Notes on cordage.

Paracord is workable for everything. You can use it whole for light climbing but I wouldn't unless there were no other option - it's really too weak for that. You can pull out the inner strands and use them for tying out shelter tarps or fishing or even unravel it an use the individual strands for sewing. For all these reasons it is wonderful stuff!

Masons twine is close to equivalent of one of the inner strands of paracord. It is much cheaper and will serve many light uses. Much smaller diameter makes it possible to pack more in less space. Also it is usually availabe in neon colors which makes it useful for trail marking and the like.

Spectra cord is much more expensive than paracord and much stronger. You can get spectra cord the diameter of masons twine that has tensile strength around 2500 pounds. If you used this for climbing you would probably be stopped in a fall for just as long as it takes the cord to slice through you. If you have a climbing harness then you might do well with this.

Don't forget the other cordage equivalents that you will probably want to be carrying, nylon thread, snare wire, dental floss, wire-ties and zip-ties.


I carry some generic nylon twine for lashing and general purpose use such as lashing Christmass trees to the top of the car or constructing a debris hut shelter that might stand a chance of surviving a storm. I also carry some light weight masons twine for tying up packages for mailing or marking trail or repairing / replacing broken belts or straps. I also carry some real paracord, around 10' around my PSK because of it's versatility. I also carry around 20 yds of HD nylon thread wound around the needle in my PSK. I also carry a small spool of dental floss and 50 yds of monofiliment line (haven't gotten around to replacing this with spiderwire yet. I also carry around 10' of snare wire. My larger kits all have a selection of wire-ties and zip-ties and coat hanger wire and in my BOB I have some real climbing rope and my vehicle kit contains tow-straps and tie-down straps.