UKC

Hi UKC and users, this is my firrst post. So I'm wondering about this 15m '9mm rope' I just bought, brand Kombat. I know it's not suitable fo climbing but it looks too thick and unwieldy for normal camping, e.g. ridgelines, etc. I thought maybe I'd use it to lower myself down a low but steep ridge near where I live. Anyone any advice? Also any other uses it could have? Thanks everyone for reading.

That rope is probably more suited to building a bivvy in the woods or hanging up stuff in the garage, than any climbing related activities.

Personally, I wouldn't trust it to my body-weight. It does say "Not suitable for climbing" on their website. I'd take that as for lowering yourself as well.

CB.

You're a Birder looking for info on a bit of rope to lower down a ridge.    Do you collect Peregrine Eggs? 😅

The best advice would be to first decide what you want to use a rope for, and then buy something appropriate for that purpose.  Buying a rope at random and then wondering what to do with it is likely to be a waste of money, and potentially dangerous.

This is explicitly marked "not for climbing" and with no other information about its breaking strain.  It might hold your weight, probably will, but then it might not. It might hold your weight if you simply hang on it but break if you were to slip and fall even a short distance. You don't want to find out the hard way.

However if you intend to lower yourself off a ridge then as well as purchasing a suitable rope you also need the skills to anchor it securely, lower yourself safely, and possibly climb up again.

Hm, I was asking for it, I suppose. 🤣 I bought the 9mm rope to make a ridgeline for a tarp but then found 6mm was better. Then I remembered a tricky slope, accessed by squeezing through shrubs, then a grassy 2 foot lip, 15ft of scree, then mossy grass flattening gradually if I 'crater'. So I think the rope's sufficient but wonder if this community would multi-task much with something like a 9mm rope off the rock face.

Some 9mm ropes would be fine as PPE for abseiling. Some OK as a handline for assistance only. Some would be useless.  

It all depends on how much you are relying on the rope, how well it's anchored and how you attach yourself to it. 

If you're asking "is it enough" you are missing some of the information above. Get some training. 

6-7mm is better, and you need about 17m of it for an artistic full body harness

These 'bot posts really are becoming ubiquitous on UKC these days!

No??? Have they now managed to train bots that stupid?

(bitter disappointment if they have, as my role here would become redundant)

There are no precise specifications for the 9mm Kombat rope other than it is purlon.  Presumably means perlon (purlon is apparently a carriage adapted for dead people!) .

One  supplier does seem to sell the same rope with a "collapsible grappling hook" with "ample length for reaching great heights" which does sort of  imply it could be used for hauling oneself up without actually committing the supplier.

I admit to some "form" in these forums discussing my use of an industrial/general purpose rope as a lightweight ab rope for occasional use (much criticised I must add, and I'm not recommending it here). However there were at least  specifications for my rope, and I would not trust the Kombat one at all. 

It depends on the rope. It's not the diameter which is the issue. Many climbing ropes are 9mm or even less, and although those are usually used in pairs they are expected to hold multiple falls. I would happily do what you're proposing on a 9mm climbing rope. The problem with your rope is that it is completely unrated, so you don't know what it is capable of bearing. It is not just a question of supporting your body weight (it probably can, and that's easy to test in a safe situation) but what forces it could withstand in the event of a slip or fall (which are considerably greater). It looks like a sturdy rope but it's a complete unknown. You also don't know how much it might stretch under load, or how resistant it is to abrasion - things which climbing ropes are designed for.

The problem with asking this community for advice is that most of us have access to more suitable ropes and wouldn't consider using a rope like yours. However if this were the only rope available to me I'd want to think very hard about the terrain and the consequences if it were to fail before trusting myself to it. There are situations where I might be willing to use it and others where I definitely would not.

From your description it sounds as if you will be using the rope itself to get down some steep or vertical ground above scree, and will be relying on the rope and not simply using it as a handrail on ground you could easily scramble down.  If the location you describe is one you intend to visit frequently I'd certainly suggest you buy a properly rated rope. Any climbing shop should be able to advise you. But do you have the skills to anchor the rope and descend it safely, and climb up it again? A 9mm rope can be quite hard to grip with just your hands, especially if the sheath is slippery. Climbers use harnesses and specialised kit to descend and ascend ropes, and these need knowledge and preferably training to use.

 I'm really grateful to everyone here for the detailed info. 👍  I wonder if I've come to the wrong site, though. I'm confident the rope will do for my intended descent, very light, and infrequent use. At a push (no pun intended) I could just jump down the slope, although some of you sensibly urge more caution. So I will tether to the trees and use a prusik hitch for grips. I'm wondering what other uses the rope could have in the general terrain?? D'uh there I go again. 

One word... Macramé

If you're an actual live person (instead of an artificial not-particularly-intelligent bot) what is it you're doing down this slope that you're obsessed with?

If you come to a climbing site seeking advice about a rope for a climbing, or near-climbing, use then you're going to be advised to use a proper climbing rope. For us a rope is safety-critical, and we are usually using it in situations where getting it wrong can be fatal.  We like to use ropes made for the purpose and rated to established standards.

We know how to use ropes for our own activities, but aren't really knowledgeable about other uses for them. We're not even very good at knots - the Ashley Book of Knots contains more than 3800 knots, but climbers only use about half a dozen. So if you're looking for help on the sort of activities that Kombat apparently caters for, yes this is probably the wrong place.

What is 'Kombat'? Is it like paintball where grown men who think Combat spelt with a 'k' is cool pay through the nose to play at soldiers?

It's a website which sells military-style equipment. The OP said that is the brand of his rope - presumably this one:

https://www.kombatuk.com/categories/2513-Rope_9mm_15M_-_50FT

"Not suitable for climbing" and unrated. 

Looks like a Bear Grylls wannabe site

The slope is a concave sink between a ridge (oolitic limestone between bands of crumbling sandstone) and a disused shallow quarry. The ridge and flanks densely forested, the quarry has deep, rich loam but only seedlings. I want to compare tree growth and take soil samples in all three areas.

I'm not an experienced climber but I've done a few pitches in the past with experienced climbers. Not much chance of doing a climb for the foreseeable future but I'll be interested to visit the forums. My kind of climbing probably though is to find an interesting ledge and put a bivvy up, that kind of thing, rather than push myself for the technical challenge of the climb. I don't know if there would be similar-minded climbers here.

I get your point, and bouldering (?) is probably the extent of my engagement at present, although I'll stick around if you don't mind. You're right about Kombat. Not climbing rope, not genuine army paracord, no rated working load. But I buy from ex-forces, in person, and value the relationship.

Thanks for providing more background information. Could I suggest that it might be better if you had outlined your plans in your opening post? Your username (and someone up thread suggested this) might lead folks to think your intentions weren't entirely legit. There are also lots of new AI bots that creep into the forums and some of them are getting harder to spot - apologies if I suspected this. If you're upfront UKC is a great resource of knowledge and not just climbing related stuff.

I hadn't meant that you are not welcome here, only that the kinds of activities you seemed to be hinting at when you asked about other uses for your rope don't overlap much with core climbing skills. There are probably people here with similar interests, but what i meant was that this is probably not the best place to find that sort of information.