Just scale down with rope slung around the pole.

Climbing rope is pretty tough and what's the alternative?

Climbing ropes are made to survive friction like that.

The pole is wider around than you may think. It seemed too wide for their hands to meet. And even if they COULD reach each other's hands....they were exhausted, and thousands of feet up. Between the sheer fatigue factor....and sweat....and muscle cramping.....hunger....dehydration....muscle fatigue......the abrasiveness of having your arms and legs wrapped around a rusty pole, etc.......they would not have made it even 50 feet. (And that's assuming the pole had no obstacles in their path the entire way down, which it actually did have). Their were those satellite dishes in the way....cables running across their path at certain points, etc.

Try this.....try finding a monkey bars at a playground, and go hang by your arms for even 3 minutes, and see if you can last before the fatigue in your muscles causes you to loose your grip. Now.....try that at 2,000 ft in the air....in the wind....scared sh_tless....already exhausted from the climb up......sweaty hands.....etc, etc......

People, it's natural to grasp at straws and try to come up with solutions, no matter how ridiculous. But the whole premise of the movie was....their wasn't a solution. THAT....is what made the movie compelling. Sometimes there simply is no feasible solution.

The problem is how do you sling it around the pole from the platform they were standing on? They both would have to be standing beneath it in order to wrap it around and that was just physically impossible.