You'll need strong leg muscles and core strength, as well as arm strength, to haul yourself up a rope. It's certain that your entire body will ache--and eventually strengthen--after your first climbs. Don't forget to save a little strength for climbing back down, too.
Step 1
Reach up and grasp the rope with both hands as high as possible. The rope should be dangling between your legs.
Step 2
Wrap one leg around the rope so that the rope leads down between your legs, around the outside of one leg, then back across the top of the same foot.
Step 3
Bend your knees and bring them up to waist level, with the rope still wrapped around the one leg.
Step 4
Stand on the rope that crosses over your foot with the opposite foot. In other words, sandwich the rope between the instep of your free leg and the shoelaces of the foot on the leg that's wrapped in the rope.
Step 5
Squeeze your feet together around the rope, then straighten your legs. Your feet, with the rope pinched between them, should support your weight as you move your arms up the rope.
Step 6
Repeat Steps 3 to 5 until you've reached the top of the rope, or as high as you feel you can safely climb.
Step 7
Descend by reversing the climbing process. Straighten your legs, pinch the rope between your feet as low as possible, then walk your hands down the rope until you're in a bent-knee squatting position, still supporting your weight by pinching the rope between your feet. Support yourself with your hands as you straighten your legs again. Repeat until you're safely down, or far enough down to drop without risk of injury.
Tips and Warnings
- Another way of descending the rope--if you're wearing sturdy boots or shoes--is to loosen your foot-grip enough to let the rope run between your feet at a slow, controlled pace. Hand-over-hand your way down the rope as you slowly let it feet between your feet. Always practice this close to the ground until you feel confident, as if you let the rope run too quickly, you may get a friction burn or slide or fall out of control.
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