Furry rope

Vertical caving terminology and methods > General hardware

Furry rope, hairy rope

A very specific combination of adult activities.

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Very furry rope. Even though the sheath is still intact, this cannot be trusted for load bearing purposes any more, and would struggle to pass through a descender. It will serve out the rest of its days pulling a drag tray.
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Increasingly furry ropes, compared with a new rope. The two on the right, both caused by rub points, have become damaged enough to expose the cores, while the one in the middle is still usable, but at the point where the rope may need to be retired.

A rope whose sheath fibres have broken down to the point that the rope has a visibly fluffy appearance. The sheath fibres break because of abrasion, from the teeth of ascenders, from being bent around the friction components of a descender, or from contact with the rock at a rub point. They can also be broken by being bent repeatedly, such as by having knots tied and untied in the same location many times. This process is accelerated dramatically by mud on the ropes, which gets forced into the fibres as the rope is used. Once the damage has started, more mud gets trapped by the furry texture of the rope, and this further accelerates the damage to the rope. Rope washers are used to clean the mud off the rope, to reduce the effect during susequent usage. The process is also accelerated by drying ropes using heat, or exposing them to UV, which is why they should be dried and stored between -10°C and 30°C, away from sunlight. With heavily used ropes, it is normal for long parts of the rope, or even the entire rope, to become furry. With ropes that have been damaged by a rub point, only a relatively small section of the rope will be furry. Although it can look alarming, it almost exclusively affects the sheath of the rope, rather than the cores, so unless the sheath has been damaged enough to expose the cores, the rope should still retain the majority of its strength. However, it does reduce the protection that the sheath provides for the cores, and will eventually cause the sheath to fail. When a rope becomes too furry to be used conveniently, or when the damage compromises the sheath too much, it is time to retire the rope, even if it still passes drop testing.

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