Gear Review: Cordelette
Company: Blue Water
Product: 7mm Accessory Cord
The real draw to cordelette is you can do almost anything with it, and you can do it well. There simply isn’t anything that you can use to fully replace it. Here are some of the possible uses:
- trad anchors
- quad/PAS
- cam sling
- tying/tethering things
- rescue
And the list goes on. Even though your everyday sling may be able to achieve similar goals, cordelette is generally stronger, and it is easier to untie. The flatness of a sling makes it very hard to untie, whereas the roundness of the cordelette makes it easier to dress and untie. 20ft of rope may also be able to achieve similar goals, but it would be very heavy, unwieldy, and bulky. When climbing, especially longer routes with several pitches, you want to minimize weight and bulk so that you keep a good pace and so that your gear doesn’t get snagged on the rock.
Blue Water strikes the perfect balance between weight, bulk, strength, and efficiency. Though you could go a little slimmer, 7mm is a great diameter. It’s strong, light, and still thick enough to make untying easy. It coils up nicely on your harness so it doesn’t catch anything. Plus, it’s built to last, so it doesn’t die after one use.
Furthermore, sometimes for a safe rappel you need to leave your anchor up on the wall. Blue Water’s pricing makes you feel less bad about doing that. Sure, no one wants to lose money, but in the grand scheme of climbing costs, you’ll be able to replace your cordelette without too much stress. Lastly, Blue Water offers several colors, which is helpful so you can pick which color stands out the most from your gear (or maybe you want to coordinate colors for the aesthetic). This cordelette has it all!
Recommendation: Experienced sport climber & up
Specs: 32.93g/m; 11kN tensile strength; 20ft-60m lengths
MSRP: $17.95 for 30ft
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