Drop Testing Personal Anchors

We drop tested Metolius Easy Daisy and ascenders on 11mm and 8mm ropes. We also did them in SlackSnap so we could compare slow pull vs dynamic falls.

Our timestamps and results are the following:
Soft Opening
00:45 PAS 100lbs FF1 3.8kn
02:05 PAS 200lbs FF1 7.2kn
03:02 PAS 200lbs FF2 10.4kn
04:36 Gear Wall
06:24 11mm vs ascender Drop Tower 6.4kn
07:28 8mm vs ascender Drop Tower 4.1kn
08:14 PAS slow pull 5.8kn
09:28 11mm vs Ascender Slow Pull 6.6kn
10:28 8mm vs Ascender Slow Pull 4.1kn
12:02 8mm Sheath vs Core with figure 8s
*Just sheath - 4.5
*Just core - 6.6
*Normal and together - 13.5

[alexnone]

A rubber horse stall mat in the drop zone might help to spread the impact out a bit and could help with reset time between drops. Tractor supply or similar stores carry them, usual size is 4ft x 6 ft x 3/4" thick.

[Barcelona]

Been getting so excited for the drop tower and to actually see these tests...ITS BETTER THAN I IMAGINED! Cannot wait to see more videos about recreating realistic climbing scenarios.

[seandvideo]

I would like to see how prusik knots with different diameters compare!

[LoneVanMan]

FINALLY!! 👍👏 we've all been waiting for more breakage. So happy you're back to testing, super cool. So glad that you finally have your drop tower, congratulations you've been working so hard. Great job!

[mountainmandoug]

This is so fun! I love the comparisons between drop tests and slow pulls. One criticism. Fall factor is not a very useful thing to report in drop test not involving dynamic rope. If you report that you dropped something with a certain fall factor and the result was x force, there is no way to evaluate that result mathematically and compare it to a different use case (different load or different fall distance.) What you need to measure and report is the distance of fall before the whatever cordage comes tight. This is called falling distance. If you know the mass and the fall distance than it is possible to calculate the energy involved, and compare to other things. I know there are lots of tests floating around that report the fall factor for things like slings, but in my arrogant opinion that is a bad practice that eliminates much of the value of testing.

[frogdogify]

As a tower climber, I used a GRILLON, not only for positioning. Single point and double point. But also for an adjustable load capture device. Throw a rope grab with a pulley on your working end, take your standing end run it through the pulley. Now you can ascend by pulling on the standing end. The GRILLON doesn’t have a spring loaded handle so it locks faster. Great show fellas!!!

[JMZ]

Top rope solo devices are a big issue in climbing at the minute, particularly with a recent fatal accident where a shunt released from the rope. This topic would make for a really good independent investigation.

[alexandrosmargiolis]

I am glad that you do all that to help us all understand better what we do to the items every time we go caving, climbing, highlining etc.
I am Greek and so it's not so practical to send you stuff for tests, i would send money 🤑.
(But) I think that the drop on the 8mm WASN'T FF1, BUT FF 1, 5 or more! The length of the fall is : [rope] & [ascender] & [silver carabiner] & [length of stretched triangle softshackle]. If the rope for example was 10m, all that would be negligible... But probably it was only 1m.
Thanks again for your educational videos (i don't want to sound critical)

[hunterwarren]

Yessss u tested the metolius easy daisy thank you!!! That’s awesome. Stronger than I thought!

[PrimitiveBeasty]

Hoping you guys will include some 300 lb drops in your tests too - on behalf of climbing clydesdales everywhere.

[amsterdan]

a camera mount with high speed cameras to see the destruction would be really cool (maybe a bit expensive)

[chrissonnenschein]

Love seeing live drop test compared to real time force graph. So cool to have a whole new series of New YouTube content to watch in 2022 with our continuing COVID interference. Great job everyone, even Bobby helping, smiling with minimal injury hindrance.

[alexstarr]

So exciting to see this come together! It's cool to see the first tests.

I know you must have a massive amount of tests you're interested in pursuing, but I'll throw in a vote for seeing a drop vs static test of the Ropeman ascenders (especially the Ropeman 1). It's widely used in the saddle hunting community and there is a lot of debate over its safety. Ideally it should never see shock loads, but accidents can happen. There are papers indicating that it can sever ropes as low as 3-4 kN, but it would be great to be able to point people to a video! I'd be willing to provide a Ropeman 1 for testing.

There are quite a few twists you could do on it. Different rope diameters, static vs dynamic rope, etc. One really interesting one that's come up in the community is backing up the device with a Prusik. Would be interesting to see if a backup Prusik above the device would grab quickly enough to keep it from sliding off a severed rope. Or if the rope is just degloved, would the Prusik hold on just the core?

[haphaeu]

3:06 "holy crap this is the coolest toy ever" brilliant!! now that's when you realize that all the effort was worth it =)

[simplestuff]

Wow you’ve got it up and running :) You’ve already contributed so much to peoples safety through understanding, worldwide and having your drop tower will be a game changer.

I work on the ropes and the knowledge I get from you’re vids cannot be bought in a poxy training course, so when I can remember my Patrion password, I’ll be donating!

I’d urge those who make their living relying on this gear to do the same. This is the only verification that the ordinary person can get of how gear reacts in real life outside of trusting manufacturers and standards testing houses.
This is clearly a huge financial and time commitment .
Everything you guys do is valuable and appreciated, thank you. Never stop! :)

[patrickbegley]

Putting in my vote to do the all-controversial girth hitch master point

[hobbitilius]

That's so cool! I was really excited for the drop tower, but it might be even better than I imagined. Really looking forward to the future of your channel.

[BenjaminLovelady]

I'm super surprised there was such agreement, I really expected at least a 15% difference. I might need to rewatch some of your old videos again without the "yeah, but when it's shock-loaded..." attitude. It was all nylon today though... super excited for the next couple months of videos!

[brendanfaulkner]

Can you test what a micro-traxxion would do to a 9.5-9.8 dynamic rope? This is my go-to method when top rope soloing and I’m extremely interested to better understand my setup and minimize any potential risk in the future!

[marekgumienny]

Loved "thats what she said", both context and timing:)