lifeline winner announced

Congratulations to Mike Palic, of Grayslake, Illinois, for submitting the most interesting question to the Maxim Lifeline contest, in October. In case you missed it, Palic wanted to know how you avoided "memory kinks," in a climbing rope.

Randy Leavitt, of Maxim Ropes, answered: "I think you are referring to a rope that seems to twist after the initial break-in period. Most of the time, these twists (or memory kinks) are put in inadvertently and unknowingly by the climber. For example, if your partner is following a trad pitch and you run the rope from the follower, up to a biner, then back down to your ATC, you will actually put memory kinks into the rope unless you lift the rope (with your non belay brake hand) and allow it to pass through that biner without weight on it. If you simply pull the rope through the biner, this will put a micro twist in the rope on each pull. Do this enough times and you have serious memory kinks. The same thing happens at a sport lower off anchor when one or both of the lower off rings are not perpendicular to the wall. This typically happens when the bolt anchor has one single biner on each bolt (which are, for example, 12 inches apart and even with each other). Generally, you can undo the memory kinks by letting the rope hang free without the ends tied in. Typically, sport anchors and rappels offer these opportunities."

For his question, Palic won a Maxim Milky Way 9.9, 60-meter cord, retail value of $202.

For your shot at winning a rope, simply go to the Maxim LIfeline promo on the homepage of this site and post your question. Maxim's experts will answer, and once a month will select the best question and send its curious poster a free rope.