Marking the rope.

[Stridergdm]

<snipped>I still get a bit of the butterflies when I'm mid-way up a long drop climbing out.

Just did my first climb on 10mm last month. All I could think on the way out was "I hope I really avoided any rub points!"

Made me wonder if perhaps PMI might want to think about selling speciality ropes that are akin to how some dynamic rock climbing ropes are made with two different sheaths meeting up at the middle of a 50 meter length. IMO there's virtually no difference between the EZ-Bend brand and the Pit rope except for the red threads woven (via factory) through out the EZ-Bend.
Gonna have to give those guys a call sometime.
Thanks for the replies... makes for a good discussion though huh? Any other ideas... keep 'em coming.

Last time I talked to Steve, I believe he said they did make such a rope. And there is a difference in EZ-Bend and Pit, a bit more thant the red fibers.

One note on compromising strength. Yeah, a 50% reduction is pretty extreme, but may or may not matter. For example, the minute you put a knot into the rope, you've reduced the strength 30% or so (you can quibble over exact amounts if you want.) If you rig poorly and cross-load a biner, the 50% rope strength isn't your biggest problem. Or you rig into a bolt/tree/etc that's not as strong as you thought.

It all comes down to the entire system. (Yeah, I still wouldn't reduce my rope strength 50% either, just saying don't focus on this and forget about the other factors.)

[YuccaPatrol]

How about colored chalk?

Sure it won't last forever, but it would be much less likely to chemically react with the fibers.

If you kept a little piece of chalk in your rope bag, you could mark it easily and quickly whenever you needed to.

Now that I think a little more about it, a piece of artist's charcoal would leave a better mark and the carbon it is composed of would also be very inert and would not be likely to affect the integrity of the rope.

[Scott McCrea]

How about colored chalk?

That's the best idea I've heard so far.

You could make a heavy, really press it in there, mark with a non-toxic chalk and maybe, just maybe, a little will remain between the fibers, enough to know where to re-apply the chalk, after washing.

Hmm... Where is the kid's sidewalk chalk?...

[knudeNoggin]

One way that hasn't been mentioned, and that would give potentially
not only visible but also tactile presence/conspicuousness,
is whipping the rope at the spot. --in a special way!

Now, it's surprising how much affect a tight binding has on the rope:
e.g., tie a Dbl. Constrictor or Strangle knot in mason line, which might
(it's 3 wraps) be 4mm wide, and the rope is stiffened for about an
inch! (not board stiff, but ...) ((And NOT a substitute for Viagra! ))

However, given that PMI pit rope is not terribly unlike a board to begin
with, AND with a change to the whipping, I think that this marking
technique can be used to benefit. (And I just tried it out.)

1) Use a brilliant-hued, LAID mason line--which comes in flourescent
pink, green, & yellow, golden yellow, white, ... .

2) UNLAY two strands of the line--to use twin cord for tying.
(In this way we reduce the strength & thickness of the binding wraps,
which should lessen the stiffening effect and disturbance to flowing
through devices (and standing out for abrasion!).) Use these strands
as parallel strands (i.e., don't have them still twisted around each other).

3) tie a double Strangle (Dble.Fish component/Grapevine half) or Dbl.
Constrictor (I like Ashley's #1253 version, but the common one might
actually work better in twin lines), and set it tight w/forceps or pliers
(also do some squeezing of the binding w/pliers intermittently to try
to even out the tension in the binding (which is delivered to the ends
of the wraps, not the center turn). You'll have to have enough length
of ends for purchase for this tying, and, heck, you might only slilghtly
trim them to have that much more distinction for the marking.
(The use of twin strands here gains width of the marking (I measure
5mm for 3 wraps of a Dble.C..))

One might make more than one such binding--for quicker visibility &
redundancy (4" apart, say).

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As for that UIAA report, that was quite bizarre investigation, to my mind,
and seemed biased to promote Mammut's (a Swiss company) special
"Duodess" bi-patterned/center-marked ropes: they expressly named
Beal's marker, IIRC, but there was no stated response from Beal;
the testing seems to have been done by Mammut, and the failures
measure were for the exacting case of the marking coming SMACK AT
THE SHARP BEND in a UIAA drop test !!! I.p., they did NOT do (or did
not report doing) a straight slow-pull tensile test. How relevant do you
think the alleged results are to caving?

In some ITRSymposium report, some guys from CMC tested Sharpie
laundry marke and IIRC found no effect. (Think about how much one
would have to soak the fibres with to penetrate to the core, e.g.!)
As Clyde Soles writes in Outdoor Knots, "Personally, I will
continue to mark my ropes with pens sold by the rope companies."

*kN*