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I am doing research for a book. some of it is set around rock climbing. I need to know if there is any one who is very knowledgeable and willing to correspond with me and answer any questions I have. All I know is it uses rocky mountainous areas and ropes, so i will need all the help I can get.
Thanks
Wendy
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 Hello Wendy,
Just ask and you shall recieve.
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Are we allowed to do this through the site, or can we email directly?
thanks in advance for all the help you will be supplying me!
Wendy
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That's what this site is for, ask me?
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Brad, thanks. ok, Have you ever hiked Triple divide Peak in Montana, Katahdin in Maine or Cadillac Mt. in Maine? Is is possible for any of the equipment to fail with no visible means as to why? If so, what is the most and least likely to Fail. Do hikers check each and every piece of equipment for wear and tear BEFORE each climb, or might it be done only when hiker is packing equipment? Can equipment be tampered with (to be made to fail) with no visible signs? Have you ever seen the movie "Cliffhanger". Are there different colors to equipment, or do hikers "mark" their equipment to tell it apart from someone elses?
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chilli
Technical Climber
Posts 194
Points 194
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hey wendy. sounds like a story of some mountain sabotage. i'm sure brad will have some more useful information soon, but i'm here and bored so...
various equipment does indeed have different colors. everything from carabiners, to quickdraws, to harnesses, to hexes come in various shapes sizes and colors. however, that's not how climbers tell their equipment from someone elses. a climber will typically mark all gear on their "rack" (the assembly of gear) with a couple strands of colored tape around the metal parts. it makes it a lot easier to separate things in the end.
as far as tampering with gear to create failure, i can't think of a way to get away with it such that it would be practically invisible and guarantee a catastrophic result (nor have i thought about it before). i suppose one could put nicks in the webbing of somethign and hope the rest of it runs through, but that's banking on a heck of a test-line failing.
wait! i've got an idea... rock-climbers (not hikers) use nuts (aka stoppers) to wedge into cracks on a rock. the head of the nut wedges in the crack and the cable that runs through the stopper is what is connected to the rope. the cable is joined in a loop and there is a small rubbery-wrap over the joint to avoid snags. if someone were to keep that wrap intact, mostly disconnect the loop of the cable, then cover up the (now disconnected) joint with the wrap again, it'd be awfully hard to notice that there was something wrong. it would be key that the partial connection would be there though, becuase a lot of people will give a stopper a jerk to set it, and they would definitely notice if the cable popped open when they did that. it would have to be a weak enough connection that it would still break under a fall, and then you'd have to have a bunch of other things go wrong to hit the ground (like all the other nuts/anchors). so still not the best way to dispatch through treachory.
i'd say the best chance a character would have at successful sabotage would be to mess with the rappel setup. if the characters had to rappell/abseil down from some precipice, they have to entirely trust their equipment. if they were rigged on bolts, i guess the bolts could be tampered with, or something (eg cut to weaken). it'd be tough to get away with tampering with personal equipment though, because most means of tampering would cause some kind of equipment failure or noticeable glitch before it was fully weighted AND people are typically very careful to check their equipment before rapping off somewhere...
which brings me to my next point: we all SHOULD check our equipment before using it, and we frequently do with the major components (rope, harness, etc), but i can say that with many pieces, after the obligatory pre-packing examination, i don't really carefully examine them again when i get out there. there are many other factors that affect that double-checking. some people just get to casual. i heard a story about someone who did some climb recently without having their harness properly buckled just because they weren't really paying attention. so it DOES happen.
Because some people get slack, they miss some things such as the alien cam (a type of SLCD) recall for a pitted metal component that could have failed. so it is POSSIBLE for someone to miss somethign, but i'd say very difficult to tamper with stuff so that you ensure catastrophe, without someone knowning. this is mostly difficult because everything (or almost) is backed-up by another safety device.
i, for one, have seen cliffhanger, and you should not base ANY of your research from that movie. so many things were backwards that it was amusing, but to the lay-person, it almost seems feasible to have some kind of "bolt-gun." so it depends on your audience
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Wendy,
Anytime you are getting ready for a climb and even after the climb check your equipment over. Your equipment is your responsibility and your's only. Usually thing's that are wrong with your equipment are visible to the eye and w/ rope start at one end and take about a foot of rope and pull it tight in your hand's and thenstart at one end and mash the rope between your finger and thumb ( do the whole rope, end-to-end) and if it feel's really soft and spongy, you cut that part out, make sure you burn the end's to stop them from unraveling. Just remember to check and double check your equipment, before and after you climb ok?
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THANKS!
it wouldn't HAVE to be catastrophic...just scary ,maybe. So, Brad, what if you were going with your best friend. would you (or anyone for instance)rely on him/her to check your gear (before a climb), if maybe you were running late Is there some where I can see pictures to go along with all the rock climbing terms. what are the abseil ropes made of. and would it be possible to slip a small blade into rope to cut and weaken it from the inside? or would that make it feel soft and squishy like you mentioned. if squishy part is in middle, would you just get a new rope? Thanks guys!
Wendy
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chilli
Technical Climber
Posts 194
Points 194
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for me squishy = get a new rope (especially in the middle).
there really is no suich thing as an "abseil rope." you can use a static (does not stretch) rope for rappelling, but it would only be a particular type of climbing (caving, canyoneering, and some aid) for which you would find it anything aside from wholly inconvenient to have a static rope tagging along for rappelling. the other option is a dynamic rope, and this is the one used by most climbers (definitely any lead climbing will use dynamic), thus we don't really say "dynamic" (eg "i pulled my dynamic rope out of my bag"); it is just implied becuase it's the rope of choice.
so the construction of a rope consists of continuous-drawn nylon yarns which are heat treated to create the stretch (the dynamic component). and these strands of nylon are then spun (kern) and woven (mantle) into the a kernmantle rope which consists of two parts:
1) the kern: the core of the rope - this is the part that is important in the rope's strength
2) the mantle: the outer sheath of the rope, which is basically there to keep the kern safe (it does add some other properties as well, but that's a little more in depth)
the term "kernmantle rope" just describes the construction.
so you have a cylinder in a tube basically... thus it would theoretically be possible to slip a blade through the mantle into the core, and with enough spinning/movement the kern would be cut through. here's the crazy part... there has been a case that i read of the mantle holding a climber when the core was not intact! my guess though, with your blade idea, is that the blade would start cutting right through the mantle as well.
in order for this blade not to be detected, basically the person who put it in there would have to be the one who checks the rope, or it would be some crazy fluke and it would get missed if the person checking was in a hurry.
it would certainly be possible for one person to do all the rope-checking, which would make your proposal of the best friend checking the rope plausible. in climbing it is very important that we double-check each other's buckles, locking-carabiners, knots, and other aspects of our safety system. i would certainly NEVER allow anyone else to check my harness and personal equipment, and then just put it on and go (and i haven't with my rope yet either). however, to have one person (with whom you have trusted and climbed before and they have proven to be knowledgeable) check the 60meter rope, then somebody else who's late, come along and do it again, would just tick someone off, becuase it is probably a waste of time, which is another precious resource for safety when outdoors in what could be approaching bad weather.
brad will have to help you out with the pictures. i'd say go to a bookstore or REI and look in their climbing books for photos.
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 Wendy,
If it's in the middle, for sure get a new rope!! If your worried about a friend , get a new friend. If someone is going to cut your rope the best time would be while it's weighted.
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Would either of you be willing to answer my questions through regular Email??...for various reasons. And, THANKS bunches for the info.
Wendy
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chilli
Technical Climber
Posts 194
Points 194
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Thanks!! sent you an E.
Wendy
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