Author: Curt Buettner

We got to try out my new 11mm Max Wear yesterday. It wasn’t a bad rappel or climb, but definitely not Sport Ez, Talon, or Extreme Pro. For what it’s designed for, ruggedness and durability, I think it shines; time will tell. Rope is on my mind this morning. Trying to pin down “the one” I like the most; and that’s a tough one.

11mm Extreme Pro– rappel is like butter! Super smooth through the rack; very easy to get over the lip with; but yet you need to be aware of just how easy it feeds. Definitely a fast rope to rappel on, and very smooth! The climb…… meh. Not my favorite to climb on. Very stretchy. I’m not a fan of the “bungie cord bounce” when climbing. The longer the drop, the more the bounce. It’s so lumber that to start climbing is a pain in the butt. Once you get 20’ ish off the ground it gets better from rope weight. Then ya bouncy bouncy bounce until you hit the 100’ ish mark and the stretch isn’t too bad and the bounce chills out; making the climb much better.

11mm Max Wear. It’s a beast. Ready to be dragged through caves, over rocks, through water, and just abused is it’s design. The rappel wasn’t bad, but certainly not “butter smooth”. A much stiffer rope, it doesn’t feed through the rack very good when going over the lip; gotta feed the rack some. Once over and free hanging it does fine. The climb? It’s “ok”, not as much stretch/bounce as the Extreme Pro, but close. The longer the drop, the more boing! Boing! You’ll go. It’ll work good for what I got it for; caving and dirty pit bouncing.

11mm Sport Ez– I didn’t think I would like this one as much as I do, now. It’s a good all around rope; and it’s actually one of my favorites now. We sell a ton of it; and during the Spring through Fall we make thousands of feet of it daily. The rappel is nice. It has a great happy medium getting over the lip and dropping. It feeds through the rack very well, and is nice for tying knots/rigging. Smooth rappel and makes it very smooth to control you bars; doesn’t give you that herky/jerky when using your bars to adjust your descent. The climb isn’t bad at all either. It has a little stretch at the start, but you can quickly get climbing after a couple steps. Has a ‘little’ bounce too it, but tolerable; for me…. Again, I didn’t think I’d like this one as much as I do. Turns out, I like it a lot. Definitely a “go to” rope and I bring it every time. 👍🏻

11mm Talon* (available by special order) – I don’t think I’m as impressed with it as I am the 10mm Talon. I love my 10 mil. The 11mm I thought would of been better. Rigging/knot tying it does good, easy to use. Fairly smooth going over the lip and it feeds through the rack well, no “feeding the rack” with this one. Just sit yer butt back and go. Once on the free hang, it rappels nice; but, not as nice as I thought it would. Sport Ez and Extreme Pro are better; which surprised me. Where this rope shined is the climb. No stretch (at least at the 100’ level so far; it’s the biggest drop I’ve rigged it with, yet…), and the climb is fast and smooth. No bouncing, just flying straight up! There is no fumbling around on the first step either. You simply just get ya movin’!

I have a couple more ropes to make and try out. Definitely going to get some ISO Static in the 13mm and 11mm. Have a short 11mm and it handles very well on rappel and climb; just need to try it on a bigger drop. And the Access Pro… would like to try that. But for now, I do believe my “go to rope” would be the Sport Ez in the 11mm. Definitely Talon in 10mm.

I’ve lost track of how many feet of rope I have now, it has become a little addicting, but I enjoy getting to make these products AND get too use them. When your butt is hanging on a thread, it’s comforting to know where and how that rope was made. It’s also nice to be able to make custom colors and patterns. Seeing so much daily helps out with coming up with patterns. Love my Red/White/Blue colors and patterns, but I just might have ya get our standard Old Glory rope made, just to have one. Be a good add too the mix. 😁

Anywho….. I felt like yammering about rope since I got too try out the Max Wear yesterday. Going to switch to bagging my ropes (minus the max wear and pit ropes, still coil those), to save some wall space, and it’s a better way to stow them. Honey; we’re going to need a LOT of bags! 😂🤣😂

I would also like to thank my wife, for not killing me for buying/making all this rope; and…… future, ropes…… While she does “face palm” and shake her head; she hasn’t killed me yet! 😂🤣😂😘😘👍🏻