scp-144 Tibetan Rope to heaven - object class safe
Item #: SCP-144
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-144 requires the presence of only one Foundation observer
to monitor and issue updates on the condition of SCP-144. The Tibetan Buddhist monks who
maintain the site live in solitude and secrecy. A heavy mist condenses around the small mountain
that hosts SCP-144, which itself resides in a small valley between two greater mountains,
Mount [DATA EXPUNGED] and [DATA EXPUNGED]. This mist is present most of the year and
the thin rope itself is only fairly visible to the human eye within a distance of 3 km.
Air travel within a 70 km radius has been restricted with the cooperation of the Chinese
government.
Description: Located in a monastery atop a small Tibetan mountain, SCP-144 is a thin,
taut hempen rope, only 1.2 cm thick, attached to a ring of jade bound to the floor of an
atrium in the temple (known as "Base Camp" amongst researchers). The other end of SCP-144
extends straight upward many kilometers up into the sky to a yet-to-be-explored satellite
in geostationary orbit above the Earth at an altitude of about 39 km (over 22 miles
away, known as "the Summit" amongst researchers).
Several times a year, a monk of the temple ascends up the rope several hundred meters
in a ritual of spiritual enlightenment. The monks report that to this day, only one person
by the name of [DATA EXPUNGED] has ever been killed during the ascension. Throughout the
centuries, several climbers have disappeared, yet the monks believe that one day they will
return, bringing greater understanding and enlightenment with them.
Carbon dating of rope fibers put SCP-144 at just over 1400 years old. Foundation anthropologists
believe that the rope and the tradition of climbing it began within the rituals of an
ancient, dead religion before Emperor Songtsän Gampo brought Buddhism to Tibet. At that time,
it is believed that the rope was several kilometers longer. The attendant monks say that the jade
ring was added in the early 9th century by the Ralpacan to keep seasonal winds from picking
up the rope and swinging it throughout the country side. Several times a year, the head
monks untie the rope from the loop of jade and reposition the knot. Research has shown
that in recent years, the rope has moved skyward at a rate of about 180 cm per year and is
slightly accelerating at a rate of a hundredth of a centimeter/year². With only a few hundred
meters of rope left, the monks are unsure of what do to when it reaches the end. Some
hope to add length by attaching separate sections of rope to the original, while others believe
that new rope won't have the strength of the old.
Research has been unable to explain how plant fiber rope has been able to survive 1400 years
and maintain such tensile strength at such extreme temperatures and conditions of the
upper atmosphere and space that people are able to climb it, let alone support its own
enormous weight against itself (all 39 km worth of rope). If the Summit is accelerating
away from earth, its pull on SCP-144 is also unexplained.
The Summit has only been properly imaged by ground-based telescopes, which show the rope
of SCP-144 going up and over the edge of a large asteroid-like rock, several hundred
meters in width. Satellites have been unable to picture the opposite ("Dark") side of the
Summit. It has been reasoned that orbiting satellites are designed to image ground-based
locations or distant space objects at much greater distances than other neighboring orbital
satellites. Researchers disagree about why images of the dark side of the Summit return
blurry and unfocused, rendering the dark side unknown.
Addendum #144-4: Several class D personnel were offered immediate release if they were
to climb to the summit, if possible, and return. While multiple warnings were issued by the
monks attending the rope, no resistance was offered.
Of the 6 personnel who accepted, 4 returned to Base Camp complaining of difficulty breathing
and lack of air, 1 slammed into Base Camp at terminal velocity, presumably after losing
his grip from fatigue, and the last has not yet returned.