Primitive Yucca Rope Strength Test

Hesperoyucca whipplei (chaparral yucca) is a common species of yucca found in the rugged southern California hills. Yucca has been an extremely important plant for the local indigenous people for thousands of years. Yucca leaves are made of strong fibers that can be twisted and made into rope, cordage, sandals, baskets and other useful items. In this video I make ten feet (tres meters) of yucca rope and then test the strength to see if it can support my weight as I hang from a tree while holding onto just the rope.

Making this rope took longer than I anticipated. The most time-consuming task was scraping and cleaning the leaves. I spent about four hours doing that task alone. My overall production speed from harvesting the leaves to having the finished product was about one foot of rope per hour. The ten feet of rope I made took approximately ten hours to complete.

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Camera: Nikon D7200
Sound: Zoom H4N
Editing: Final Cut Pro X on MacBook Air
Location: southern California, USA

Music credits:

Drums of the Deep by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/