Advice on buying first rope

[Sagen 78:01]

My first post here.

I´m about to buy my first rope but it´s hard to find proper Arborist rope in Sweden (without paying a fortune). My idea is to primarily use it for fun tree climbing and eventually, maybe, start to prune trees. I have an Anthron Lory (accept 9-11 mm rope) that I will have clipped to my saddle and a foot loop connected to a prusik. If it´s as fun as I believe I will eventually buy a Pretzl ascender for the foot loop.

 

It´s a lot easier to find rock/wall climbing ropes. Either dynamic or static, I think the specs on some static ropes look similar to arborist ropes. Am I totally misunderstanding that?

 

So my questions are, is it only inconvenient to use climbing ropes or is it dangerous? I can sacrifice convenience but not safety!

If I were to buy rock/wall climbing ropes, should I go for dynamic or static? Dynamic is more all-around of course.

 

Sorry for the long post. I really hope to get some valuable input on this.

Thanks.

[Steve Bullman]

rock climbing ropes have a nylon sheath whereas arborist ropes use polyester, which has a higher melting point. Nylon is far from ideal for tree climbing, unless you are using entirely mechanical ascending/descending devices, and even then you'd need to make sure you werent creating too much friction but running the ropes through crotches etc. If you did go that route though you'd be better off with dynamic that static IMO. It would make hard work of pulling yourself around the tree due to the stretch, but it would be safer than taking a fall on static rope. Some if not all of the sellers down the right hand side would gladly ship arborist rope to sweden for you

[tommer9]

Because rock climbing (dynamic) rope is designed to save you in a fall, it isnt really suited to arb work, where we work on a 'tight-rope' system- that is to say our ropes are for work positioning and access, as well as fall arrest, which is why we use nigh-on static ropes. Along with the reasons Steve stated above, these factors render rock limbing ropes unsuitable.

[WeeDee]

Hi Sagen, do you have access to tree climbing groups over there?

As is often the case, joining a group or club might provide the experience you need to enable informed choices to be made. You might also get the opportunity to try different pieces of equipment and receive useful advice.