I have spent some time at Spanset in Middlewich over the last couple of months, doing my IRATA L1 and a few other bits. Some of you will perhaps know that Spanset have been particularly friendly to cavers, donating large amounts of new rope to expedition groups and competition winners on places like UKCaving forum. On my last visit to Middlewich last week, I was offered some rope to play with and provide feedback on. Although this is not a new type of rope, it is something that is only recently been taken on by Spanset and as far as I’m aware, there are no cavers out there using this stuff just yet. I’ve been kindly given 100m of this rope to test and report back on. If anyone wants to borrow a bit for a day or 2, just ask.
The first thing that some of you will notice is that this looks exactly the same as the Mammut Pro Static that has been available for some time. You might be tempted to click away now as that rope was truly terrible once it had stiffened up, but this is not the same stuff. From my understanding, Teufelberger took over the production of Mammut ropes some time back and now produce similar looking, but different spec ropes. Only time will tell if this doppelganger remains supple.
So, the details are as follows.
Teufelberger Tutor XG 10.0mm
Semi-static EN1891 Type A
Polyamide construction divided into 41% sheath and 59% core.
Stretch in normal use <5%
Shrinkage <6%
61g per meter
Apparently this is designed with teaching in mind (hence Tutor) and as a general rope access rope. Off the reel it feels supple and as you’d expect a new rope. The instructions provided did not give specific advice on whether it needed a pre-soak before its first use, so I did so anyway. Soaking for 24 hours, with 2 changes of water, before air drying and cutting. The 100m drum was reduced to a 44m, 33m and 19m rope, showing some shrinkage straight off the reel (as expected). In use, the ropes are marked up as a 40m, 30m and 18m. This is my most frequently used range and should permit me to get lots of use out of this stuff.
The rope was prepared and logged onto my system on the 1st of September. I’ll be keeping a track of how much use it has and reporting back when I have something interesting to say. I’ll probably start with an initial use post as soon as I can and follow it up with something longer term.