I just arrived in Santiago today after flying from the States. My flight consisted of three legs, all three of which required (for a variety of reasons) to go through security. My carry on bags were fine and otherwise ignored by two of the airports, but in Hermosillo, Mexico the security agent pulled my bag aside, opened it up and told me I was not allowed to take my climbing rope inside carry on bags. He didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish and we had a difficult time just ironing it out (at first I thought they were going to confiscate my brand new 60m dry rope - talk about an international incident). Ultimately, they let me run the bag over to the ticket counter and just check it for that leg of the journey to Mexico City. In Mexico City they didn't care and I took the bag on the plane with the rope inside and without any furhter problems.

Any ideas why they wouldn't want rope to be taken as carry on? Maybe if I spoke Spanish I could explain it was simply for climbing and not tying up people or anything weird.

because you were planning to break in that new line by tying up the pilots and crew and hijacking the plane of course.

I was flying to Austin from El Paso after climbing the PO wall with Mike Head in '81... Had a lot of gear, maxed my checked baggage,, and still had like 80 biners to get home...

I had them, including my pin rack, in my backpack carry on all clipped in a double biner chain 40 biners long... They said i could not check it because it was a chain, but if I unclipped them into single biner "strands" of no more than 5... I could take them.

They were surprised at how fast I unclipped them...

Back in the mid 90's, I hauled a propane stove and fuel in my carry on via SW or ATA to Vegas, and back. No problems back in the day.

I've never been bothered flying domestically carrying on a rope.

I was flying back to the states from Sydney and I wasn't allowed to carry on my rope. When I explained it was a climbing rope and questioned why, they said because I could tie everyone up in the plane and hold them hostage. True story

It wasn't allowed because that particular security guy didn't allow it. I think it's mostly luck of the draw when going through airport security. No shit, they took a couple origami flowers from me when I flew a few weeks ago.

i flew from Durango to Denver with a full rack nuts hex's cams all the way up to blue big bro bolt kit hand drill bits nut tool all on my carry on .. no problem with drill bits #6 camlot but my wall hammer they jacked me for ... sucked got up to MT evens an had to use a 16 oz framing hammer for my project.. lots of extra swingeing.. dam T.S.A

I had a rope pulled out of my carry-on many years ago (pre 9-11) and the reason being was that I could "rappel out of the plane" or "strangle the pilot" with it. There was no use arguing with that logic, but they let me check it.

In 86 I flew from Sioux Falls to Denver round trip carrying an 8 inch hunting knife.

Last year I flew home and my mom tried to give me a meat thermometer to take home, all I had was one small carry on. Sounded like a good way to get arrested to me.

I hate flying anymore, the security personnel act all important but strike me as a bunch of clueless twits.

Next time that happens in Mexico, fold $20 into a small square and give him the "Mexican handshake". You'll be allowed to take the rope on. There is a possible downside--if he happens to be one of the five honest enforcement officers in Mexico, you might end up being a gringo sex slave in a Mexican prison.

I just got back from Thailand, and traveled with nothing but carry-on. (draws, rope, harness, etc.). We had many lay-overs out there and back (Hong Kong, Bejing, Bangkok, Karabi, LA, Chicago) with no problems. Went to the Dolomites in N.Italy a couple of years back with same set up and again with no problems. I have heard of a few issues from fiends and other posts though; I think it may depend on who your security person is.

Oh man. You should have seen it when my climbing partner tried to take a whole rack of pins, replete with wall hammer, carry-on through airport security in Islamabad. We were just trying to get the hell outta Pakistan. Plane was scheduled to leave a half an hour ago. Said climbing partner Clint tries to use his limited Urdu language skills and lots of non-verbals tricks, like pointing frantically and hard-seam-nailing-charades, to convince a Pakistani military officer that an 'Angreshi' like himself should immediately be let onto the plane. Pakistani miltary officer is unimpressed, as is his machine gun. I make it through the checkpoint and look back to see Clint convulsing up and down pleading, looking like one of those weird wind-up monkeys banging cymbals together.

Clint at Islamabad security Submitted By: Fleetwood Matt on Jan 18, 2013

Right after 9/11 I had checked my climbing gear and carried on my pack with clothes and some biners. When I landed and got my bag I opened it to check to make sure it was all there. Just inside the bag on top of everything was a TSA card to let me know they opened and searched my bag. There was a check list on the card with a bunch of prohibited items to check and then of course on the bottom was the infamous "other" with a place to write in whatever you wanted. Written after the "other" check was Parachute Paraphernalia. I guess they were worried about me high jacking the plane going below to find my bag and pulling out a parachute then jumping....

After several days on the Grand Teton, I was at the security checkpoint at the Jackson Hole Airport. Sure enough, my rope showed up on the X-ray of my carry-on baggage and it was pulled out by the TSA man. He told me that I was not allowed to carry my rope on the plane and that I needed to put it in checked baggage. He said that rope could be used "to tie up A LOT of people". I said "how am I going to convince people to let me tie them up?" There was a pause, and he basically told me tough shit, check the rope.

Pre 9/11 I was flying from my home in NYC to the tetons. Had most of my climbing hear as carry on. Going through security the woman asks me why I have handcuffs in my bag. I gave a perplexed look and said "handcuffs??" oh no that's my climbing gear.

She had me dump my stuff out so she could go through it. In the process she asked me for my number. I told her I had a girlfriend. She said she didn't care!!! She asked me if my gf was white. I said yes again perplexed. She said well here's my number if you're interested, and "You know what they say? I said What? The darker the berry the sweeter the cherry!" My buddies were rolling. Funny, and flattering but we almost missed our damn flight!

In 1983, while flying to Colombia to climb in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, we tried to carry-on ropes at LAX and were shut down by security. We were told even back then that the ropes could be used to tie up the crew and hijack the plane...

Working up the security supervisory chain didn't change the situation. Ended up having to frantically buy a box and check it (for a hefty extra bag fee) to make the flight. The good news is that we got to use the ropes on some great routes!