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The value of the knowledge you’re sharing is going up exponentially with each video.

Plug the shit out off the stuff mate . Some people don't relise it costs money to do the science of breaking gear fear. And the content is actually useful for real world applications . As a 40 year-old that started climbing only 4 years ago your channel has helped lot in understanding the limitations of my gear . And has helped me push for more adventures in my homeland of Scotland .. so keep up the great work the whole how not 2 team 👏

I experienced one instance where I was relatively convinced that my rope would have performed differently if it had been dry. During a slightly swinging top rope fall, the sheath ripped open with surprising ease as it made contact with the rock. If a rope's strength against sharp edges is significantly compromised when wet, this could be a realistic safety issue.

This channel is becoming more and more like Mythbusters but for outdoor sports. Crazy to see how quickly this show has increased it's production value! high quality content from Mr. Jinks.

Let's take a moment to recognize Ryan is breaking a sterling dry rope for us. He had to sacrifice many dollars to the climbing gods.

Great stuff! I hate climbing in the rain. But an arborist doesn't get to pick the weather 🤷🏻‍♂️

As a beginner climber when I hear the rope creaking I get scared. It's cool to see the figure 8 knot does not slip. You really are breaking gear fear for me. Kudos

I’m a little late to the comment section on this one. I wanted to point out a few flaws in your testing. -It wasn’t wet enough you clearly should have soaked the rope in pure glacier water directly from the source. - There wasn’t enough sun to be considered a partly sunny day. - The moon phase was off - And finally it’s obvious by color coordinating the rope and pants you were playing favorites. Hehehe Thanks for putting in the effort great video.

my honest guess as to where the "wet ropes are weaker" thing comes from is from sailing. certain types of rope, when stored wet for periods of time, can mold and this decreases their strength. i don't think this is a problem with synthetic rope, but may be a thing to test.

The quality of your videos is geting better and better :)

Since 1964 I've never seen my wet cave rope break. I did have issues with wet rope that froze and that defeated my use of Gibbs and Prusik knots. So, I climbed up a flowing melt-water chute on-belay.

I don't mind the plugs at all. It's refreshing to see some "wholesome" advertising. Please never sell out to one of those mobile game companies. Love the videos, keep up the great work!

would be interesting to see the strength of ropes that are used in wet conditions regularly. Like if a rope has been soaked in water, then laid out in the sun for the day. And repeat this for a couple of weeks or something

Loving the content... not bothered by the ads, very happy if they're working for you.

Such great content! Thank you for all your valuable contributions to the community!

I’ve been waiting for this video for awhile. Thank you!

River guide and swift water rescue professional; love super good enough! This channel is super good enough to subscribe to.

I think that was a really excellent test, exactly the sort of thing your drop tower is for. Thanks.

Great video. Leaving a comment and a thumbs up. I really enjoyed the charts and the fact that you tested the ropes on the drop tower and slacksnap.

lol I love that uh huh smile nod. I had to rewind and watch that a few times I was laughing so hard. Great video man!

If you say comments are good for you, it is a supergood enough reason to say that I love your channel.

Great video, always happy to know that my gear is super good enough!

Was looking forward to this video! Thanks!

You guys and gals are doing a great job.

This channel is awesome. You guys have really helped show me how to properly use my gear and have helped eliminate a lot of my gear fear. Only thing I question anymore is the quality of the anchor in the rock on sport routes. One thing I would be curious to see is some drip testing of the Edelrid ohm device. I’m curious how much force it reduces for the belayer. My fiancé and I have about 70lbs difference between us so when I fall she tends to catch some air. lol. I recently purchased an ohm device and am waiting for it to come in so we can get out and test it.

It's cool how the dry rope got wet slower

You're the man! I appreciate everything you and Bobby do. BTW, I live and guide climbing in Truckee, and I have seen Bobby around multiple times now. Haven't said hello yet, but I'm sure I will. It seems like we do some of the same kind of work with youth.

