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The following references from a few major rope manufacturers cover rope care thoroughly. Please see the bottom of this answer for a summary. From Bluewater Ropes: Avoid stepping on your rope. Beside the potential of cutting, stepping on a rope will grind dirt into the core and increase the possibility of internal abrasion. Protect your rope from ...

Paracord Better strength*/diameter ratio. 550lb paracord is 5/32" (4mm) in diameter generally. Twisted poly of a comparable strength is around 3/16" (4.75mm). So the paracord will pack smaller. More versatile. You can easily divide it into multiple ropes. Its form also makes it much easier to braid than twisted poly if you need to make a stronger ...

Plainly speaking, it makes sense to keep your rope away from any chemicals at all - battery acid, grease, oil, bleach, etc. Same goes for any objects that might harm it, chemically (car batteries) or physically (anything sharp or jagged that may dig in.) Take care of it, keep it dry, well coiled and well away from anything that might harm it. Yes, it may be ...

Some of it may well be historical - while there are a lot of generic hardware store type things that "do the job" out there now, I'm willing to bet that a few decades ago this wasn't the case. However, I'd still say that unless you're just doing light hiking / camping where it's never going to be stretched much, it's still worth getting: Overall, it's ...

Perhaps manufacturers advise on how much strain their ropes could take before retirement? Yup, they do. The rating is given in terms of UIAA falls, which are pretty "major" falls. A UIAA fall is one with a fall factor of 1.77 and the weight is 80kg - or typically a pretty big fall with a pretty big guy. This related question may also provide some ...

Failure by cutting is a primary concern. In terms of safety (rather than e.g. rope life) laboratory (UIAA) fall testing may not be the most important concern. Even a new, thick rope can be cut in a single fall across a sharp edge. This also applies to so-called "edge resistant" (defunct UIAA 108 standard) ropes. See this Yellow Spur fatality report. ...

There are several factors you should considering when judging the severity of a fall. The most important is the fall factor. That's the distance of the fall (where the climbers started minus where they ended up) divided by the amount of rope between the climber and belayer. In most climbing situations, fall factors are relatively small. A fall factor of ...

What Rory Alsop posted is great info that is "internet safe" and a great rule of thumb. Many companies, however, will rate their ropes down to 9mm as single rope safe. In areas where rope protectors are often used, climbers safely go down to 8mm. I regularly climb with a Mammut Infinity 9.5mm. Compare that to Petzl Xion 10.1mm Mammut ...

I recommend highly reflective line. Many manufacturer's make this. I have had excellent results with Kelty Triptease. One 50' line cuts down to easily make 4 guylines for a tent. It is highly reflective and even a little light will make it really stand out at night. You may also consider reflective markers like these made by MSR. These will also make ...

I pack it like you do, and rarely ever have trouble. I think the important steps are what you do when you go to use it and what you use it for. First when I go to use it I remove the cross wrap completely. I hold it by the loop at the top or bottom. Once the cross wrap is undone I pull the mid section apart and lay it on the ground so it is in a complete ...

One of my tents has fluorescent paracord - it doesn't glow in the dark, but is incredibly bright and can easily be seen. We also attach some of it as guidelines when pitched in wilder areas to help the kids find their way to the tents in the dark. It works well - typically the only people who trip over them are adults...if they have had one two many glasses ...

As Mr. Wizard mentioned, you cannot tell if it can be trusted or not. This is why its good to keep an equipment log noting when important stuff like rope that you depend on is used and anything that happens to it. However, if you are given some paracord sealed from a manufacturer and you are curious if it is the Mil-spec stuff or not then there are a few ...

I have always found much help from people at outdoor outfitters that specialize in equipment (REI is my favorite, and i recommend the store if there is one near you) Also I like this site at REI on choosing a climbing rope and I consult it for the different purposes ropes have. It will help you determine what you need for your specific plans (Top roping, ...

I propose using whatever cord is strong enough, inexpensive, and compact, then marking it with fluorescent surveyor's tape. Another option is adding your own glow paint as needed.

Fluorescent or glow in the dark paracord would be the way to go - I haven't tried the latter, but from looking at its colour it may blend in more in the daytime than fluorescent stuff, even if it stands out more at night. I'm happy to be proved wrong of course! However, it seems here the question alludes to kids tripping over the lines, which isn't ...

The abc of rock climbing website has a useful article when choosing ropes. Diameter Rope diameters range from 7.5mm to 11mm. In general, a thicker diameter means a stronger and more durable rope, but it is also heavier. Generally speaking, you will be on the safe side with a rope diameter between 10mm and 11mm. These ropes are ...

As @whatsisname commented, the first thing to do is get your gear. Read this question for some useful tips. Then you need to decide on what type of rope you need based on what you want to do. Read this question on mountaineering vs rock climbing as an example. Read this question on fall ratings on ropes and this one on rope diameters, as there is a lot of ...

Since this is your first rope and you're mostly doing single-pitch sport climbing, I would recommend you look for just a few simple things: Dynamic rope: This is absolutely a requirement since you will be leading 60m rope: This length will get you 99% of places. diameter around 10mm: Do not go below 9.8mm (not as robust) or much higher than 10.2mm (harder ...

Figure 8 pattern is good but there is also another pattern which can be useful. What you can do is roll the cord in medium sized circular loops. Keeping the size of each loop medium sized will have 2 advantages: The overall space requirement will reduce. There will be less entanglement. Also, in the final leg, loop the cord in helical way over the ...

In my experience nothing beats a "card winder" for ease of use and avoiding tangles in thin cord (such as kite lines). The card must be sized to the volume of cord stored on it. The cord it wrapped over the horns in a figure-8 pattern that avoids twists. (High resolution image) The cord is fed out simply by pulling the end and allowing the card to rock ...

What I have found works best (especially with light rope/cord) is to spool the cord in "figure 8s" between two fingers, wrists or arms: Hold one end in your hand in front of you then sweep under the running end with the other hand and lift up so the running end drapes over the top of your hand and away from center. Sweep under with the first hand and lift ...