Common Terms

Diameter

Modern climbing ropes range anywhere from 8.0mm – 10.5mm in diameter. Large diameter ropes are heavy but very durable, making them a good choice for top-roping. Skinner ropes are light, have low impact forces, making them best suited for alpine, ice, and hard sport on sights.

Length

Ropes come in a variety of lengths from 30 meters all the way up to 80 meters. Climbing ropes are often 60 or 70 meters in length.

Core

The core of a rope is comprised of individual yarns which are bundled into ply’s. The ply’s then get bundled together to form the core. The core is where your rope will get a large majority of its strength and shock absorption from.

Sheath

This is the pretty, colorful face material you see when looking at a rope. The main function of the sheath is to protect the core. The thicker the sheath, the more protection it will provide, increasing overall durability of the rope. While the main purpose of a sheath is to protect, it does provide a small degree of strength.

Breaking Strength

The breaking strength of a rope is measured using kilonewtons (formulated using mass, length, and speed) and represents how much force a rope can withstand before breaking. Dynamic ropes have a slew of other complex statistics in addition to breaking strength. Those are outlined in the UIAA Fall Test section below.