Fall Factors in Climbing Ropes
A climbing rope's ability to withstand falls depends largely on its Fall Factor. This metric is useful because it measures the force exerted on a rope in case of a fall. As a result, a high Fall Factor can indicate the rope's ability to survive a fall, but what exactly does it mean? To answer this question, we must take a look at the fall force, and what happens when the factor is high or low. The Fall Factor – a useful metric for testing rope One of the most important metrics in choosing a climbing rope is the Fall Factor. This measure measures how much energy a climbing rope can absorb during a fall. The longer the fall, the higher the fall factor. As a rule of thumb, the higher the Fall Factor, the less likely the climbing rope will fail. This test is based on an 80-kilogram weight attached to a 2.6-meter rope. The weight falls repeatedly, creating a 1.77-factor fall. The final fall rating is the number of falls a climbing rope can handle before failure. For climbing rop