16 strand, this is one of the ones that started it all, Olli. This is Safety Blue. And do you know why they call it Safety Blue? Cuz it got a blue core. It's got a blue core. That's right. And that was more expensive. Okay. Because the blue is more expensive than white, right? Uh, so to have and most ropes have a white core because it's the cheapest to put inside and you don't see it. So when they put blue in here, they did it for a reason and that was so that if you nick this rope with your saw and you see that tuft of blue, you know that you've damaged your rope. Uh, pretty cool. Uh, very, you know, strong and durable 16 strand rope uh, from Toyberger. This is a good one if you just like a plain white rope. I guess there's so many colors nowadays. You know, rope color is what sells rope, I think. Ollie. Yeah, I I agree. And then this is HY. So, not uh too much different to say about HY. It comes in HY and Ultrav, which are the green and the yellow colors. Uh but this is essentially for all intents and purposes another color of Safety Blue. I guess just a general comment, Nick, on uh on the materials on those ropes. Some most most 16 strands will have nylon cores, but some will have polyester cores. Um, and that's something to look at for for the the everyday climber just to see the difference elongation between the two. The 16 strands are all pretty similar because that's quite a tight braid angle. Um, but looking at the material type they use in the core can also can also change. Oh, that's very interesting. All right. Sasquatch Max from Sterling. Olly, what can you tell me about this one? This is from your house. It is. It is. It's uh probably one of the more flexible um 16 strands. It's quite it's really well has a really good knotability and good hand feel. Um it has yeah nylon core parallel cores with a polyester sheath. Um the cores are steam stabilized before the before the rope gets braided. So that helps with the longevity of the rope and uh yeah just an all all round workhorse. Huh. That thermal conditioning uh really plays in. Is this a CEcertified rope? This is not a Ccertified Road, so just ANC Z133. Very cool. I like the green color on this one. And I do notice right away that it is uh a little bit softer. Nice, nice rope here. Okay. Well, we are about a quarter of the way through here. Um and we're going to start to get into some of the more advanced or premium ropes, I would say. Uh everything that we've looked at up until now, I think I'm comfortable recommending for use without a friction saver. Uh if your job doesn't require a friction saver, right? So if you're not doing pruning on a thin bark tree or something like that, uh all those ropes obviously can be used with a friction saver, but um this next batch that we're going to go through, if you are climbing MRS especially, you definitely want to be using a friction saver. Uh so we're going to look at some a couple 24 strand ropes here. Within the 24 strand rope, there are some diameters that you'll see a lot of the manufacturers making. First thing we're going to look at here is an 11mm 24 strand from Yale. This is uh Blaze. Can you tell us Olli, what are some of the big differences between 24 strand ropes and 16 strand ropes? Well, the initial one is it's a higher strand count. So, as we go from 12 16 to 24, we get a smoother cover, which helps in this case will run a lot nicer in devices than if you were to run a 16 strand in. So that smoothness is a is a is a big deal for these lines. Um, also in terms of uh materials and and weight percentages between the sheath and the core, we're looking at about sort of a 50/50 overall for 24 strand ropes. It gives us a nice balanced feel. Um, and then nylon and polyester cores. You see different ropes with different types of cores. And this really does change the the feel of the ropes. So you'll see a more probably more variety of different specs that you see from different manufacturers because because of that difference and different variables as well. So we come into braided cores as well for these these types of ropes rather than parallel course. Right? And we should probably talk about terminations, right? So the 16 strand ropes that we looked at are all hand splicable and all stitchable. The 12 strand ropes that we looked at are not hand splicable uh and are but are stitchable. And 24 strand ropes are spliced with a different splice than the 16 strand, but are still splicable. You will see like consistent diameter splices with 16 strand where you don't get that with 12 strand or with 24, excuse me. Generally, there's going to be a throat to the splice. There are a few exceptions to that, but for the most part, that's where you'll see that splice that really tapers. The next 11mm rope that we're going to look at, this is Samson Velocity Cool. Uh, like Yale's ropes, this comes in several colors in the 11 mm. And I would say that these ropes are fairly comparable. So, if you're looking at an 11mm 24 strand, these are a good choice. I can feel just anecdotally that I think that this one is a little softer from Samson. So, that's something if you're if you want it to be a little softer and I think that that'll evidence out in just kind of how the knot looks. We'll see.

