Clean Rope!

Hey! Filler episode for Climbing Adventures because I am being slow.

What is worse than than when you are belaying with an old rope and it gets black crud all over your hands? Or when you have to bind it up and it gets stripes on your shirt? OK, many things, but seriously dirty ropes are a real nuisance, and can make the rope wear out faster.

Birdcrap is terrible.

So I washed mine!

The rope. We used it a few weeks ago and it blackened all our hands. I was a little embarrassed.

I have had my rope for over a year now, but it hasn’t seen use in 6 months or so because it was just like I said, gross to use. After consulting the internet and friends I set to work. First I got the rope out, untangled it, cleaned out my sink (some people use their bathtubs, but I didn’t want to) I set to work!

This was the first time in the water, it got better I swear!

I put about a quarter or a fifth of the rope in the sink at a time, filled up some lukewarm water, and a tiny dab of soap. Then I rubbed the rope together and splashed it around in the sink. I let all the water out, and repeated this several times until the water was pretty clear. Then I moved on to the next bit!

See all the little metal filings? That’s a big part of what makes ropes dirty.

 

Finally it was all done and my arms were sore. I flaked out the rope on the ground because you aren’t supposed to hang it up as that can lead to uneven stretching and flattening of the rope in places. I still looked dark because it was wet and I was a little scared it was all in vain.

Letting the rope dry…

After a day or so, the rope was nice and dry so I gathered it in the “backpack” mode, wearing a white t shirt, and didn’t get any marks on anything! Hooray for clean rope!

White shirt! No marks! hooray!

There is a little tiny bit of fraying on my rope, but nothing serious like glassy areas or fuzzy bits.  I think it has at least another 5 or 6 months of weekend use.

All packed up and pretty. Ready for the weekend!