The Rope Deal

I’m doing this little Adirondack trip thingy in a couple of weeks. I’m taking a handful of folks into the winter wilderness for their first time. Being a pseudo guide, I’ve had to step it up a bit as far as logistics go.

One thing I’ve never had, though our guide at Mt. Washington made great use of, is a rope.

Now we’re not doing anything completely dangerous, but there may be times when a rope comes in handy.

Anyone here ever bought a rope? Anyone here know what kind of rope to buy?

Yeah. That’s a tough one.

Ropes are about a $1 a foot and you need about 100′ of “dry” (waterproof) dynamic rope.

$100?!?!?

That’ll never do. I’ve got swing-sets and other toys to buy for my kid.

Luckily I have friends and friends with old ropes. Like I said, we’re not actually climbing anything, so a “good rope” isn’t exactly necessary.

But it should be waterproof. Hauling around 100′ of rope is heavy enough. Imagine hauling around 100′ of rope full of water and/or ice.

Not fun.

So how do you waterproof a rope? Like this.

First get the rope and good helper.

Luckily I’ve got a great helper.

Next step is wash the rope. Yes. You have to wash it – like your socks.

But you can’t use regular soap. That would leave a residue. You have to use special soap like this.

Once it’s been washed (1 hour), you have to soak it for two hours in the waterproofing solution.

Here’s the solution.

And man is it smelly!

Then you rinse it for an hour.

Then dry “inside” for an hour.

Then dry outside for the rest of the day.

Wow. What a chore. Almost as tough as carrying it 17 miles in the snow I’m sure.

At least we’ll know it will be dry.

– b