UKC

Hi all!
I'm looking for some advice on what would be the best rope for all round mountaineering that I could use for climbing and winter mountaineering and possibly even ice climbing at some point! (Ambitious I know!)
I've seen some ropes I could do with advice on such as -
Edelrid Swift
Beal Joker
Beal virus
The beal virus I know is a new rope and I cannot find any reviews of it anywhere ! It says that it's good for multipurpose use however the beal website has recently changed and no longer gives you an idea as to what the rope is good for! Any advice on any of these would be greatly appreciated and I am more than open to any new suggestions you guys may have!
Thanks in advance!

In reply to Masonmarsh98:

Hi Mate,

Are you planning on using double ropes or single? That Beal joker does look like a nice rope. 9.1 seems really small for a single rope but apparently its passed all the tests.

If its general moutaineering including winter and single ropes, I use a Mammut Galaxy superdry, 10mil.

I've used it for a couple of winter seasons and also summer rock as a single rope. Its a good multi purpose single rope. Also used it for glacier travel and simulclimbing. Its been a good rope for me and without any major falls still has some life left in it.

I did purchase double ropes for multi pitching last year and it is good to interchange if you are doing a lot of different acitvities with it, otherwise your rope won't last as long as it might.

If you do buy the joker I'd also like to know what its like.

Have fun!

In reply to Masonmarsh98:
The Edelrid Swift and Beal Joker are basically very skinny (so not very durable) single ropes that also pass the half/twin criteria. I would not use them for mountaineering unless reducing weight was the most important consideration, and I was willing to take the extra risks of cutting them on an edge (i.e. falling off was unlikely).

If you want to do sport or indoor, then you will need a single rope. For everything else double ropes will do - it is very common to use a single half rope for mountaineering-type things where you won't be falling off (hopefully!) like scrambling or moving together, and a long half rope can always be doubled up. For short trad (i.e. grit) or short pitches (tricky steps while scrambling) a 50m half rope doubled will get you up at least 20m (losing 1-2m in the knots at either end); a 60m half rope doubled will probably get you up a substantial fraction of less-exciting trad routes :P Obviously a 60m rope is a lot of extra coils to carry if you are going to use it moving together Alpine style.

For winter stuff fully dry-treated half or twin ropes are, I believe, the norm - helps prevent the ropes freezing up.

You can of course use a single rope for anything (trad/winter), since that's what most countries do, but I would prefer something a bit fatter.

My very brief guess is that the Beal Virus is just a very basic, cheap single rope - equally adequate for everything (particularly indoors/sport), although probably missing the dry treatment you might want for trad/winter (if it's raining I don't do sport?).

In reply to Chris Huntington:

Yes I had also seen some great reviews of the Mammut Galaxy ! Might have to do some more research on that one. Thank you very much for your advice!

In reply to andrewmcleod:

I was slightly worried about the thickness of the ropes! I like the idea of a 10mm rope far more such as the Mammut Galaxy as Chris suggested. Thank you very much for your advice though it is all appreciated and took on board!