howNOTtoHighline
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Could you survive this?
🕑 Added 2023-02-22 14:00:06 +0000 UTCPATRONS: This is the 6th of 8 posts for February. This was technically years in the making because I snuck in a nerdy section about HZ and getting answers to how fast we need our load cell to be, opens up the flood gate of opportunity because I confirmed we can use the LS3 on any drop tests except steel cable and dyneema.
Falling on static ropes is dangerous they say. It sounds painful, but how painful? We tested semi-static nylon rope, a very static polyester rope and a high tech super static abrasion-resistant rope in the drop tower. Spoiler alert, some would kill you and that's only a fall factor of 0.3 or falling 1/3 the length of your rope. Falling with a fall factor of one (fall 5 feet with 5 feet of rope out) can break the rope, which still kills you.
Data is on our blog https://www.hownot2.com/post/static-whippers
Comments
Awesome video! I've wondered about a bunch of the topics you covered here, thank you.
And they didn't even use harnesses but just swammy belts! Such bad asses!
Mr. Vissiin
It's probably very off topic for modern climbing, but the static ropes made me think of natural fibers and how historical ropes would have worked. I definitely don't have the impression that hemp or jute ropes have much give, so it seems like getting your spine traumatically compressed taking a fall would have been one of the many dangers for old-school climbers!
