Courant Kalimba

[oceans]

I'm back at it for sure. I am retracing my learning with a specific goal in mind. I am basically sticking to MRS with the type of work I'm doing and am really giving the hitch based climbing a chance to shine. I'm learning how to play around with those combo's rather than just being frustrated and jumping to a mechanical. It's fun. Learning all the processes I skipped in the beginning during the self taught period. Working with some guys who are students of MRS is really a cool experience. Sometimes I'll work up the tree to my anchor on SRS and then finish the work moving. It's fun. I'm finally relaxing enough to enjoy the climbing and the movement in the tree. The pressure to perform is slowly subsiding. It was really always in my own head anyway. Shortening a hitch cord by 1/2" actually makes a huge difference. Who'd have thunk it......... I thought not having sewn or spliced eyes was just cheap. It's so not. LOL. Thanks for noticing.

You’re really on to it, Steve. I remember adjusting for days until I found just the right setup for epicord on Tachyon. I eventually had it as close to a Spiderjack as you could hope for. Quite a learning experience for me. Mainly just glad to hear you’re relaxing into it.

 

[Steve Connally]

Thanks Whip. This return to climbing has been really good for me. Truly!!

 

[Quintanana]

I’ve only climbed on Kalimba once. Honestly don’t really remember if I decided I liked it or not. BUT it’s a 24 strand cover with a parallel core. Other similar construction ropes would be Teufelberger Fly and Marlow Vega. Maybe there are more but those might be good places to start. I’ve used Fly and like it.

 

[dtreez]

I ended up going a pretty different direction and trying out Drayer's Tango StatX. Its' a much heavier rope than I'm used to, but I really like it.

 

[Steve Connally]

I Use that rope but pretty much for access only. It's like a cable after you descend on it once. I don;t find it to be my favorite rope to move in the canopy.

 

[Quintanana]

I was thinking of getting some statx….maybe not…

 

[Friedrich]

i like it for climbing but also used to love xstatic…

 

[dtreez]

I was thinking of getting some statx….maybe not…

Cons: The rope is rather heavy.

Pros: VERY low elongation, pretty good hand and knotability for such a static kernmantle rope.

I've used it with Rope Wrench, Rope Runner classic, Akimbo, and Hitch Hiker. It's been great with all of them.

 

[treebing]

amazing yall can keep all these ropes apart in your heads. they all seem pretty much the same to me. I have realized that I become attached to a certain rope just because I am quite literally attached to it.

 

[Quintanana]

amazing yall can keep all these ropes apart in your heads. they all seem pretty much the same to me. I have realized that I become attached to a certain rope just because I am quite literally attached to it

Along those lines… My favorite ropes end up being free. I don’t care about them as much but they are used more frequently for that very reason. I learn to love em

 

[pcpTR33]

They’ve issued another recall on kalimba today with a full remove from service notice

 

[Bart_]

I have a faint recollection that parallel core construction rope is not a candidate for splicing. Brocky?

 

[pcpTR33]

they say in their post that they’re working on a new splice with FTC.

 

[Matias]

I have a faint recollection that parallel core construction rope is not a candidate for splicing. Brocky?

There are now several established methods for doing parallel core splices. I have yet to attempt one, but it's just been a little while since I really needed to splice anything

 

[Bart_]

Are we talking pure yarn/filament parallel core or paralleled slightly twisted yarn bundles core? Rarely see the former but more often see the latter.

 

[Matias]

Are we talking pure yarn/filament parallel core or paralleled slightly twisted yarn bundles core? Rarely see the former but more often see the latter.

I'm thinking of the latter; don't know much about splicing the former.

 

[Bart_]

I once R+D'ed pure parallel fiber "tendons". Holy no stretch Batman. Spectra, vectran and kevlar. Nothing wanted to "glue" to the spectra, it was slippery. Glued the knots! More like encapsulated.

-Derail- oops

On splice grip, hownot2 overload slipped a VT on dyneema. Was smoother, less grab/jump behaviour. I figure this could pertain to buries.

 

[Brocky]

Courant’s low profile splice doesn’t have any of the core strands going through the eye, Teufelberger’s Drenaline SPlife has a quarter of them. A longer cover tail bury is suppose to make up for the decrease in diameter, but apparently the stitching plays a bigger part than other splices.
There are also NER’s Heavy Duty Kernmantle splice, that has a somewhat locked brummel and double the strands near the eye, and Marlow's Vega, which has half the strands, but the cover is also buried, instead of being whipped to the side like NER’s. Both have all the core strands going through the eye, and take a lot of force to do the buries.

I’ve come up with a method that has half the strands, and only increases in size from the cover bury, and maybe an additional strand if it comes with an odd number of strands. If, and how much cover tail you bury determine if there is a strength loss of 15%-8%.
The only company that uses something different than twisted parallel strands is Imlay Ropes for their canyoning ropes, on the left below. The regular strands on the right have a lot of twist as a group, more than most, a method of creating stretch.