UKC

So I'm heading to Red Rocks, with a 50m and a 60 meter rope but some routes say 60 meter rope to abseil.

Is there a way round this or should I just avoid these routes

In reply to lm610:

If you tie your ropes together you'll get to the ground on stretch (ish). Or you'll have to take leaver biners.

Also if they say one 60m rope to abseil that's only a 30m abseil.

In reply to Kid Spatula: yeah, the topo states 2 x 60m rope abseil

In reply to lm610:

ab on the 60, use your 50 and a few long slings as a tag line to pull it back down

In reply to talon_guy:

How does that work? How can you pull it down if you've tied off the 60m rope?

In reply to Kid Spatula:

These comments are weird. What else would you do with do ropes besides tying them together? And what does the "ish" actually mean? Saying you'll reach the ground with stretch basically asserts the rap in question can be done with two 50 m ropes. I can't confirm that; for one thing there is more than one option for how to do the raps, and I've heard people speak of rope-stretching raps with two 60m ropes.

The route can be rappelled (from the top of pitch 4) with a single 60m rope. If you have two 60m ropes, you can do fewer rappels (two) and also stay off the climbing route (you are still rapping down routes/variations, but they are less likely to be occupied).

Rappelling with one rope 10m shorter than the other is loaded with problems. Most of these can be mitigated by knotting the ends of the rappel lines to guard against going off them, but Red Rocks is notorious for snagging ropes and knots in the ends will increase the likelihood that an end gets jammed somewhere. This isn't much of a problem most of the time, but Red Rocks can also be very windy, and if your ropes blow horizontally and jam off to the side, you could be in for a major epic.

In reply to lm610:

My enormous ego made me think this thread might be about me.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

I presume he means by fixing a krab to the 60m line, passing it through the anchor and then threading the other end of the 60m line through the krab. The 50m rope (with extension) is also tied to the krab to pull it down after the abb but you only abb on the 60m.

In reply to lm610:

Abseil schmabseil: a real man would downclimb it. Facing out.

In reply to lm610: lower your mate with the 60 to find out if it can be done with 55m... then ab off... if not buy a longer rope...

In reply to JIMBO:


Shiny New Gear - $$$
Flights to America - $$$$$$
Not abseiling off the ends of your rope - $Priceless

In reply to lm610: Thread one end of the 60 rope through the anchor, tie a figure eight on a bight. Clip two screwgates to this loop, then to rope on the other side of the anchor. Put your belay device on the rope so that the loop tightens as you weight it. Attach the 50 to the screwgates on the knot side, so that it can be used to pull the rope through when you are down. Clip a few long slings to the end of the 50 rope if it isn't long enough. I can post a pic or two when I'm back home if you want.

In reply to lm610:

I would either buy another 60m rope or cut 10m of your current 60m rope. I find climbing on ropes of an unequal length annoying.

In reply to metal arms:

Well knowing the ropes may not reach the ground you would be particularly stupid to allow yourself to go off the end. !