UIAA Sets New Standard for Water Repellent Climbing Ropes

Climbing rope manufacturers have been making and marketing their own style of “dry ropes” for as long as most people can remember; ropes that claim to repel water in some form or another. Seeking to create some clarity and consistency withing the market, the UIAA has been working during the last decade to develop a water repellency standard for climbing ropes.

After a lot of research and testing, the UIAA Safety Commission has finally approved a new standard of testing to certify climbing ropes as UIAA Water Repellent. The only ropes that have currently passed the test and have received the UIAA Water Repellent certification are Edelweiss’s Supereverdry ropes and Beal’s Golden Dry ropes.

To be certified as a UIAA Water Repellent rope, the rope must pass a stringent test where the amount of water absorbed cannot be greater than 5% of the rope’s weight. Both Edelweiss and Beal have reported that their treated ropes surpassed the less-than-5% standard by only absorbing less than 2% of their weight in water. The UIAA discovered that non-treated ropes absorb around 50%, and the majority of “dry ropes” on the market still absorb 20 to 40% of their weight in water.

When a rope gets wet, not only does it get bloated, heavy, and susceptible to freezing, it experiences a reduction in strength—as much as 70%, says the UIAA. Wet ropes are known to overstretch, damaging nylon fibers and weakening the rope. Impact forces and fiber-to-fiber friction temperatures have also been known to increase when falling on a wet rope. “A UIAA Water Resistant rope absorbs very little water, dries faster, and performs safer in wet conditions,” says the group.

Edelweiss and Beal have been manufacturing ropes with Supereverdry and Golden Dry respectively for decades. Their methods of treating all the fibers in a rope’s core and sheath have proven to be an industry leading process for creating ropes that are truly water repellent — proven now with the UIAA certification. Not only are all the fibers in the rope treated, they are also treated in a way so that the rope will continue to repel water for its entire life, say the companies.

UIAA Water Repellent ropes made by Edelweiss:

Performance 9.2mm SuperEverdry Unicore

Magnetic 11mm SuperEverdry

Element II 10.2mm SuperEverdry Unicore

Lithium 8.5mm SuperEverdry

Oxygen II 8.2mm SuperEverdry Unicore

Helium 7.9mm SuperEverdry

Discover 8mm SuperEverdry

UIAA Water Repellent ropes made by Beal:

Gully 7.3mm Golden Dry Unicore

Ice Line 8.1mm Golden Dry Unicore

Cobra II 8.6mm Golden Dry Unicore

Pro Mountain 8.8mm Golden Dry

Booster III 9.7mm Golden Dry

Top Gun II 10.5mm Golden Dry Unicore

Ice Twin 7.7mm Golden Dry

Tiger 10mm Golden Dry Unicore

Flyer 10.2mm Golden Dry

Apollo 11mm Golden Dry

Stinger III 9.4mm Golden Dry Unicore

Joker 9.1mm Golden Dry Unicore