Gear for cheap - trigger warning - attempted humour

This description for the video sums it up -

You either die with honor or you live long enough to see yourself make a cringe YouTube video.  But a wise T-shirt once said, "I may be cringe, but I am free."

Frankly, dude needs to get some pay-per-view do$$ars!

These guys are having fun free soloing but that tissue paper rope is more common than you think.  They sell them at major hardware stores.  I replaced a rap anchor on a local alpine crag.  The core of the rope was tissue paper!

Jordan Daywrote:

These guys are having fun free soloing but that tissue paper rope is more common than you think.  They sell them at major hardware stores. 

I'm actually curious about what's going on with those ropes. I've used them for non-climbing applications and some of them have MBS ratings on the packaging. What makes me curious is that I can't figure out why the cottony gauze is in there. It's bunched up so it's clearly not providing any tension for the rope--if you remove it and straighten it out, it's many times longer than the sheath. It seems like it's just being used as a stuffing, to fill up space, but I can't think of an engineering reason you'd want that.

I replaced a rap anchor on a local alpine crag.  The core of the rope was tissue paper!

That's terrifying. It does seem that rope usually holds its manufacturer-specified MBS when new, but the abrasion-resistance of the ones I've seen is really really bad. You can break strands with your fingernail.

David, that's exactly the case. The filling just makes it round. And FWIW the sheath (the load bearing part) turns to powder after a month outside.

Once upon a time I took some of the rope apart and unfolded the central stuffing. It was printed with images of stuffed animals and things you might see in a baby's nursery. It actually reminded me of something you'd see in a disposable diaper.