Working on the suspicion of Dirtyeye and his imaginary friends that the rope was cut, they still need a theory on mechanism. Except in Hollywood, cuts don't magically appear.

Just about any biner with an unshrouded gate can potentially do it.

I'm not speaking for Jim, but, working on the ASSUMPTION tha the rope was cut, then it performed as a cut rope might well be expected to perform.

Don't know much about it. On this side of the big pond nobody knows nothing about it.

From UIAA Standard 107

Dynamic ropes can have any pattern other than the above. My bad on the tape, it's actually an RFID chip injected into Beal ropes I was thinking of. Climbers don't keep hangtags or record rope mileage so better batch marking is inevitable. One way or another, I'd bet few ropes won't have it within a decade, including Sterling.

Jim, note that I said "nil" about the raw nylon and "essentially nil" on the cooked rope. I think you'll agree that Beal isn't sloppy on quality control though I highly doubt you've seen their production facilities.

1 - That regulation doesn't agree with what you said ropes conform to. You claimed that the UIAA reg says: low-stretch = one spiral; dynamic = two spirals.

2 - SterlingJim, if I read him correctly, has explained that this UIAA spec is for all intents and purposes non-binding.

3 - Based on the posted photos, this spec, even if it *were* universal, would tell us nothing about the rope in question.

Anyone wanna stop bickering? and wait...

Thus, unless the cause is something we haven't thought of, I suspect that it's down to alternative (1) or (2); either the rope's owner is wrong about the condition of the rope, or the OP (and you) is wrong about the rope not getting cut during the fall. Nothing in the facts reported suggests (to me anyway) why we should prefer one explanation over the other. Basically, at this point, we have a mystery, which will hopefully be solved by laboratory testing.

Agreed about (3). Yet nobody has an explanation for how (2) is even possible. The suggestion for the sharp carabiner gate is good but requires the biner to flip sideways and be trapped at the moment of the fall. Plus DMM uses shrouded gates (on aluminum models, likely the same on a Gym Draw) so that's even more improbable. And brings it back to (1) for which Dirtyeye is incapable of even offering a plausible theory to a mechanical origin. The lab test will only prove/disprove (1a). Assuming it comes back negative, as Dirty appears to believe, there is a failed rope and not even a suggestion on how (1b) caused it. His screaming antics and weak thinking don't get us any closer to what happened and what climbers can do to prevent more rope failures.

Roy, everything else has failed, so I am going biblical on your @ss. ( Pulp Fiction paraphrase, thank you very much)

You have built a house on sand.

I am certainly not incapable of building a theory, but as I spent about 2 decades in math and various othersciences, doing medical research, mild mathematics research, helped edit a text book, studied computer engineering, developed small manufacturing procedures as well as designed tools and parts, for the musical instrument repair field, which were sold internationally, and generally spend a lot of time around smart, logically trained people, I wish to wait for more evidence.


The experts who now have the rope want to make a full investigation before making their findings and conclusions known. They will draw no conclusion based on speculation when they can examine the rope and know for sure.

There is a reason for this.

You are digging a very deep hole for yourself.

Any person with a science, engineering or math background can see that, and they are laughing very hard, if they are not crying. I have seen people like you make huge fools of themselves in front of experts as well as peers before.

Give it up, and wait.

I think that it would be a good idea to examine the 'biner more closely, and maybe have it sent to BD. I am aware of two core shots resulting from small lead falls at our local gym within the last year. I know that at least the one I saw first-hand came from a carabiner that somehow cross-loaded after the climber moved past it and then fell.