chh wrote:I don't think it would do much to the rope, but it might harm your saturday afternoon. Now trying to use it in that state might be a different story. Ropes weaken a little when they are wet, so I imagine they would do that when frozen. But, people use skinny ropes all the time on glaciers, ice climbing, mountaineering, etc. I think the workability of a frozen rope would suffer long before the strength of the rope. I've dealt a little with frozen ropes and/or rigging gear, but that was all in patches on the rope and not the whole thing. But, I'm an armchair philosopher in such cases. I've no scientific proof to say it wouldn't hurt the rope, but I've also no empirical proof to say that it would.
The 2002 English edition of
Alpine Caving Techniques (p. 62) says that ropes are actually
stronger when frozen because when they are shock loaded, the ice absorbs some of the energy by melting. It goes on to say, however:
in the event of streaming (alternate freezing and melting) of the rope surface, the build-up of ice on the rope can not only prevent the use of our vertical gear, bu can also create a considerably heavier load on the rope that leads to breakage;
the rope can become stuck by the ice to the cave wall, preventing its use;
traverse lines can become stiff, which has an adverse effect on our cowstails, as discussed in section D3.
This is all separate from the matter of whether or not freezing and thawing of the rope causes damage to the rope, however.