Re: 7mm cordelette for making cows tail?
Posted: May 11, 2013 7:32 pm
One more for those who want all the qualitative info they can get. Feel free to skip it if long documents are not your thing - it doesn't add much to the discussion that hasn't already been said:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1p0Gvw ... sp=sharing
I won't beat the horse anymore than I have to but I did think it was worth pointing out one thing and the damn ungulate had it coming. That thing is that fall factors with cowstails can be much higher than you would initially suspect. The reason for this is that the connectors make up such a large % of the total length of your cowstail. If you were using the aforementioned 18 inch cowstail you might have 5 inches of carabiners/maillons in your system. In such a case over 20% of your system is completely static. This may not seem like much, but if you were to climb as high above an anchor as you could and take a fall it would probably exceed FF2. This is a large reason why knots provide so much of the energy absorbtion in the system - the rope is a far smaller % of the entire system.
Hopefully this paragraph was so painful to read you won't even think about caving ever again Andy. I am with Stan and Derek - more cave for us.
(And don't get me started on SPRAT and lanyards...)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1p0Gvw ... sp=sharing
I won't beat the horse anymore than I have to but I did think it was worth pointing out one thing and the damn ungulate had it coming. That thing is that fall factors with cowstails can be much higher than you would initially suspect. The reason for this is that the connectors make up such a large % of the total length of your cowstail. If you were using the aforementioned 18 inch cowstail you might have 5 inches of carabiners/maillons in your system. In such a case over 20% of your system is completely static. This may not seem like much, but if you were to climb as high above an anchor as you could and take a fall it would probably exceed FF2. This is a large reason why knots provide so much of the energy absorbtion in the system - the rope is a far smaller % of the entire system.
Hopefully this paragraph was so painful to read you won't even think about caving ever again Andy. I am with Stan and Derek - more cave for us.
(And don't get me started on SPRAT and lanyards...)