UKC

Hi I'm trying to get into trad climbing and I've been saving for getting my first rack. For drag reasons and avoiding protection to get out the initial placement, I've read that you need to have a set of alpine draws. However, I've seen that they are usually made with a dyneema sling. I thought slings are quite bad under a dynamic load produced in falls -hence why I've used slings only in anchor points that I load slowly-. I've just wondered if it is considered that when you fall the dynamic load is taken by the rope and hence why there's no issues with then. It may be a stupid question but any answers are appreciated. Cheers

The dynamic nature of the rope, like you say, is what matters.

I made this mistake when I started climbing. Dyneema is a static material, same as nylon. As Jez said, the rope is the dynamic part of the system.

What's important is that the energy of any fall or load is taken progressively rather than suddenly. When tied into an anchor directly using nylon or dyneema slings, there's no dynamic element between the load (you) and the anchor, so any fall would produce a shock load which could end up being greater than the breaking strength of the slings.

Using nylon or dyneema for quickdraw extensions is quite different because they only ever will be loaded by weighting the rope, and it's the stretch in the rope itself that provides the dynamic element necessary to disperse the energy of the fall over a longer time, thereby making sure the peak load stays well below the breaking strain of the extender.

In addition to the good explanations you've already had, it's perhaps worth also pointing out that there's nothing particularly special about alpine draws. Basically every piece of climbing gear (apart from the rope itself) is more-or-less static. Nuts, cams, harnesses, krabs, the dogbones on normal quickdraws. So slings aren't unusual in being static, we only get special warnings about the risks of them being static because it's plausible that someone could think they were safe moving around on an anchor joined together with a sling, whereas if you were connected directly to a nut or a cam, you probably wouldn't consider it a bombproof anchor on its own and you wouldn't have much freedom of movement anyway.

But you definitely don't need alpine draws anyway. They are useful for a multitude of reasons, and you definitely don't need to be concerned about them being static, but I wouldn't consider them an essential part of a first rack.

I’m guessing you have short draws which you use indoors. These will tranfer to your outdoor rack, but it’s a good idea to also carry several longer draws for which you will find plenty of use. Essentially, I’m talking about  buying short floppy slings -  Dyneema fine - and decent wire gate crabs. There are many placements where use of these will prevent the rope lifting your gear out as you climb. 

Thanks for your help guys. I found it quite useful