Mountain Climbing News : Millet Silver Triaxiale Rope

I have been testing a couple Millet products for the past few weeks. One of them that stands out is the Silver Triaxiale Rope. The rope comes packaged in a nice reusable bag, and in a climb ready anti twist coil. The rope is marked in the middle with a dark colored dye.

I have been using this rope for both sport and trad climbs and after almost daily use it shows little wear. What sets this rope apart from the rest is the Triaxiale core. This core is basically three smaller cores instead of one larger core. This construction increases the lifespan of the rope, and creates a stable diameter over a long period of time. As an added safety feature rappelling could be possible with one of the three cores intact

I have found that although the Triaxiale core increases the longevity of the rope, catches are not as soft as other ropes I have used. This could be a positive trade off if you value durability above all. At first the rope was a little stiff and more difficult to tie knots with, however after a few days of use the handling was great.

At $260 this is a spendy rope, although considering the Triaxiale core it is worth the price. At just over 63g per meter the weight is fairly average for a 9.8 diameter rope. Taken in to consideration the added security of the Triaxiale core you get more for the weight. I weighed the 60m rope on my scale, it came in at 9lbs 2 oz not bad!

Millet ropes come standard with a dry coating called Hydrophobic. I got rained on once mid climb and it seemed to repel the water just fine. This was the only testing of the dry treatment I had. The only complaint I had was the middle marking did not last as long as I hoped. After just a few uses this marking was almost gone. This could be improved and I would also like to see markings a few meters from the ends.

Although this rope worked very well for sport and trad, overall I feel that this particular rope is best suited for alpine climbing, where a more durable rope is required. I would recommend this rope to any mountaineer looking for a lightweight, durable and safe rope.