JOSH HARING: Hi I'm Josh and today I'm going to talk about how to use climbing rope. Huge topic, but one thing to remember in climbing is a rope truly is your lifeline. From top to bottom, you want to make sure that your rope is taken care of. When choosing a climbing rope, it's important that you contact your local specialty retailer. You can go over all the different options. What is dynamic? What is static? These are big questions and you want to make sure you're buying the right rope. Like all climbing gear, it's important to do your research before purchasing. Once you do purchase climbing gear, you can't return it. It's important to ask all the right questions before making that purchase. Your retailer should ask you, "What are you using the rope for? Where will you be climbing with the rope? What type of weather condition will you be climbing in? Are you going to be climbing an ice? Are you going to be climbing in the desert?" Different ropes are used for different purposes. Proper maintenance and the care for your rope is crucial. You want to keep your rope coiled in a cool, dry environment, whether static or dynamic. You want to keep your rope away from any outside factors, any petroleum-based products, gasoline, floors of garages, things like that. For me, if I ever start doubting my rope, it's time to get a new one. With any climbing equipment, if you can never fully attest to the safety of that, whether it's a carabiner, a rope, a harness, it's time to get a new one. Your local specialty retailer will sell rope wash, which is an excellent way to keep your rope clean from debris and dust and particles. With rope wash, you can wash your rope in a washing machine and then lie and dry, really easy. It's important to keep your rope away from any sharp edges. A rope under tension has a significantly higher risk of being cut or sliced if it is on a sharp edge. It's important to keep your rope coiled nicely, no knots. When coiling a rope, you want to take approximately 2 hand lengths of rope out. This is what we're going to use as our tail. We'll take the rope another hand length and just loop it over our hands, this is called butterfly. We're just going to butterfly coil this rope, alternating side to side. Now we have the rope coiled and we want to make sure that we have both ends accessible at all times. We are going to go ahead and do a couple wraps around the rope here, make a loop, slide the rope through, and there's your rope.
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