>>173616When you fall, your weight increases. Just look at pic related: this parachute may be made of paracord, there isn't just one strand holding you to the chute.
550 pound isn't enough for climbing. It could hold your weight in non-climbing situations, where your life doesn't depend on it, more likely your ass, but that's it. As for climbing, it would work as long as you don't fall, nor put too much weight on it, which kind of defeats its purpose.
The cord I myself use to climb can withstand falls of over 12 kN, that's 1200 kg, or 2700 pounds, five times the strength of paracord. And that's pretty much all it needs, because a well trained human can only withstand a shock of 12 kN, which also happens to be the maximum shock allowed for a parachute.
Which leads to the next point: climbing cord is quite dynamic, which allows it to reduce the shock of a fall. A parachute is something different, it uses static cord, but as it is tied in many different places and progressively slows you down, it is dynamic in nature.
So if you were to use 5 strands of paracord to compensate for their low breaking point, you'd have to tie them at many different places, and at different heights aswell. If they were all tied to the same point, it would stop your fall, but the shock would kill you.
Really, don't count on paracord to support your weight.
