Can a belay devide burn through a rope?

by **brenta** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 3:01 am

by **Steve Larson** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 4:07 am

sergio wrote:
In any case, the video demonstrated that you're not likely to get very near that melting point of Nylon just by rapping. And no, climbing ropes aren't made of some weird form of nylon that mysteriously melts around 200F. The toaster oven experiment? FAIL. This is more of an issue for your skin than the rope. Grabbing a rap device after a long, fast rappel is probably going to hurt.

Steve, I take your point. If you had to guess, what would you think it was that melted the rope? I know the rope was good before the climb (I personally flaked it and it run through my hands), so I'm kind of positive it happened during the climb. The other part I can't seem to find explanations to is that the other identical rope did not suffer any damage. Both ropes run through the same device and at the same speed.

Dow Williams offered another scenario that he experienced first hand but that was not the case yesterday. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Hard to say. The fact that only one strand was damaged is a pretty convincing argument against the rap device having anything directly to do with it. The damage looks like rock fall damage to me. The only melting is in those two small spots. They look like strands that were hanging out, and got melted back. There could have been rock fall that you didn't notice that happened while your party was high above at the anchor setting up to rap. It could have hit the rope at the bottom and you would not have known until you got down and found the damage.

by **atavist** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 1:12 pm

Where were you climbing and what type of rock?

Did you see any fire ants nearby? :lol:

Can a belay devide burn through a rope?

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