Rope Collective

02/19/2021

Our preserves are worth a visit in winter.

02/12/2021

When a sudden flood fills a massive cave, photographer Robbie Shone and an elite team of Russian explorers scramble to survive.

02/08/2021

On Saturday, 06.02.2021, a 57 year old caver died in the "Mühlbachquellhöhle" in Bavaria/Germany near Dietfurt. This cave has several siphons and is more than 9 km long. (Infos and map on www.muehlbachquellhoehle.de)

11/10/2020

Classic 162’ rack rappel on 11mm Mammut Performance Static. Rigging off both bolt sets for 2 lines. Zero obstructions makes for a smooth ropewalker ascent 👌
Ascending longer segments of rope is accomplished easier with an efficient system which has been personalized to the user. Which systems do you prefer?

10/17/2020

Missing it this year!

10/10/2020

Rappels and Base Jumps ✊
Bridge Day 2019 🌉

10/10/2020

Morning of Bridge Day 2019. Fog crossing under the bridge all the way to the gorge floor. Bridge beam rigging ready for all the teams 1000ft ropes to be lowered. Those early morning catwalk feels are surreal. Missing it this year due to COVID but looking forward to 2021!

10/08/2020

TAG classic gun barrel pit formation. After some rain this pit has a significant waterfall off to the side which will flood the lower portion of the cave.
Some of these classics are requiring significant maintenance. As seen in the photo, a large tree has leveled the fence on one side, and erosion has exposed several large unstable entrance boulders. Also the rigging points in many of these areas are mainly natural so proper selection and padding is important.

10/07/2020

10/06/2020

Rappelling the past few days was amazing, couldn’t ask for better weather! We used a variety of newer descenders and a few of the older ones as well. We used 7/16in 200’ WorkPro Static Rope in 11mm and it performed extremely well. We also put it to the test in some caves.
Don’t recommend climbing here Fri-Sun as the parking area gets insanely crowded!
Also check to see if there is any military training occurring here as the Army Rangers use it frequently.

07/11/2020

This place looks huge on the outside but just wait until you get on a multipitch trip in the vast caverns below! Caves can have “pitches” very much like trad climbing going from multiple horizontal to vertical drops. In some cases the rope can be pulled down and used for multiple drops in a “pulldown” type cave.

07/10/2020

This is one way to tie a Clove Hitch with one hand. It’s fast, efficient, and effective if caught in a tight spot on lead or if you’re just trying show off your knotcraft!
Tomorrow we’ll share the same technique with a slight variation to end up with a Munter Hitch.