Climbing Ropes—Made in Germany

If your ears are filled with the deafening sound of hundreds of bobbins with colorful sheaths dancing around white core strands, you are in the in-house rope production department at our head office in Isny im Allgäu. This is the heart and soul of EDELRID and the place where we combine 160 years of craftsmanship with care, innovation, and research to create high-end climbing ropes that are globally renowned for their safety, quality, and outstanding handling

Climbing and mountaineering ropes are stretchable kernmantle braids made from wafer-thin polyamide fibers in a complex procedure. This design was first developed by EDELRID back in 1953 and is now used as standard.

One of your rope’s most important properties is its balanced elongation. If you fall on the rope, its dynamic design absorbs the fall energy, reducing the impact force, i.e. the energy that acts on your body. In addition, ropes should be compact, abrasion resistant, durable, and supple. With the help of our specially developed braiding technologies and finishes, we constantly tweak these properties and give our ropes additional useful features depending on their intended use, such as a permanent center marking (Color Tec, Duo Tec), a change to the rope’s feel at its ends (Touch Tec), or a special sheath finish for indoor ropes (Sports Braid). After all, our inquisitiveness and passion for mountain sports continually drive us to take on challenges and develop new solutions. It is with good reason that both one of the thinnest single ropes in the world and, as a recent development, the first rope with aramid in the sheath for increased cut resistance come from our rope factory.

Want to find out more about how ropes are created, what is behind our technologies, and what else there is to know about ropes?

Sustainable Rope Production: EDELRID Ropes are Clean

As a manufacturer of quality outdoor equipment, we are fully committed to sustainable business practices. As such, we have been working with bluesign® technologies since 2009 and were the world’s first rope manufacturer to adapt our production processes to the strict specifications of the bluesign® system. All of the raw materials used to produce our ropes are bluesign® certified and our ropes all bear the ‘bluesign® product’ quality label.

This enables us to offer you a pollutant-free product that does not pose any risks to health and has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner. We have also successfully launched the market’s first rope with PFC- and PFAS-free impregnation (Eco Dry) and developed the world’s first climbing rope made from recycled materials.

Single Ropes

Single ropes are the most commonly used climbing ropes—essentially the classic mountaineering ropes. Depending on their length and diameter (here at EDELRID 8.6–10.5 mm), they can have a huge range of uses. They are classic sport climbing ropes, for use both at the crag and in the gym, but are also used for alpine climbing and mountaineering, as well as for big wall climbing. One of the major advantages of single ropes is their simple and uncomplicated handling.

The thicker a rope’s diameter, the stronger it generally is and the more standard falls it can withstand. However, thicker also means heavier. More robust single ropes with a high sheath proportion are good choices for intensive use (e.g. for working routes, projecting routes, or top-roping).

 

Twin Ropes

To offer the level of safety required by legal standards, twin ropes must always be used as a double strand and be clipped into protection together. They are primarily characterized by a small diameter and a low weight. They also offer large safety reserves due to the redundancy that comes with using two rope strands.

The advantage: far greater edge resistance and a lower risk of total failure (due to rockfall, falls over a sharp edge, etc.). As a result, twin ropes are principally used for alpine climbing in demanding terrain, but also for ice and mixed climbing. A further benefit is that you can rappel down the full length of the rope, enabling you to retreat from the wall quicker.

Half Ropes

Like twin ropes, half ropes are designed to be used as a double strand and only then offer the legally prescribed level of safety. Unlike with twin ropes, however, you don’t have to clip half ropes into protection together. This method enables you to optimize the rope path and thus reduce the rope drag and the impact force, especially when trad climbing or climbing poorly worked routes with zig-zagging belay points.

Important: when climbing with half ropes, always use a belay device that allows you to separately take in and pay out the two rope strands. A further major advantage is that half ropes can also be used as a single strand to bring up a follower. This can be useful when climbing as a party of three and bringing up two followers.

Triple Rated Ropes

Some ropes have a triple rating, which is far from easy to achieve as they have to meet the requirements of all three European standards. For example, the rope has to withstand the minimum breaking strength when used as both a single and a double strand while also having enough elasticity to ensure a sufficiently low impact force in both conditions.

The benefit is that you can use these ropes as single, half, or twin ropes depending on the situation.

Static Ropes

Static ropes have a very low level of elongation (less than 5%) and must therefore not be used to belay leaders or followers. In the event of a fall, the forces impacting the climber could cause serious or even life-threatening injuries. Static ropes are traditionally designed as kernmantle ropes and are characterized by high tensile strength and low elongation.

These advantages are particularly evident when working on the rope. For example, the rope can be climbed far more efficiently due to the low elongation. Static ropes are also used as fixed ropes, e.g. when canyoning, setting up routes, or hauling gear.

Want to Learn Even More about Ropes?

Check out our Knowledge Base for tips on how to look after and inspect your rope as well as information about the hazards and dangerous substances that could affect it.

Discover our Knowledge Base

A Short History of EDELRID Climbing Ropes

  • 1953: EDELRID develops the first kernmantle rope
  • 2009: production of the first rope to meet the strict requirements of the bluesign® standard
  • 2010: EDELRID receives EMAS / DIN ISO 14001 certification for sustainable responsibility
  • 2016: EDELRID launches the market’s first upcycled rope, made entirely from residual yarns
  • 2018: production of the world’s first PFC- and PFAS-free rope to meet the UIAA standard for water-repellent ropes
  • 2020: first single rope with aramid in the sheath (for greater cut resistance)
  • 2021: first rope to be half made from reused ropes