Sunday, October 11, 2020

SLINGS - Essential Gear for Safe Rock Climbing - Slings, made with lengths of webbing that are sewn or knotted into a closed loop, are essential pieces of climbing equipment that you use every time you go rock climbing. Slings work with carabiners, quickdraws, cams, nuts, and a climbing rope to make a safe climbing system. Slings do lots of climbing jobs, like attaching yourself to anchors, creating equalized anchor systems, tying off natural protection like trees and wedged chockstones, for making an autoblock knot, and clipping into the rope and gear to reduce rope drag. The first slings used by climbers were simply short pieces of thin rope and cord that were knotted into a closed loop. The use of strong nylon webbing in the 1960s, however, created better, stronger, and lighter slings for climbers. By the mid-1970s, climbing gear manufacturers began sewing slings by overlapping the two ends of a length of webbing and sewing them together. Slings now are made with either nylon webbing or Spectra and Dyneema. The ideal sling material is Spectra and Dyneema, which are both light, flexible, strong, and durable. Both Spectra and Dyneema are polyethylene arranged as parallel fibers, giving it a slick surface. which makes it impossible to tie and hold a knot. The fibers won’t accept dye so they’re white. Colored yarn is woven into the fibers so that it can retain a knot. Slings made from these materials are always sewn for maximum strength.

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Slings

Essential Gear for Safe Rock Climbing

By Stewart Green



Slings, made with lengths of webbing that are sewn or knotted into a closed loop, are essential pieces of climbing equipment that you use every time you go rock climbing.

Slings work with carabiners, quickdraws, cams, nuts, and a climbing rope to make a safe climbing system.

Slings Work Hard

Slings do lots of climbing jobs, like attaching yourself to anchors, creating equalized anchor systems, tying off natural protection like trees and wedged chockstones, for making an autoblock knot, and clipping into the rope and gear to reduce rope drag.

First Slings Were Knotted Rope

The first slings used by climbers were simply short pieces of thin rope and cord that were knotted into a closed loop.

The use of strong nylon webbing in the 1960s, however, created better, stronger, and lighter slings for climbers.

By the mid-1970s, climbing gear manufacturers began sewing slings by overlapping the two ends of a length of webbing and sewing them together.

Spectra and Dyneema Slings

Slings now are made with either nylon webbing or Spectra and Dyneema.

The ideal sling material is Spectra and Dyneema, which are both light, flexible, strong, and durable.

Both Spectra and Dyneema are polyethylene arranged as parallel fibers, giving it a slick surface. which makes it impossible to tie and hold a knot.

The fibers won’t accept dye so they’re white. Colored yarn is woven into the fibers so that it can retain a knot.

Slings made from these materials are always sewn for maximum strength. They’re also more resistant to ultraviolet damage from the sun.

The main negative characteristic is that they are less elastic and dynamic than nylon webbing, so they don’t absorb as much energy when shock loaded in a fall.

Nylon Webbing Slings

Nylon webbing is either flat or tubular. The flat woven webbing is lightweight and inexpensive, while tubular webbing is more durable but bulkier and more expensive.

Nylon webbing is ideal for constructing Swiss seat harnesses, long slings for tying off trees or boulders for top-rope anchors, for leaving at equalized rappel anchors, and for making knotted slings of various lengths.

Modern Sewn Slings

Modern slings are made from lengths of ½-inch or one-inch webbing that are either tied or sewn together in lengths from one to four feet long.

Climbers commonly use two-foot-long slings. Sewn slings are stronger than tied ones.

The sewn bar tacking on the webbing overlap of a sling is extremely strong, as strong as most carabiners.

Tie Slings With a Water Knot

Tied slings can be made to various lengths and of different material including cord rather than webbing.

Always tie the ends of sling together with a water knot, also called an overhand trace knot.

Knotted slings that fail under a load or a fall usually break at the knot. 

Stewart Green

Introduction

Author of more than 20 books about hiking and rock climbing

Senior rock climbing guide for Front Range Climbing Co. in Colorado

Worked with the Colorado Department of Parks to solve climbing problems

Red Rock Canyon Open Space and Garden of the Gods committee member

Experience

Stewart M. Green is a former writer for ThoughtCo who wrote articles about rock climbing for more than eight years. Stewart is an expert climber and co-owns Front Range Climbing Company where he acts as the senior rock climbing guide in the mountains of Colorado and Utah. Stewart started writing about and photographing the outdoors around 1977, landing his first job with Springs Magazine in 1979. Since that time, his writing and photography appeared in numerous books and websites. Stewart's experience includes working as a digital editor for Alpinist.com where he wrote about and photographed some of the most famous climbers in the world.

Stewart is a prolific writer. His work appears on many websites and magazines which target the outdoor enthusiast audience. He has more than 20 books to his credit about climbing and hiking. Stewart worked with the Colorado Springs Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services to solve problems with rock climbing in city parks. He was a member of the committees for both the Red Rock Canyon Open Space project and the Garden of the Gods project.

Education

Stewart M. Green earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Goucher College in 2007. He also holds a Bachelor Arts (B.A.) in Anthropology from the University of Colorado–Colorado Springs.

Awards and Publications

2011 Golden Quill Award in Lifetime Achievement, Pikes Peak Library District

Best Climbs Phoenix, Arizona: The Best Sport and Trad Routes in the Area (Falcon Guides, 2017)

Rock Climbing New England: A Guide to More Than 900 Routes (Falcon Guides, 2015)

Rock Climbing Utah 2nd Edition (Falcon Guides, 2012)

Best Climbs Denver and Boulder: Over 200 Of The Best Routes In The Area (Falcon Guides, 2011)

Best Climbs Moab: Over 140 Of The Best Routes In The Area (Falcon Guides, 2011)

Rock Climbing Colorado, 2nd: A Guide to More Than 1,800 Routes (Falcon Guides, 2010) 

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