Our friends at Skylotec showed us a really clever way to solve a common problem: keeping your rope from getting damaged when setting lines from the ground.
Anyone who works with ropes knows that abrasion is a serious concern. If your rope rubs against a sharp or rough surface—whether it’s the edge of a metal tower, a rock, or another hard surface—it can fray or even break over time. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
If you’re descending from above, it’s easy to protect your rope. You can lay down a piece of tough ballistic fabric over the edge, which keeps the rope from making direct contact with whatever might wear it down. My friend Jon Norton developed a great solution for this (see the device here).
But what if you’re setting your line from the ground? That’s where things get tricky—you can’t place protection before your rope reaches the edge.
That’s why we were so impressed with this simple but effective solution: a short metal cable that attaches to the rope and gets pulled up over the edge, acting as a shield against abrasion.
Check out this video to see it in action:
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