Although to some people ‘a rope is a rope is a rope’, it was very noticeable that when we were quizzing people about their climbing styles and the type of rope they used, certain people remembered good ropes with great fondness and bad ropes with extreme disdain. It seems a peculiar characteristic of ropes that they can sometimes make or break a days climbing – especially in the trad arena – by their merits or demerits. Stuck on a stance with a kinked mess or trying to force a frozen line through a belay device and it seems that the devil has made your rope: contrast this with the pleasure gained from a smooth abseil, making a swift clip or simply by dragging less weight behind you, and it’s obvious how important a tool this is. Interestingly, the most vehement feelings and comments about ropes seemed to come from those who felt they were ‘pushing it’. Whether this was at their personal limit, or at climbings' cutting edge, the need to remove the doubts about performance from their rope selection seemed tangible. It is for these people and this reason we designed the Sprint range….and once again the name sums up the performance characteristics the rope embodies – the ability to move quickly in the harshest environments may not be needed by all people all the time, but when it is, your lifeline must have the ability to move with you. These advanced ropes are characterised by an improved ‘feel’ and a finer relationship between strength, weight and durability, and were tailored to the requirements of some of our ‘star performers’ - from hardcore Sports climbers, death route daredevils or adventurous Alpinists – and informed by the critiques brought up in our survey. Designed to flow, hold falls, belay and knot as well as anything out there, we have used lower denier yarns braided on machines with a higher carrier count for a feel in the hand second to none. This results in a rope that is smoother to handle and is more flexible in use. |