Interstingly my first emergecy use of that rope was to go up. I had descended into a blind ravine of loose talus and suddenly found myself in very loose rock looking over a 100 foot drop. I sat down very carefully and grabbed the end of a broken bush about 2 inches in diameter as the only solid hold. I pulled the rope out of the outside pocket where it lived and tied one end to the stump and one to me. I then very carefully crawled back up the slope to another stump and retied the rope. Then I had to go back down holding onto the rope, untie it, tie it to me and carefully reascend. Then I repeated the process one more time to safety.

There were several life threatening stages - the first crawl up, what If I had slipped over the edge with a small rope tied to my leather belt? Incidentally, thats one reason why people used to have rivited belts with double "hookers", so they could hold your weight. Yep I have also rappeled on that same leather belt looped through the eyes of my jeans. This was not a good example of danger management and since I didn't slip, I guess I really didn't need the rope, but without it I might have just sat there screaming for help.

If somebody goes through an ice bridge and lives and you want to get them out of a stream, a good piece of rope is gonna help.
Jim