Kilometer Long Tether Rotational Gravity.... Do We Have Material That Won't Break?

[mikegarrison]

8 hours ago, RCgothic said:

The way you equalise 4 strands is you equalise two adjacent strands by allowing them to float until the slack is taken up. 

O   O

X    X

The problem with equalizers is that they hurt redundancy. Static equalizers are better for redundancy but not as good at equalizing, and dynamic equalizers are better at equalizing but usually have terrible redundancy.

Consider that pulley + prusik setup. Where is the single-point failure? The carabiner. Or the anchor. (It's also not protected if the rope breaks below the prusik. If the rope breaks on the other side, the prusik should catch. But if it breaks below the prusik, the pulley will likely "tend" the prusik and the rope will just slide right through.)

Two ropes with two biners and two anchors has no dynamic equalization (except for rope stretch), but the anchors and ropes are completely independent.

Traditional climbers spend a lot more time worrying about the security of their anchors than about their ropes. For a trad climber, the purpose of equalization is to spread out the loads on the anchors, not the loads on the rope.

Sport climbers, on the other hand, tend to trust their anchors nearly completely and are much more willing to forego anchor redundancy.

Edited October 12, 2021 by mikegarrison