It’s been a while and I don’t really care for any of the mechanicals I’ve tried. But I’ve used, dreniline, xstatic, and Yale 11.7 (Aztec, focus), and all poly kernmaster.
Dreniline was smooth, did stiffen up, the core milked unevenly, and was annoyingly bouncy on accents or conifer work. It was ok on high broadleafs with limb walky scaffolds.
Xstatic, has a funny bounce curve. I can’t describe it very well, but it seems to take more work to get it to elongate and other times it’s pretty darn static. Certainly much more static than Drenaline. And a different type of elongation than Yale 11.7. Certainly is a cabley rope, but I find it knots better than many of the stiffer static kernmantle lines I’ve climbed with. It takes running bowlines just fine, and doubled overhand stoppers, and on the rare occasion a grapevine/fishermans (just a bit harder to tie/dress/set.
Both of the above are smooth, yet can be hard to grip but I tend to wear atlas greys all year.
Kernmaster is much like xstatic, a bit better hand. No matter how much I try to force myself to like that rope I don’t like 11mm. Yet it runs super smooth, does stiffen but knots better than xstatic. Not as durable. Pretty much only use it as an accent line or a tree inspection line. Buttery smooth with a footie and knee ascender.
Yale 11.7, does great, not as smooth as the above. More stretch than xstatic in a more familiar manner as it’s my go to lines. It does flatten the most, and creeps more in these flattened area it somehow feels a smidge more forgiving with a hint of pitch.
I strongly dislike drenaline, even for a tagline.
Im rolling with
300’ focus
200’ xstatic
150’ kernmaster
100’ (multiples focus, Aztec)
I ditched the drenaline, and rarely use the kernmaster but it would come out to play much more if I used the akimbo or mechanical more frequently.