 

I mean, it's a pretty minor difference, but this knot definitely tied down a little tighter. So, between the two, that would lead me to say that it's softer. This next rope is interesting. This is DragonFly. Are you familiar with this one?

I am. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is a Kernmantle climbing rope, which that starts to get a little sticky about Kern and Mantle, but they call it Kernmantle 24-strand climbing line because it has parallel cores instead of braided cores. What does that do to performance and use, Ollie?

So, the first initial one is really the feel of the rope. Generally, ropes that have parallel cable cores tend to stay a bit rounder than braided cores. Braided cores tend to flatten out a little bit more. But you may see some ropes that might have a little strand up the middle of the braided core as well to help keep it a bit more round. And yeah, the main thing is the feel. You'll see some differences in elongation characteristics and splicability is a bit more difficult when it comes to parallel cable cores at a 24-strand level.

That's a great point. This rope does not have a pretty splice. This uses a class two splice and you end up with a really large portion of whipping, bigger than this label covering the exterior or exposed crossover on that splice. It's kind of a bummer. This was the first non-16-strand rope that I climbed on. I climbed on the red version of this rope. It was called Fly back then and I liked it because I had been a rock climber and the cable core, parallel core construction made sense to me. I was like, "Oh, I like that." It's kind of bouncy. I'll give it that. So, if you like a more dynamic rope or something with a little more bounce, this is a great choice.

The next rope that we have here is Yale Kernmaster. So, this is a 48-strand cover around a kernel rope. Like the Fly that we just looked at or DragonFly, but this is probably the best-selling rope color or most influential rope color ever. This kind of like started all the rest of these colors back in the day. I remember. This is a very popular rope, but it's very difficult to splice.

Yeah. So with the higher strand count in that, you get a much thinner cover and larger core, but it makes it a super smooth rope that would go through devices really nicely.

Yeah. And when you are climbing on a mechanical device like a Rope Runner or a Unicender or an Akimbo, you can feel the strand count as, you know, people will describe it as like bumpiness. And on a rope like this, it's very, very smooth. And you can see, like even looking closely compared to a 24-strand, like I don't know if you can sense that, but the bumps are just much larger. Here's our butterfly knot.

Oh, Tachyon Ash. So, you mentioned 24-strand carriers with braided cores that will have a third core or small strand inside of it. So, there is a three-strand core of just three twisted yarns inside of this and that makes this a very popular rope because it does resist flattening. So, if you've climbed with a Rope Runner Pro or other devices like that, you know that they can kind of like pancake the rope out. And this will resist it. What else can you tell us about using that third core?

Ollie, I think you covered it pretty much. It's kind of just to fill it out a little bit to prevent the flattening. And on flattening is probably a good chance to talk about it. A lot of people can give us feedback on the ropes saying that this rope flattens like hell or something like that. And I think there's a kind of misconception about flattening. Like a little bit of flattening isn't bad. You don't want a rope that's super round and won't flatten at all because when you're going through the device, you want it to flatten a little bit so you get more surface area on those cams to provide friction because if it doesn't enough, then it will just kind of slide down. You do like a drop test or something. But at the same time, you don't want it to completely flatten out like it's like a 2D shape very efficiently. So, you want something in between.

It seems like we need engineers to solve all these things for us.

Ollie, I know a few people. I'll figure that out.

