Once upon a time, my home sport crag was littered with aging aluminum carabiners that had filed down to razor-sharp blades from all the sport-wanking and projecting that goes on here. There were a few seasons when I went through three climbing ropes without much effort.
It has gotten a lot better out there as more durable steel carabiners, whether on perma-draws or “blue steel” quickdraws, have become de rigueur among us upwardly mobile sport climbing bourgeoisie elitists, who spare no expense in our dogmatic pursuit of the next grade while hunkering down in our $200k van-builds complete open concept kitchen designs and espresso bars.
Still, ropes wear down, and when they do, I don’t mess around. I replace them because it’s the one damn piece of mission-critical gear that gives you a chance to come back and fail on your project another day.
This season, I tested the new Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect rope, a new offering from the premier Swiss gear manufacturer. The Alpine Core Protect rope is billed as “revolutionary” by the company, who claims it offers “significantly better cut resistance” thanks to a unique aramid sheath.
Ropes are normally made from polymide, a textile that offers great dynamic stretch and strength. Aramid is a material that is even more cut-resistant, but lacks the dynamic properties that are required for making climbing falls safe.
Mammut is pushing the boundaries here by figuring out a way to weave aramid fibers (4%) within the normal polymide sheath (96%), aspiring to deliver a “best of both worlds” solution: a bit of increased cut resistance while maintaining sufficient elongation for dynamic falls.
So, how did the rope stack up?
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Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect Dry Rope
- Significantly more cut-resistant under load on sharp edges thanks to its additional aramid sheath
- Achieves < 2% in UIAA water absorption tests
- Optimized abrasion resistance thanks to Dry finishing
- 59 g/m
First impressions of Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect
I didn’t do too much research into what the Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect was all about before uncoiling it one cool Saturday morning beneath my standard warmups. I’ve tested dozens of ropes over the years, and I’m never really that jarred one way or another because they all function about the same at first.
What shocked me about this rope was that it felt as if I was climbing on an 11mm! At first, just feeding the rope through a GriGri+ seemed to require extra effort. (Usually, with a new rope, the opposite is true.)
“Hawktuah, how thick is this thang?” I said. I had to double-check that it was, indeed, a 9.5mm.
This unique sheath made the rope feel “girthy,” in a noticeable way. It wasn’t necessarily thicker than any other 9.5, but it just felt … solid.
After a few days of using the rope, thankfully, the rope became much more supple and normal feeling, while still retaining that solid feeling.
The more I climbed on the Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect, the more I began to love it and feel confident in it. This rope inspires confidence in a way I haven’t experienced with other ropes before.
This confidence ended up coming in handy on a route I projected this summer. This climb went through angular, sharp roof, and it required extended slings to keep the rope from running over sharp edges at the roof’s lip. I mentally struggled with wanting to fall above the roof, not wanting to test that fall, which held me back in making progress on it. I’m as heavy as I’ve ever been as well, and when you’re a big dude taking wingers onto single ropes measured in millimeters, you definitely take pause and consider worst-case scenarios.
Once I realized how solid this rope was, I got over that mental barrier quickly, and even put those falls to the test.
The rope performed beautifully. I sensed no noticeable compromise in dynamic properties whatsoever. Falls were appropriately soft and stretchy.
Final thoughts
After a season of use, the bright neon color of the Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect rope has faded into a blah baby-puke yellow. But the rope itself feels as solid and confidence inspiring as it was brand new. There’s not even a hint of sheath abrasion whatsoever, which is remarkable.
This rope is for sure my new go-to rope. This is a great investment that will last seasons of sport climbing, multi-pitching, and big walling. There’s a reason that it won an ISPO award this year. Hats off to Mammut for not doing what most outdoor brands do to be different: take climbing gear, just make lighter but also make it less durable. Here, we have a company making true progress by creating a stronger, better product using new, cool technology that really works.
My only hope is that next season they bring this technology to new diameters, or least, introduce some better colors.
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