Making Your Own Climbing Rope

Hang in there!

When I go to the hardware store, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Its always a lot of fun going through the isles looking for something interesting that I can make at home that might come in handy for my training. And Ive got a lot of things Ive tinkered around with that have turned out to be pretty useful for different kinds of exercises. However, I also understand that not every type of equipment fits into the "do it yourself" category and one of those pieces is a climbing rope.

Yes, Im sure theres folks out there that would argue the opposite, that they found an old piece of rope and tied it to a tree in their back yard that works just fine.

Well... that may be fine for them and hopefully so but I only like to do my gambling in Vegas and whenever possible, like to bet on the sure thing which is why I would only want to deal with a climbing rope assembled by a professional.

If you are one of those folks who can live with the "hope" that their homemade rope doesnt snap while 20 feet off the ground, let me point out a few other important things to keep in mind.

Ever try to tie a knot in a 1-1/2 or 2” thick rope?

It aint easy – and that rope has to be attached somehow, and not just “attached,” but attached safely and securely. Don't know if you realized this but all out attachment hardware is rated at over 1800 lbs before it shows any sign of breaking.

Not that you should, but you could tow a truck with it.

And what happens when you want to move your climbing rope to the other side of the garage?

If you have one of our ropes, you unclip the L1 link and clip it wherever you want it – takes about 3 seconds to attach and unattach.

Otherwise, youll have to untie (or un-splice) the rope and re-do it elsewhere. Of course, Ive heard some folks just double the rope over and use a roll of duct tape on it – so much for saving some dough.

Oh and the steel rope clamp attachment hardware? It starts out as a flat piece of steel, then its blacksmithed to have a slight curve in it, hydraulically pressed and then drilled and tapped through the steel plate itself before its welded in place.

Needless to say, there is nothing safer and more secure than this setup which allows NO play from side to side.

I saw someone else out there took a piece of pipe and simply drilled through it to attach their rope – looks good, but the rope material is moving back and forth during use, creating an ever so slight "sawing" effect every time its used (and inside the pipe, away from view.)

I dont want to think about those possibilities...

In any case, if you want to make your own climbing rope, I will not attempt to change your mind.

What I can do, is simply provide a better option, one that is safe and more efficient to use… and our climbing ropes, the very best climbing ropes in the business, can be found right here: climbing ropes

Train hard,
John Wood