A Cut Rope Can be Deadly. Can Climbers Do Anything to Prevent It?

When I found out that a Colorado climber survived a 70-foot ground fall on November 2, the first question I asked was: What on earth happened? When I learned they’d taken that fall because their 9.5mm rope had cut in half, I wondered what climbers could do to prevent this type of catastrophic event. To get more insight and actionable advice, Climbing reached out to rope manufacturers Edelrid and Mammut, who both build speciality cords designed to combat total rope failure. We also spoke with Ryan Jenks, a gear shop owner, independent gear tester, and host of the uber-nerdy HowNot2 Youtube channel.

There is a bit of a dilemma with all climbing ropes, as Jenks was quick to note: “The rope going around the edge isn’t a problem until you make it tight, which is ironically when you need it to work.” In other words, it is only once climbers weight their rope in a fall/take that a rope becomes remarkably easy to cut.

So what specific conditions should climbers be on the lookout for while leading or even toproping? Magnus Rastroem, Mammut’s senior product manager of climbing gear, outlined four specific scenarios that present red flags:

Red flag 1: Lateral rope movement over an edge

A rope that grates laterally across an edge will cut at much lower forces than if that rope was secured in place with clipped protection on either side of the arête. This is what we saw occur in Colorado earlier this month, when the leader fell around an arête. When dealing with non-negotiable edges, climbers should strive for “shearing” forces, where the rock slides longitudinally—rather than laterally—with the rope. The video of Michele Caminati famously decking illustrates this point well: As his skinny rope grinds in the same spot down the arête, he might as well have been holding it against a knife.

Cutting forces can also exist in a toproping environment, especially on multi-pitch routes where the climber is belayed from above. If the climber is following a traverse and the rope stretches over a sharp edge, a swinging fall could severely damage or even sever their rope. Extra slack in the system could further exacerbate this situation.

Red flag 2: Any edge—it doesn’t need to be sharp

It doesn’t take a razor-sharp edge to sever a rope. Mammut, for example, tests rope cut resistance on a rectangular plate of granite with a 45-degree bevelled edge—not exactly a feature that would scream “danger” to me if I climbed past it on a wall. Despite benign appearances, a swinging rope cut against it at just 3kN in testing.

As a result, climbers should do whatever they can to avoid even moderately sharp edges. Can you place directional protection in such a way that prevents the rope from running over the edge? Could you extend your protection with long slings so that the sling, not the rope, runs over the edge? If you’re sport climbing, where it’s not possible to change the rope’s path, consider simply bailing if you think you might whip. There’s no shame in walking away.

Red flag 3: Low rope diameter

This red flag is self explanatory: an 8.7mm single rope has less material to protect in a rope-cutting scenario than a 9.5mm. That said, beefy ropes can and do cut—we’d recommend buying a purpose-built cut-resistant rope over simply getting a thicker cord. (More on that below.)

Red flag 4: Repeated falls or fatigue

A rope becomes alarmingly worn if it is both dirty and actively weighted. In a video published by Edelrid, the brand’s head of innovation, Daniel Gebel, clips a 175-pound weight to a brand new rope, then raises and lowers it by one foot 200 times. When Gebel inspects the rope, he notes that, though slightly kinked, the sheath is in perfect condition. Gebel then applies a layer of chalk to the rope—similar to the amount one would add to their own rope if clipping a quickdraw with chalky hands—and performs 10 more raise/lowers. All of a sudden, the rope looks years old; its sheath is thick with fuzz and looks like it’s been pinched with pliers. While Gebel didn’t test the chalky rope’s cut resistance, it doesn’t take much imagination to think it would cut much more easily against a sharp edge. The takeaway? Clean your rope regularly!

How to prevent your rope from cutting

From the red flags Mammut shared, we know to avoid lateral forces over edges and sharp edges entirely. We also reinforced what most climbers know: Beefy, clean ropes are a safer bet. But there are a few more ways to further reduce the chances of severing your rope. The most well known is to tie in with two ropes for redundancy on edges. Steve McClure famously tied in to three when he established Elder Statesman (5.14 R) in the U.K.’s Peak District, the same route Michele Caminati cut his single rope on.

While two ropes are indeed better than one, there is still a chance of cutting both of them on the same feature. Ideally, if climbing an arête, you should clip protection on the right side of the feature with one rope, and protection on the left side of the feature with the other. This ensures the two ropes travel in completely independent lines, neither of which actually crosses the arête.

Good belaying can also reduce the chances of your rope cutting. Once the belayer realizes their lead climber is falling, they should take in as much slack as possible to shorten the fall. Then, just as the climber is about to weight the rope, the belayer can jump upwards to dampen the impact force. With the right timing, Edelrid showed how this technique can prevent even a 6mm rope from severing. After Tommy Caldwell belayed rope after rope cut over edges in Edelrid’s laboratory, he reflected: “Learning how to belay well is way more important than I thought.”

The best cut-resistant ropes

Climbing brands like Beal, Edelrid, and Mammut all make specialty cut-resistant ropes. Beal’s “Unicore” design bonds the core and the sheath together. When the sheath cuts, instead of sliding down and exposing a few feet of strength-giving core, the filament keeps the sheath in place so it continues to protect the core.

Meanwhile, Edelrid’s “Protect” series of ropes infuses strands of aramid—a super-strong fiber best known by the brand-name Kevlar—into the outer sheath to increase its cut resistance.

But Mammut takes the cake for our favorite cut-resistant cord. Like Edelrid, Mammut constructed its Alpine Core Protect Ropes with aramid, except its aramid fibers are hidden away in a second, internal sheath. Why? Because aramid is strong, but not exceptionally durable. As I wrote in my review of that rope, “Think of it like a car’s air bag: you want that ballooning pillow exposed at the last possible second to save you from disaster. You wouldn’t want it to be your everyday bumper.”

So while Edelrid’s Protect ropes are indeed stronger than a rope without any aramid, I noticed how fuzzy they become after relatively little use. While this is normal when dealing with exposed aramid, the caterpillar-looking cord takes on noticeably more water weight when fuzzed up, and also leads to increased rope drag on long pitches. One could further surmise Edelrid ropes are more susceptible to cutting, too.

I used Edelrid’s Swift Protect Pro Dry 8.9mm rope on Aguja Guillaumet’s Amy Couloir (AI3+ M4; 1,000ft) in Patagonia last winter, and I was disappointed to see how worn the rope became after such little use. (Thankfully, neither me nor my climbing partner learned any more about its cut resistance, since we didn’t whip or weight the rope, except on rappel.) In contrast, I took the Mammut Alpine Core Protect 9.5mm rope up 95 percent of the Martin O’Neill (5.12b M6 WI4; 950m) on Torre Egger, which included a giant swinging whipper that broke the gear loop of my partner’s harness. The Alpine Core Protect shrugged off the abuse.

At the end of the day, any of these ropes made by Beal, Edelrid, or Mammut will be a safer option than your standard cragging rope, even if they are quite a bit more expensive. But I think the most important tool in your bag is awareness. Climb with the knowledge that ropes can definitely cut. Rock edges do not have to be extremely sharp to ruin your day. And there is no shame in backing off a pitch that just doesn’t feel right.

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