EUROPE’s CLIMBING MUSCLE

Welcome to the first video for the blog. Some of you may have watched this video but for the viewing pleasure of everyone, I think its good to have a collection of videos on the blog. Its not a video of us, but a video of the European PEtzl Team and boy, they are mighty mighty amazing. This video was filmed in 2003 and features one of the top women climber in the world, Joshune Bereziatu. As of 2005, she is the only female to have climbed the grade 9a/5.14d (Bain de Sang in 2002 and Logical Progression).

Watch it once and be amazed, watch it again and be inspired.

The thing about the route that they are climbing is that it looks damn bloody hard. However, I won’t mind falling at these extreme overhangs

 enjoy and be inspired,

AHLOKKOR

CLIMBING ROPE SAFETY

*This was previously emailed to members*

Hi aspiring and fellow climbers,

I would like to address an issue that was discussed by members at the crag last week. This is an issue about marking your climbing ropes in the middle, as to make it easier to identify the middle point of the rope especially when multi-pitching. Most climbers use a regular permanent marker when doing this.

HOWEVER, after much research from various resources, I will make this straight to the conclusion….. DO NOT mark your ropes with any kinds of marker (whether organic or chemical). This also applies to the SHARPIE pens that are used by many climbers and also pen markers sold by rope manufacturers such as BEAL. In fact, since several test has been done by Mammut & Lanex (both are rope manufacturers) on various rope products, BEAL & Bluewater has pulled those marking products out of their catalogs. (Beal came out with a new marking dye instead)

We may assume that certain organic dyes are safe, BUT nothing has been proven. When it comes to climbing ropes, UNLIKE your harness and runners,  there is NO backup for a rope. If it snaps, thats it. We don’t want any of these to happen to anyone in our lifetime of climbing. We can only assume it is safe, but an assumption is NOT good enough, no climber’s life here should be part of an experiment.

Many respected sources online has served warnings to climbers and the International Mountaineering & Climbing Federation (UIAA) has performed test on these markers and tested the marked dynamic ropes to failure. The results were scary as some of the marked point of the ropes were weaken by 50%.

Please heed the advice from the UIAA (please read) :

http://www.uiaa.ch/article.aspx?c=185&a=78

http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:2PG8usHryMUJ:www.alpineclubofcanada.ca/services/safety/Marking%2520of%2520Ropes.doc+marking+climbing+ropes&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2

http://www.justropes.com/shop/custom.asp?recid=8#MR

safe climbing everyone,

AH LOK KOR