Middle rope mark

Have you ever been up on the side of El Cap after dark, setting up the 8th rappel of the night, all because your partner insisted hours ago that "I've got this move figured out, man!" Well, he didn't. Now you're cold, hungry, sleep deprived, pulling the rope through the rap rings like a zombie, when he shines his 900-lumen Fenix headlamp in your blood shut eyes and pops the question, "have you seen the middle mark yet?" "No! I thought you were keeping an eye on it?" A tense silence then falls on you and your partner that would last for the next 10 years, which gives you plenty of time to think back on your life and wonder if things could have been better. "I wish we had brought his rope too", or "If only I worked harder, I probably could've afforded that bi-pattern".

Well, despair no more! With our new and revolutionary magical reflective rope marking tape, you can now put a magical reflective middle mark on your rope that will glow like the mid-day sun when you point that 900-lumen headlamp in its general direction (headlamp sold separately). Imagine this: as you slowly pull the rope down, a shiny beacon of hope appears out of the darkness, gently floats down and lands perfectly on the rap rings, to remind you that there is a warm meal and a soft bed waiting for you back home, just a short red-eye flight away, if you can just get down the last 10 rappels in one piece.

Listen to what our celebrity guest and climbing legend rgold has to say about our magical reflective rope marking tape, "I have tape on my ends---special reflective tape that lights up in the dark when a headlight beam hits it. Makes finding the ends in the dark (and even in the light) a whole lot easier." That's right, folks! Our tape is not only for marking the middle of the rope, you can use it for all your gear marking needs. You can mark the middle of your rope, the end of the rope, 1/3 of the rope, your static rope, dynamic rope, gym rope, twin rope, your running shoes, backpacks, car keys, pets, kids... the possibilities are endless. And because it's 100% windproof, waterproof, and odor proof, you can even use it for repairs such as a tear on your tent fly, a hole in your gore-tex jacket, or maybe that damaged relationship between you and your climbing partner. But only if he buys our magical reflective rope marking tape for you as a gift, on the anniversary of your first alpine spoon together.

8 inches of snow keeps coloradbros inside huh

Nolan Huther wrote: 8 inches of snow keeps coloradbros inside huh

Ooooh, tough crowd! Actually, Coloradbros go send hard in the gym even if there's just a dusting of snow. But I can't afford a gym pass because I haven't made any money from my magic tape yet.

aikibujin wrote:

Ooooh, tough crowd! Actually, Coloradbros go send hard in the gym even if there's just a dusting of snow. But I can't afford a gym pass because I haven't made any money from my magic tape yet.

Sometimes I need to read Mountain Project with the context that Colorado legalized

Nolan Huther wrote:

Sometimes I need to read Mountain Project with the context that Colorado legalized

Wouldn't you have to take it off to belay?

Mak Ely wrote: How well does this feed through a belay device, be it tube style (ATC) or camming (GriGri)?

Some high visibility/neon thread laced with the rope's sheath at the halfway place works very well and is low profile/cheaper..

btw the sales pitch.. seems like too much chatter.

Also curious about this as I could see the middle mark jamming with the reflective tape over it. 

If it doesn't though, this could be awesome

gumbie gene wrote:

Also curious about this as I could see the middle mark jamming with the reflective tape over it. 

If it doesn't though, this could be awesome

No, it doesn't jam in the belay device, but you don't have to take my word for it. Test it yourself with a bit of climbing/athletic tape. Cut some climbing tape to wrap around your rope tightly, just enough to go 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 way around so the tape overlaps enough to stick to itself. Run it through your belay device and see. Unless you make a ton of wraps around your rope, you're probably not even going to notice it.

The reflective tape is about as thin as your climbing tape, and pretty flexible. I've use the non-reflective version for clothes/gear repair for years. Of course over time it will peel off, so the more care you use in putting on, the longer it's going to last. Unlike the more permanent markers like a sharpie or weaving a thread through the sheath, if you ever trim one end of your rope and the middle mark is no longer the middle, it's very easy to take off the tape and re-mark the rope.

aikibujin wrote:
No, it doesn't jam in the belay device, but you don't have to take my word for it. Test it yourself with a bit of climbing/athletic tape. Cut some climbing tape to wrap around your rope tightly, just enough to go 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 way around so the tape overlaps enough to stick to itself. Run it through your belay device and see. Unless you make a ton of wraps around your rope, you're probably not even going to notice it.

The reflective tape is about as thin as your climbing tape, and pretty flexible. I've use the non-reflective version for clothes/gear repair for years. Of course over time it will peel off, so the more care you use in putting on, the longer it's going to last. Unlike the more permanent markers like a sharpie or weaving a thread through the sheath, if you ever trim one end of your rope and the middle mark is no longer the middle, it's very easy to take off the tape and re-mark the rope.

^ THIS--I've witnessed many rappel errors occur because of mis-aligned middle marks.

high-visibility polypropylene yarn (fishermen use it for strike-indicators) laced into the sheath at midpoint - yields a "glow-ball" about the size of a golf-ball, provides tactile datum if you're caught in dark without a iight.  passes effortlessly through belay brakes, and gets panicky looks/questions from bystanders worried that its core damage.  found this method in use among guides around Canmore...

can mark rope ends same way.  can be removed easily & replaced if rope changes length...

Curt Haire wrote: high-visibility polypropylene yarn (fishermen use it for strike-indicators) laced into the sheath at midpoint - yields a "glow-ball" about the size of a golf-ball, provides tactile datum if you're caught in dark without a iight.  passes effortlessly through belay brakes, and gets panicky looks/questions from bystanders worried that its core damage.  found this method in use among guides around Canmore...

can mark rope ends same way.  can be removed easily & replaced if rope changes length...

Wait, so you're actually threading a puff-ball of high-viz yarn through the sheath?

Kinda like these?

And it doesn't get caught up or tangled in belay devices? Intriguing...

man, that looks pretty good.  i generally sew upholstery thread into my sheath for the middle mark, but it would be nice to have something that is easy to see (instead of just feel) at night.  i think i might use it for the middle (and then sew over the top of it to keep it taped down / protected from wear, and add the tactile benefits of the thread).  then, add some bits to the ends.

thanks for coming up with something simple and cheap, nice work!

slim wrote: man, that looks pretty good.  i generally sew upholstery thread into my sheath for the middle mark, but it would be nice to have something that is easy to see (instead of just feel) at night.  i think i might use it for the middle (and then sew over the top of it to keep it taped down / protected from wear, and add the tactile benefits of the thread).  then, add some bits to the ends.

thanks for coming up with something simple and cheap, nice work!

Glad someone likes it! Credit should really go to rgold, it just took me a while to finally get around to do it, since most of my ropes are bi-pattern. Sewing threads over the tape would make it pretty durable I would think. I've known about the thread trick for a long time, but I'm just too lazy to bother with needle and threads.

andrew - the idea is similar, but i just use a darning needle (big eye to accept yarn, rounded point won't hurt rope fibers) to weave plain old bright (da-glow?) yarn through the sheath.  after weaving, I trim the yarn to shorter than an inch, and comb it out so the yarn fibers are untwisted & loose.  thank the Canmore community for it - I don't know where they got the idea, but it works amazingly well.  If I can overcome my computer illiteracy, I'll try to post a photo...
-Haireball