11.7 mm double braid. So, the Tachyon is in this family and 11.7 millimeter is what a lot of people call the sweet spot, right? It's the kind of the bestselling diameter of climbing lines and a lot of the lines start to crowd into this category. But the 11.7 mm rope that started it all was either Yale Blue Moon or Poison Ivy, depending on which camp you're in. And this is the updated version of Poison Ivy from Samson. 11.7 millimeter Silver Ivy. And it's a great color, a great rope, and really fits into that kind of middle spot, right? Like if you're climbing SRS, SRT, MRS, or DRT or whatever you want to call it. This rope can do it all. It can handle a very light amount of friction without a friction saver in a pinch. But it'll also work well for SRT. It's got enough kind of like dynamic nature to not hurt you, but not enough that if you base tie, it's terrible. So, really nice rope here. Samson Silver Ivy. This comes in a couple colors.

You can get Sterling Banshee. This is one of yours, Ollie. Another one.

Yeah. Again, 24-strand family. 11.7 fits into that diameter range. Nylon core.

Yeah, exactly. Nylon core, braided nylon core with a polyester sheath. Yeah, kind of your do-it-all kind of rope for DRT or SRT.

This is not CE. No, just at CZ 133.

Tell me, Ollie, about the difference between using a nylon core versus a polyester core. If I had this rope with a polyester core, what would I expect to be able to kind of notice or experience?

So, the main thing is elongation. You'll get a bit more stretch from a nylon core compared to a polyester. That's pretty much the main difference. Also, depending on the rope you get and what steam treatment has been had by different manufacturers, some nylon cores actually get steam treated before they get braided into the rope. What that does is firstly keeps it more flexible over time. It doesn't get as stiff that nylon tally does when it gets wet and overuse. It also prevents milking. So milking often happens when you're using devices or prusiks as you slide down, create a lot of sheath bunching at the bottom. Another way this happens is when the rope gets wet, the nylon core actually shrinks inside itself. So pre-steaming it in the manufacturing process prevents that shrinkage in the field. So that's another thing to look out for.

Shrinkage is something we all want to avoid.

Exactly. Exactly. It was cold. The pool was cold.

[Music]

[Music] Cold.

Woo. Let's get back on track. Thank you, Olly. This is the Yale Blue Moon. So, this is Yale's—I don't want to say version, but version—of Poison Ivy, and really high-quality rope. Again, kind of has all the same characteristics of the last two ropes that we've looked at. Feels a little softer, I would say, just kind of pinching between my thumb and forefinger. And I think you can see that here in this eye, kind of the eye pinch test. This is how I've always looked at ropes myself. And you can see, I mean, that is a meaningful difference and is going to equate to maybe a tighter hand, right? Or knot holdability, but also make it harder to get the knot out. And probably, at least to my anecdotal interpretation, maybe it's a little less abrasion resistant. But if you're looking for something really soft or the softest of these three because you really want your knots to be set nicely, this is a great choice. And it's really high-quality rope. I mean, Yale's been doing this forever and they do a great job with it.

The next two ropes that we're going to look at are from a vendor that's new to our store, Kurant. And interestingly enough, I misorganized this rope. This is the Kamura, which is a 16-strand rope. And I got to say, the color combination is lit and definitely doesn't match the rest of these 16 strands. I mean, come on, right? So I put it—and it has a softer feel than any of the other 16 strands. And you can see, we'll show you that pinch test here. It's not as long. We'll show you that pinch test here. You can see, see how much softer that is. The other nice thing about these Kurant ropes is they have a proprietary Kurant splice that comes on the rope automatically and it will fit through a Zigzag. So, this is the Kamura 11.7 mm 16-strand, which most of the 16 strands are a half inch. So, that one, this one sticks out for that reason as well. And yeah, without a doubt, the coolest 16-strand color that we sell. Olly, you should make a sweet 16-strand color.

That's what the next one that we're looking at, this is the Calima. This is their 24-strand from Kurant. And again, it has that core-removed eye splice where they've supplemented it with stitching to make this splice small enough to fit through a Zigzag or other mechanical device. So, you can see this 24-strand is noticeably stiffer than the 16-strand, which is kind of interesting, actually. Olly, isn't that interesting? I would have expected the 24-strand to have a softer feel than the 16-strand. Yeah, it's interesting. I guess different diameter as well. So, they're two different diameters, so you'll see a different kind of feel.