Love these videos. Was nervous in my early days of rappelling near a waterfall (not climbing) in fear that the rope would break because of a damp/wet rope. or that the grigri would slip easier.

"The water is cold" Brilliant! :))))

I don't need a money clip, I have a beard trimmer, I don't play video games, being a Scottish lord sounds un-American and I think all the headphones in ads are terrible. Rockie Talkies however.... that's something I might actually buy - thank you for not working a manscaped ad into your puns and showing me something that might actually help me :)

Super good enough is an under statement! Dont get me wrong, safety is always priority number 1! Double/triple check your systems and gear every time. Using gear rated at these ratios is means for having good fun with good friends. That's what its all about! Thank you Ryan and Bobby!!! You boys are the shiz!!!

Finally found the discount code. Thanks!

It’s good to see you that you are using the metric kn Metric for the win😊

Ryan, I would really like to see you test Whoopie and Loopie slings. (Arborist industry) Would be nice to know if they are as strong as I've been told. Like the eye splice video maybe you could find someone to demonstrate the right way to make them; then test them.

exceptional video!

Great video.

Here's an engineers educated guess. One of the important factors in rope stretch is internal friction. Specifically, the friction between the individual rope strands. Wetting the rope reduces the friction between the strands and allows the rope to stretch more given the same force. The longer it stretches the faster it will get to its breaking point (past it's elastic deformation, into plastic deformation, and finally to breakage). Hence a weaker rope.

I think you guys should test different other types of rope, wet and dry, on the drop tower. Anyway very good video, keep it up!

Commenting for the algorithm. Love the videos

I could've saved you a bunch of time Ryan. We developed a crag which dries super fast, which meant that we often get caught half way up a route by rain, run away and hide in a cave for a bit, then go straight back to climbing on, yes, wet ropes. We are all still alive. Truth is if you ever generate enough force to be close to the ropes max you will probably break your back. Most falls dont come even vaguely close to those kind of forces

“Is that our tail doing just fine over here.” Excellent line!

FYI, you can certainly calculate whether there is a statistically significant difference from those sample sizes (referencing the wet vs dry ggplot boxplots). A simple t-test will do here. And there is definitely a difference (easily seen in the BWP). This is likely a big part of why these warnings are present. I agree with all of your downstream comments, but maybe consult a statistician to help you with concise interp/experimental design?

I'm no climber so ignore me, but.... 1) How does the "wet" affect friction? I believe friction is a factor in various applications. Rappelling, and friction knots. ie- When will a Prussik slip? 2) The video is useful in the real world. The end user should be alerted to possible variations in performance. The manufacturers give warning to introduce "wetness" for any injury when using their product.

a lot of plastic like nylon can absorb moisture from their environment over an extended period of time often this causes it to become more brittle or affect wear cycling it would be interesting to look at the difference at longer exposure to see what that affect water absorbed into the material itself has compared to water that has been sucked into the inter fiber spaces like a sponge

In braided rawhide, the fibers need to be lubed to be strong. Round braids move as they tighten to clamp to the core. Rope makers have a treatment of the rope to self lube the fibers. In this case water and ice will lube the fibers. The idea is to reduce the friction factor on the fibers in ropes. For the drop tests, what was the outside temperature and humidity during the tests?

This is a cool vid! had the same question.

Very interesting video!! Could be good to know what happen with low stretch ropes in canyoning.

My guy in the grey is wearing the best layer ever, the Outdoor Research Ascendant Hoody!! Such a shame they discontinued it...

i woke up to this video, not to intrested in climbing, but rn im very invested

Thanks!

So stoked to see the drop tower put up to this. Huge payoff for us, your viewers, from all of your hard work!! Stoked to see this put to the test.

I’d like to see the wet rope test done using various devices to see what the effects are, not necessarily on rope strength but on the effectiveness or lack thereof of each device on a wet rope. Like using a prusik, Grigri, ascender, Micro traction, etc.

