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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Is the glaze on the sheath of the 10mm from the tread color or ?
AFLAK!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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I just did a little experiment and patted off all of the chalk. My whitish-orange rope is now blackish-orange. Thanks, Dave, up until now, I was fine with my rope. Be sure to email me when you get this puzzle solved.
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2013 - 10:37pm PT
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Hey Grug, I should have it all figured out after I silo a few more of these...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Dave, I'm beginning to think that you're prescient. It wasn't until the third (5th?) Old Chub that I even came up with the idea for my awesome "rope/color patdown experiment". I remember that after the second (third?) I was on a whole different line of reasoning involving angle of incidence (could have been reflection) or something.
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Some Random Guy
climber
San Franpsycho (a.k.a. a token of my extreme)
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Sterling ropes have a similar problem. It isn't so much that the rope turns black, but that after belaying a pitch or two, your palms will get blackened. yeah I have a sterling that does that. annoying. washing it doesn't help either.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Have a red galaxy with dry coat and two strand weave. BRS bad.
Have a newer blue mammut similar weave, I think coated. Will review and report back.
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MisterE
Social climber
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I remember asking the aluminum oxide question, and getting the RC.noob smack-down from TradIsGood about how it was just dirt and aluminum oxide is not black.
LOL. Web redemption.
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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I remember asking the aluminum oxide question, and getting the RC.noob smack-down from TradIsGood about how it was just dirt and aluminum oxide is not black.
Well, aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is not black. Single crystal aluminum oxide is called sapphire and, absent impurities, is clear. Non single crystal alumina is typically white.
Curt
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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So, are you saying that black is white or white is black? It matters for my response. Assuming I have one.
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Someone tell me how to get more of the black stuff on my rope and hands, I like how it smells
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nature
climber
Boulder, CO
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YER GONNA DIE!!!!111169
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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So, are you saying that black is white or white is black?
No.
Curt
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Any rope that I use on single-pitch or sport turns black. It sits in the dirt on a bag, gets drug through gates, everyone yells take and then you lower off of it.
Any rope I only use for multi-pitch trad lasts much longer, usually dies from getting cut. It is hanging out in the air, nobody sits on it, hangs on it, and we hike off many more of those climbs vs. sport.
Tahquitz vs. J-tree.
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Cosmic, eggs can turn black in any pan if u don't know what you're doing.
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pell
Trad climber
Sunnyvale
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What specifically causes BRS?
Aluminium oxidation. There is always a thin layer of (black) Al2O3 over any aluminium surface. When something abrasive (e.g. rope) is pulled over aluminium surface it abrades the black aluminium oxide and a new Al2O3 is immediately formed.
Is there any way to avoid it?
Been climbers we can avoid this choosing between at least three options:
1. Do not use aluminium. Unfortunately iron binners are too heavy and carbon fiber binners did not hit stores yet.
2. Prevent abrasion between aluminium and a rope. For example, never clip (unsafe). Or (better) cover your rope with Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene). Expensive Mammut ropes - COaTiNgfinish™, ref. https://d1qxh2iwg385ci.cloudfront.net/images/Mammut_Seilfibel_E_web_11129.pdf - have a Teflon coating.
3. Do not climb at all (too boring).
Seems, the only option to avoid BRS is to use Teflon coated ropes.
Personally I use a 60m Teflon coated Mammut 9.2mm rope for "moving fast and light" and a "wash it frequently" 80m New England 9.5mm rope as a work horse. I do not care much about the BRS.
P.S. I made an assumption that some binners paint rope less than other. For example, it seems that BD Oz paint rope less then any MadRock binner. I did not prove it yet, it's only an assumption.
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jopay
climber
so.il
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I have the Mammut Infinity 9.5 which gets some of that but nothing like my partners Sterling 9.8 which is a lot worse even if he washes the rope the black comes right back. I think that is one of the reasons so many people are wearing gloves. If we use my partners rope I'll have to wash my hands off at least once during the day. I was getting some and changed to a anodized belay device which seemed to help.
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climbbillings?
Trad climber
Billings
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The way to get rid of the black stuff is to wash the rope in a MACHINE!! Daisy chain the rope and throw it in your wife's top loader with a little bit of woolite. Here's the key, It's the spin cycle that gets the black out. Cycle it through a short wash cycle with spin twice, then run it through the spin cycle two more times. This spins the black stuff out, and gets a lot of the water out of your rope too.
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Mike Friedrichs
Sport climber
City of Salt
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I too have a sterling 9.8 that turns black in one day of climbing. I wash my ropes a lot (I believe it prolongs the life of ropes and is good for them), but this particular rope is the worst ever. Sometime and the distant past it used to be orange, I think.
I also wonder about rope diameter? I've been climbing on 9.5 and 9.4 ropes lately and they seem to stay cleaner. On the other hand, they also seem to wear out much more quickly. Oddly, they have less material but cost more. Much easier to clip and lighter though. Can't go back after going smaller. Beware.
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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You people are all racist...how dare you talk in a disparaging manner about a rope being BLACK. Some people will never get it.
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