All right. Well, let's keep moving. These are nice choices from Kurant. Really, really cool colors. Definitely digging those.

This is Scion. This is another one from Olly. Olly, what can you tell us about Scion from Sterling?

So, yeah, another 24-strand braided polyester sheath cover over a nylon braided core. This again has a little parallel cable core up the middle to keep it nice and round. This one's a CE certified rope. I think we've come across a few of the CE certified ropes, but this one meets all the requirements. A big main difference you see in ropes that are CE certified versus only ANSI certified is mainly the elongation. CE certified ropes for the European market have to pass a drop test requirement and for that you need a bit more dynamic elongation to absorb that energy that it has to pass. So that's why you won't see many CE certified ropes that have polyester cores. They'll mainly always be nylon cores. And if you like a rope that's less bouncy, generally that's going to be a non-CE certified rope. And that's one of the reasons we still produce non-CE certified ropes for sale in the US.

Let's move on to our next group of ropes here. If in 24-strand 11.7 mm, just a little too thin, then 11.8 mm Samson Vortex is going to be your go-to rope. With a stated difference of a tenth of a millimeter higher than our most popular selling ropes. I will say it's pretty hard to tell. Comparing this rope here to the 11.7 Blue Moon though, it is substantially mushier. You can feel that. And I mean you can almost see it like when I scrunch the rope here like this versus like this. It's just so much—this one's so much spongier. And that's going to go back to the twist counts and the braid angles, right, Olly? Sure. And the different weight percentages, the weight ratios between the core and the sheath.

When we're talking about diameters, you're saying it's a tenth of a tenth of a millimeter off. There's actually a formula to calculate the diameter of your rope. That's how we all manufacturers kind of measure it against. So, you measure a certain tension, which is short tension, and that we calculate as 200 times the diameter squared. So for 11.7, 11.8 ropes, it's kind of a bit more than hand tension. And we'll measure it at that. And that's how we get the correct measurement. So you don't just measure it over your arm or with a bend. It's not a very accurate way of measuring.

Very interesting. Of course, the engineer insists that there's got to be a really complicated way to measure things. Surprise.

Next we're going to look at Samson Vortex. Vortex and Amorei were kind of the two ropes that were always like head-to-head in the larger half-inch 24-strand space. So, where they had Fire and Velocity in the 11 mm in hot and cool, they also had Vortex and Amorei in hot and cool. So, first one we're going to look at here is Yale's Vortex. This is a nice soft—you can definitely feel it's nice and soft—supple 24-strand rope. It comes in this really nice color here.

And if you are looking for a rope that's a little easier on your hands, this is going to be a really good choice. If you want something that's lighter, this rope will be heavier per meter than, say, like an 11 mm will, but definitely is going to work with different types of mechanicals and things like that.

The next rope that we're looking at is the same rope. It's Vortex half inch, but it is a dry-coated version. So, this is SamsonDry, and it's definitely noticeable to me that this affects our pinch test in a pretty dramatic way. So, if you're thinking about comparing these two and hand is something that you're looking at, this rope is noticeably stiffer in the hand. I imagine that that probably translates to more durability long term.

Yeah, possibly. And that's the hydrophobic coating they apply to the ropes to get those hydrophobic properties. So that does a number of things. It prevents water being absorbed into the rope, so it prevents it from getting heavier. And also, nylon itself as a material molecularly changes when it absorbs water and can reduce break strength. So that's some of the things that hydrophobic coatings can have on ropes.

Great. So, if you want to make sure that your rope is staying dry or staying cleaner or you just don't want it to get heavier while it's raining, SamsonDry is a great choice, especially being in the half inch kind of range there. If it does get wet, it can get pretty heavy.

This is a cool rope. This is yellow. I really like this. This is a... in rope. Again, it would be arguably the same as Vortex, but you can feel a difference just touching it. And it's really neat what causes it. So they use an air puffer to puff the black strands. So there's like this little tiny air jet, and as the strand runs past it—and correct me if I'm wrong here, Olly—but the machine goes like [sound effect] and it takes that strand and puffs it up. I'm exaggerating here, but at the small level, when those strands get puffed up, the grip is noticeably different, and you can feel it just running your thumb over it. There's more friction on this rope.