I don’t even climb and I love this channel lol

stop worrying so much about random comments under your videos. your work is amazing. such good knowledge as a climber!!

I loved this video.

I loved the segway to the sponsor lol reminded me of linus tech tips channel

Save money, get stronger , buy the non dry treated rope. That said if it is freezing, a wet rope freezes and that really sucks.

Here is one more comment to help with the algorithm. I really thought the ropes were going to be on sale! I need rope! Great video as always.

If you really want to get nerdy… you can plot the data as a stress strain graph to get the Young’s modulus to calculate the stiffness and derive the peak force the rope can withstand and compare that to your drop test. You would need to take more data points on the tension puller, but idk of the juice is worth the squeeze

Thank you

This would look really cool if you did a colab with The SlowMo Guys! Really cool video!

I know this is way past timely for this video, but coming at this from a complete non-climber's perspective, I do a fair bit of fishing and most of our lines are nylon (either single strand/monofilament or braided) and those lines will begin to wear out after about 2 years of regular use (i.e. you want to replace the bulk of your spool after that amount of time) because the nylon will absorb water and dirt and will begin to degrade (you can sometimes see this with colored lines rubbing off micro-plastic dust just from light finger friction while reeling in an unloaded line). Such lines are more susceptible to snapping under sudden load and to abrasion (which seems broadly comparable to what might break a rope in a worst case scenario). Given that, my concern would be that a rope getting wet and drying regularly over a longer period of time might indeed weaken a rope more than one that was being stored inside a reasonably conditioned building, but I don't think that would be any more apparent in the kind of worst case scenario that such a warning entails. Seems like as long as you're replacing gear at regular, common sense intervals, the effects of water on nylon should be negligible. But maybe there's some material scientists that think otherwise.

Commenting for algorithm, leaving a like, and many thanks, for everything you do

I'm not a climber but you are doing the lords work for climbers everywhere

I heard wet ropes are fine on the 1st fall but then fail to recover their dynamic properties (so a 2nd fall is harder)

Can’t believe i missed out on that rocky talkie deal 😔

“Aw that things PISSIN all over my slack snap machine. JUST THE WAY I LIKE IT!”

Comementing for the algorithm, and this is super interesting. Just like most climbing gear, if you're using it in a realistic manner it's super good enough and you'll likely hurt yourself before breaking the gear!

I've always wondered how fast someone would fall if they're rappelling with an ATC and just completely let go of the rope. It must slow them down a bit, especially rappelling on 2 strands of rope, and I wonder if some twisting or swinging of the rope from the fall would make you speed up or slow down.

Really interesting video, as always. And I would love to buy the Rocky-talkie but they don't ship to Sweden :( It sucks

One of the best videos yet. However, for the UIAA falls, wouldn’t the concern be how much the water inhibits the rope from regaining that stretch since falling a second or third and so forth time on a rope after thirty seconds versus after five minutes has a different impact on the lifespan of the core, correct? Had never thought too much of my ropes being a bit damp except for the handling issues, because no one wants to be belaying a wet and likely soon to be dirty rope.

So... in 3D printing, we use dehydration ovens to pull the water out of our filaments so they print properly. Assuming nylon continues drawing water in through its life, could dehydrating an old rope cause higher yield figures, essentially restoring a rope? Edit: also, I learned that dry treatments don't do all that much for the rope weight/water absorption. Thanks!

In the uiaa tests, all the breakage occurs over a rounded metal edge, which is supposed to represent the last piece of protection. Can you add a similar edge in your system? The metal edge is essentially supposed to be a 1 cm steel biner.

"Satisfy the mob"... I died.

It would be interesting to put a thermocouple device on the knot to see what heat is being (if any) when you stretch the rope.

It would be difficult to test but say take 2 ropes that sat in the same conditions for a few years soak one then dry it and compare which is stronger and if you can rejuvenate a rope that's sat around to long

Hey Ryan I'm sure there's a comment in here somewhere covering this topic but... I think the only thing can really be a concern with wet ropes is that wet ropes do not retract as quickly after being stretched. So I would imagine that repeated falls could produce harder and harder catches.

super good enough for the algorithm.

