Forces Generated in a Climbing Rope During a Fall

Abstract

The use of micro-protection is key to the development of the sport of rock climbing as harder, blanker rock faces are attempted. However in many situations the force of a fall will be severe enough to injure a climber or exceed the strength of this equipment and so an improved understanding of the factors affecting maximum impact force and subsequent minimisation of this force is essential for the safe use of micro-protection. A laboratory scale rig has been designed to measure the impact forces generated during simulated simple climbing falls. The results show an increase in force with subsequent falls on the same rope due to irreversible damage, however this effect becomes saturated after a certain number of falls. A simple analysis using a linear rope stiffness is described and its predictions compared with the experimental results. The theoretical force equation is generally found to be valid.