And if you—I've done this—if you hang from a piece of Vortex and a piece of Amorei, it is easier to hold your weight with the hand that's on the Amorei. So, if you're a little older or a little bigger maybe, or just have weak hands like me, and you're looking for something that's really easy to hold on to and pull yourself up, without a question, this yellow Amorei is a really, really good choice.

HTTP addiction. HTP has always been my favorite static line, and it's going to kind of segue us out of these 24-strand braids into, you know, the Mac Daddy. This has got to be the bestselling industrial static line ever, at least if you're considering high-quality life support stuff.

What can you tell us about HTP as a rope and about maybe this color here?

Sure. So, HTP—we're into the 32-strand category. So again, we're going thinner in cover. This is a kernmantle rope. So traditionally, kernmantles have parallel cable cores in the middle. And this HTP, as its name stands for, is high tenacity polyester. This is a 100% polyester rope. So you'll get super low elongation from this and it works really well with mechanicals because of the really smooth sheath as it has a higher carrier count.

When you load HTP really heavy, you can pick it up like this and it'll stand straight like this. And this is pretty cool, right? And then what happens, like when it's hanging from a tree and you've put, you know, like 500 or 1,000 pounds on it, you'll actually feel it and you can—the cores get so locked together that you can break it like this, and then where it's broken, where you kind of broke that lock, it'll start to fold over. And I just like—it's so neat because you can do it like every two inches and you can feel it cracking almost. Can you tell me what's happening there, Olly? I've only ever noticed that with HTP and it's such a cool feature.

I guess under that load, all the fibers are really closing in on themselves. So as you load a rope up, the diameter generally decreases and it's just the fibers really locking in together, the sheath really becoming tight.

People on YouTube are going to say I have something holding this up. There's magnets in the ceiling, guys. It's a conspiracy.

That's pretty cool, right? I think it's pretty cool.

Let's talk about Samson Mercury. Samson Mercury is a really dense—like I can feel again the difference in just pinching them—a really dense static line. We use this for our foot locking events a lot, and people really like it for that reason. It's really low bounce and Samson always sponsors our foot lock events, which is sweet. Cue the foot lock footage.

Okay, we're back. What can you tell me about what might make the Samson Mercury feel so stiff like this?

Again, differences in material ratios between the sheath and the cover. I believe the Mercury has a nylon core, slightly different to the HTP that we saw earlier. So, even though it's still a really low elongation rope, you have the nylon in there that probably has a bit better dynamic absorption than you would get from the HTP.

I got to say, this is a pretty fire color, which is probably where they came up with the name Mercury.

Oh, yeah. See, the Mercury definitely does not have the hand. And I think that that's part of it being like a really SRT-focused rope is that you don't tie a lot of knots in your rope for SRT. You know, maybe a base tie knot, and that's about it. Totally not suitable for MRS. Probably wouldn't even work with a Blake hitch.

This next rope is actually, I think, named after you, Olly. It's from Kurant. It's called the Rebel. Olly's known around the office as being quite rebellious, always giving HR problems. You can see it on him.

Don't tell everyone. Don't tell everyone.

This is a nice feeling rope. It feels very—it's 11 mm, so it's a little tighter, a little smaller in the hand, but it feels almost uncompressible. It's so tightly wound. And the carrier count on this has got to be 32 or 48.

So, 32, that one. And there's actually—so we're getting into kind of cover formation braids now a little bit on the 32 carriers. The previous two we saw, they're 32 carriers but they're in kind of what we call a diamond formation. So you have the carriers going over two strands and under two strands, following in tandem with each other. Whereas these ones, it's called a twill braid. So that's kind of a diff—it's on the same machine, but the actual outcome of the braid is a lot smoother as it's going over two strands, and so you get less of a crowning effect and so it makes it really smooth.