Love the car vlog!

3:45 It’s so nice when content creators bow to the almighty algorithm above all else, just like is commanded of them…

Nice!

the soft shackle design should be around your torso or around your arms, just a random idea, hope it helps you sell more shirts!

It may just be my misunderstanding, but it's possible you may not necessarily be comparing apples to apples. A couple of tests that would have been interesting would be to test the elongation after the drop tower for all three ropes in testing, as well as subsequent water retention / weight. The big unknown question remains: if your rope got significantly saturated and took a fall when should you retire it

I've always been told that wet ropes aren't necessarily weaker, but if you weight them while they are wet, then then the rope gets significantly more worn then if you let them dry first. I have a rope where it started raining while we were climbing and by the time we were all off the wall we were lowering off of a totally soaked rope, luckily we really only needed to use one side of it. I still have the rope and checking it it's still in good condition and I've been using it regularly for many more months, but the half we used while wet is now super soft and feels close to core shot while the side that did not get weighted is still fairly stiff. I can't think of anything else that I may have done with the rope to leave it as unevenly worn as it is.

Hey, can you do an episode on break gear fear for arborists? espexcially looking at the fall power the climber gets ?

Good stuff man. I'm curious, could the manufacturer be accounting for slightly compromised ropes? Just spitballing but maybe a wet rope that is weakened from a small cut on the sheath is an issue? Also a wet rope is heavier so a big whipper would increase the forces, though negligibly surely

Great video. I have to admit I would have rather seen tests on 11mm static rope. I've had rope technicians refuse to work on wet ropes. They were claiming I was putting their life in danger. Note this has only happened once and I was able to get them back to work after a long debate but now I have #s to throw at them. You think you would get similar results on 11mm static - semi static ropes? Thx

What I’ve read/heard is that wet ropes don’t recoil correctly after catching a fall. So some of the dynamic ability is taken away, therefore the danger is from falling on the same place and having it be a more static fall. Did you use the same or different sections of the rope in each test?

It may take only 1 hour to get the water into the rope, so all air bubbles are removed. But it takes several days or weeks to get the water to absorb into the nylon it self! If a rope has been outside in wet weather, or in a puddle, for a long time it may be much weaker than in these tests. Look up polyamide (or nylon) water absorption curves to see for your self.

What if your rope already had knots that had been loaded and then got wet does the rope swell effect the already tight knots strength. love the gear break series keep up the awesome work

You know in real life scenario's the only way your rope will be fully soaked is of you drop it in a lake, water fall, or the rain was extremely heavy. So the leaving the rope in water over night would only truly happen when and if you left it out went to sleep and it was out in the rain.. But in textile, water sometimes makes it stronger. And to be honest there are many people that use these ropes when climbing or repelling off water falls or into lakes.. They never seemed to ever have issues

it depends on lenght of the rope as well

one question.. have you ever tested ropes that got into sea water and then dried??? how salt affect the fibres?? couldn't find any information..

hey could you revisit this with 11mm static ropes?? rope access peeps would love to see it. thank you if so

I wonder if the weight increase of the dry-treated rope in only for the water between fibers, not in the polymer molecule, as I understand it happens with polyamides.

Can you do a video with the drop tower about how often gri-gris slip with no hand on the dead rope?

I'd love to see some ice screw tests, I can't be the only one lol

are you going to do the same tests with dyneema as I think it would be nice to know as on my racing catamaran (a spitfire) I am using spliced sk99max instead of wires for my shrouds

I might have missed it. Were all the ropes brand new? Seemed like the difference between the first drop test and the second was pretty consistently higher forces in the second. That might just be due to the rope losing some elasticity from the first fall. Did knots seem like they got tighter with the wet ropes? I wonder if with less friction they can get tighter and pinch/bend the rope more.