On Jul 6, 7:26*pm, tony sayer wrote:

Well theres rope and, err rope. The one that comes with most all decent
body harnesses does have a "tape" like section thats stitched together
the idea is that it will rip apart thus absorbing the falling tension
impact load, a conventional rope won't do that 'tho some climbing ropes
are rather "stretchy" but very little over a few feet ..

I guess this sort of stuff is provided on industrial rope access kit?
I'm not familiar with that kind of thing (only "leisure" climbing
gear). But it sounds similar to what you get on via ferrata gear, via
ferrata being a kind of "serious" version of Go Ape on proper
mountains. It's designed to cope with very high factor (2+) falls by
the stitching pulling apart, and is indeed single-use.

If, OTOH, you're anchored from above on "normal" dynamic climbing
rope, you don't need this kind of thing (indeed, it shouldn't rip
apart if you do) because the fall factor can't be over 1, because you
can't fall more than the length of rope that is out. (If you're above
the anchor it could reach but not exceed 2). If the rope runs up from
an anchor/belayer at ground level to a carabiner at the top then down
to you the fall factor will be lower.

High factor falls on via ferrata can exist because you can slide a
fair way down an anchor cable before it actually "catches" you, but
your "rope" (the tails with the clips on) is quite short.

I mentioned fall factor in another post - essentially 2 writes off a
rope, a number of 1s can damage one, but a rope can take quite a few
lower ones depending on spec. It's calculated as (length of fall
before rope starts to stretch / length of rope out).

Neil