That's really great. I've thoroughly enjoyed this, Olly, learning all these little things about rope from you.

Thank you so much. We're getting towards the end here, but we're at another one of my favorite ropes, 10 mm HTP Snake Bite. This is a custom HTP color and this is just like our 11 mm HTP, which we showed in the Addiction color here. And this is just a smaller diameter. This one's not so widely used in commercial tree work, but if you're doing recreational climbing, setting high lines, swings, doing things in the backwoods, camping, this is the rope for pretty much any non-industrial static rope use. I think 10 millimeter HTP is in that sweet spot. It's plenty strong enough, super low elongation, and you can carry 600 feet of this in a backpack. Trust me, I have a 600-foot piece of it. Just a great rope overall. The color, take it or leave it if you're into camo or whatnot. But this is really popular with saddle hunters as well. People that are using SRT access lines to get up and do bow hunting and stuff, which I think is kind of cool. I'm not a hunter, but I think it's neat that people are out there using this to bow hunt, which is pretty cool.

So, the next one, second to last, our penultimate rope. Penultimate means second to last, not like awesome or anything, is KM3 Max, which is kind of an awesome rope. We used to use this for rope bridges, and I still think that this rope makes a really good rope bridge rope because it is so thin, right? It's 11 mm diameter and it has a very tight weave. What kind of weave is this, Ollie?

That is a twill. So this is the twill weave, and that makes it really smooth. So if you have a ring on it or something like that, it's going to wear evenly. It's not so expensive that it's prohibitive to use as a rope bridge, and it'll also fit through all of the rope bridge hardware that I'm personally familiar with. So this is a great choice. It has a coating on it which also, I think, increases the durability but will decrease the hand. If you're looking for the most durable static line, this might be it. Maybe not the nicest to work with, but probably the most durable of all of them.

And then the last—have a quick—I have a quick comment just in general, the weave of the rope. We should stop calling it the weave. Rope engineers always laugh when we hear people talk about the weave. It's funny. It's funny. Yeah. You weave baskets, right? Exactly. I think I need to weave my hair. It looks terrible today. I had a hat on. It's funny. It's funny.

The last static line and last rope that we're going to look at today, Ali, is one of our bestselling static lines. Certainly the color got it off the shelf, but the feedback on this has been really great overall. And this is Teufelberger Xstatic. So, I can feel right away it's a little softer than some of the last ropes that we looked at. You can feel that kind of like mush in your thumb. Not mush is the wrong word. It gives to your thumb a little bit. It's certainly not soft or mushy, but definitely softer than the last couple static lines that we looked at. People remarked that this one's super low elongation and that they really love the color. All right, pretty reasonable hand. Another great rope.

Yeah, another good one. And I think one thing we didn't touch on—32 strands is normally they're not splicable, or very, very difficult to splice.

That's right. We should probably look at that. So the Xstatic is not splicable. KM3 Max is not splicable. The HTP is not splicable. Mercury is not splicable. So, none of these static lines are splicable at all. The only splicable lines that you would maybe consider static are going to be the Kernmaster. But everything else is stitchable. And every rope on this table is stitchable with a Grizzly splice. For use in a DRT or MRS system, a Grizzly splice is certainly less than ideal, but the static lines are not suitable for MRS. If you're climbing MRS, a sewing termination or a Grizzly splice is advisable because you can use it for base tying or things like that and the other end of your rope will play fine with rings and stuff like that.

Ali, you want to tell us about any secret projects you're working on?

I wish I could. Too many.

So, there are secret projects you're saying?

Always. Always. Whether they make it out or not, who knows?

All right. Well, if someone guesses in the comments what Ali's secret project is and they guess it correctly, Ali will comment on the project and let you know.

Absolutely. Maybe there it is. Can you suss out Ali's secret project?

Ali, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. I feel really good that there's people like you and not people like me leading the design of these ropes, but I'm really happy to be here reviewing them with you. So, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks very much. It's been a pleasure.