In reply to Plungeman:
> 4) Has nothing to do with rope length as stated above (that's the point of fall factors)
The point of fall factors is to substitute a basic rule of thumb that is easily understood, for complicated real world situations that are too difficult to model whilst up a cliff. In the real world length of rope makes a difference, consider a slightly squishy climber taking a theoretical (no knots to tighten, vertical drop with no swing) 0.02 metre factor 2 fall on a 0.01 metre static attachment, it clearly isn't going to generate as much peak load as a 2 metre drop on a 1 metre dynamic attachment. Now factor in that in the real world, with a cow's tail perhaps 0.3 to 0.6 metres in length, that it will be impossible to take anything approaching a completely vertical drop, and we will have to account for some of the energy being converted to a roughly tangential component which will be absorbed by the climber's knees when he swings into the rock, and not by the lanyard. It quickly becomes apparent that over short distances the fall factor model doesn't bear up so well.