About six weeks ago Oak commented to me that the toxic oil from poison ivy/poison oak might evaporate if left, for example, in the back of a hot car for a few days.

I remembered his comment Sunday afternoon, when I took a brand new 120-foot Bandit rope out to the wilds of nearby Dawson Forest with Swamp Fox and Jersey Girl's new husband, David. Naturally, this brand new rope got dragged through some serious "leaves of three" stuff.

I passionately hate the idea of washing a new rope that doesn't show any dirt, etc., so I decided to put Oak's theory to a test. The rope is loosely stacked into a black toolbox in the back of my pickup truck, which is sitting in the blazing sun all day. I plan to leave it there for two or three more days.

I may be a little bit foolish, but in a few days I'll climb on it without applying any of the ivy blocking lotions to my skin.

So, my question is, how many other climbers are willing to risk it all to prove or disprove Oak's hypothesis?

ok lets clarify something - "Jersey Girl's new husband, David." that is "NEW TO BE"

AND - since I am one of those persons that does react to PI and have several bouts of it a year, I would not take the chance. if i had PROOF that not washing it would give it, pi, to me, i would wash - other wise throw caution to the tree gods and not.

and David thanks you for the time and the climb.

jz - on the ground to much

Ooookaaay -- let me correct that to "Jersey Girl's numero uno friend David," who just happens to be well on his way toward being an awesome climber -- and a genuinely nice guy, too.

I am skeptical on the heat treatment, but it's worth a shot. You'll never know until you try. Thanks for being the guinea pig on this one, Bill. I am definatey a Toxicodendron~a~phobe, and I'll not be participating in the experiment

No problem, 'bird. I understand that sweet Alice Lou, our quarter-ton patron goddess of recreational tree climbers everywhere, has a new cure for poision ivy rash. She's lookin' for a sweet hunk to test it, and she mentioned your name....!

I ain't lettin her give me another grits bath, no way, no how! Tell her I moved to Spain or somethin!

Any chemists in the house? Question being the stability of urushiol in elevated temperature environments.

Urushiol


R = (CH2)14CH3 or
R = (CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)5CH3 or
R = (CH2)7CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)2CH3 or
R = (CH2)7CH=CHCH2CH=CHCH=CHCH3 or
R = (CH2)7CH=CHCH2CH=CHCH2CH=CH2 and others

-moss

The good news -- I'm going to take a chance with it sometime today, with a DRT climb to about 70 feet or so in a favorite tulip poplar here at the farm. DRT will probably be better for this than other climbing methods because the hands and forearms are likely to touch every foot of the affected rope. It normally takes about two days for the rash to show up good on my skin, so I might have some indication by late Sunday or Monday; let all of you know what happens.

The bad news -- the link that Moss put in his post indicates that the boiling point of urushiol is somewhere just above 200 degrees Celcius, which isn't much below the melting point of a good poly-nylon climbing rope . The black toolbox in the back of my pickup can get awfully hot inside, but nowhere near the temp that'd probably cause the poison ivy oils to begin to evaporate.

Worst case scenario: I will have ugly red rashes on my hands and arms for the next 10 days, and then fly to northern California to rub the rope all over Oak's torso.

Count me out on this experiment as well. I just look at PI and I get a nasty rash everywhere.

Good try Mr. Bill but I think you are going to get a severe case of poison ivy rash from your poison ivy Rope. Soap and plenty of water is the only solution the rest is well weir stuff.
You can always throw the rope inside the oven and cook it overnight at 200 degrees and the pick up the pieces and dump them in the trash, that will also get rid of urushiol oils permanently.

It's been a little over three days since I intentionally exposed my hands and forearms. So far, no rash.

I don't know if the heat treatment -- leaving the rope in a black toolbox for nearly four days in the hot Georgia summertime -- caused the urushiol to evaporate or if I just got lucky.

I plan to keep using Oak's heat treatment theory on climbing gear until I get a urushiol-induced rash or until somebody with an organic chemistry background can disprove it.

Dug around a bit on this. For those who don't like reading nerd writing, the short version of what follows is "it might work, but I don't really know".

The room temperature vapor pressure is really low for urushiol, and the boiling point is a lot higher than the boiling point of water - so letting the rope sit around at room (or Bemidji) temperatures won't help a bit. A black toolbox in Georgia, on the other hand, won't get the temperature to boiling (at 470C you might be melting the rope if it did) but it'll probably raise the vapor pressure quite a bit. At those temperatures, the stuff would probably oxidize faster too. Oddly, even though the stuff doesn't dissolve in water very easily, it supposedly evaporates more easily in the presence of water - so a wet rope might shed it more quickly (or just cool the rope so the other good stuff doesn't happen so fast.

Thanks Mark. This is interesting research, and for some strange reason a good bit of it makes sense to me -- must be my liberal arts education...!

The toolbox baking method might be valid but the testing that was done is lacking.

Next time, take the 'infected' rope climbing before cooking. Wait to see if the rash shows up. If not, cooking won't be validated.

Hey Tom, since you're the one who brought it up, why don't you be the first to try it. I've already done my part...!