Can dynamic lines be spliced?

Short answer Scotty, Steven is right: Splicing no (as far as we can ascertain). Stitching, yes (on some ropes). It's knots all the way!

During the day our rope experts have given us plenty of reasons why dynamic ropes cannot be spliced - mostly in technical jargon so I will not even try to repeat it on these pages. Suffice to say the simple answer is NO they cannot be spliced.

Apparently dynamic ropes require a much higher twist in the sheath and core yarns during the construction process. This twist creates mechanical elongationwhich causes the rope to act like a spring, absorbing the energy created in the event of a fall.

A careful balance is required during the construction process to ensure the resulting rope will catch a fall with minimal impact, yet not be so stretchythat it allows the falling climber to hit the deck!

All of this means complicated parallel core construction etc, etc making it difficult if not impossible to splice.

Beal and Edelrid offer stitched solutions but no one in this part of the world can provide such a service. Given the custom size requirements for footlockingstrops, factory stitching does not appear a very practical solution.

Treetools will post more on the dynamic footlock strop issue over the next few days.