UKC

So I'm going to get a new rope. I have a 35m which is great for a lot our small crags, in the past I just used other peoples ropes on bigger routes. I do trad/sport in the UK and abroad occasionally. I was thinking about getting a 60m but after looking at some of the international locations I wonder if that will be too short. The last time I was in Chamonix sport climbing with my friends 70m the main memory is pulling sooo much rope up as a lot of the pitches weren't that long, but I guess a lot of people double up the pitches with more QD's...

Anyway I feel like if I go any longer than 60m I'll regret it for most of my climbing, and in the future should just get an 80m if I ever do any big international locations with long routes.

Is the answer just having 3 ropes?

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

It's well worth getting a skinny 70. If you get a decent one that's triple rated you can even tie into both ends and lead 35m pitches half rope style if necessary.

I'd get a second smaller rope for indoors/small stuff.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

You've not really said what you do most of. Buy the ideal rope/pair of ropes for that and accept the compromise in the other, less frequent scenarios.

Or buy lots of ropes.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

wow, sounds like your more sports than trad?

for me it's double ropes for trad once your steer away from basics single pitch stuff and u can use a single doubled up for shorter trad routes.

your question is hard to answer as it's person / climb type specific

I climb mainly trad, bit of sports plus winter ice.

I started out with a skinny single, then a half rope to use with my partners rope, my partner bought a 70m single for euro sports climbing, then I bought 2 X 60m singles for winter climbing

HTH Davey

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Yeh, 35m is too short for sports - get a 60m or a 70m single. For trad you want 50m or 60m half ropes really....

In reply to springfall2008:

After many years of climbing alpine routes I finally bought 100 meters single dynamic. It serves perfectly as single, double ,twin and it is good for solo climbing, which Im not very fond of. However, I better avoid abseiling this rope, but when you are in a group, your 100 may save a lot of time and what not else.

In reply to panz:

I can see it would work, but pulling one through for seconding or untangling it at a top out might be a nightmare...

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Yes!

Assuming that you still see yourself climbing in another 5+ years then there is no such thing as having too many ropes. You will wear them all out eventually so you might as well have the right rope available for each trip/climb.

I've been thinking about ropes a lot recently (just added a 40m x 8.7mm single to my collection) and can probably sum up my personal thinking as follows:
1 - use a single rope where sensible.
2 - use the shortest sensible length.
3 - going super-thin or long is a luxury best reserved for a second rope/pair.

My 'workhorse' ropes are:
30m x 10mm single for indoors/outcrops/scrambling
50m x 8.5mm doubles for Trad and Winter
60m x 9.8mm single for (UK) Sport

Just added:
40m x 8.7mm single for easier classics; Rock, Winter & Mountaineering

Top of the shopping list:
60m x 7.5mm doubles for Scottish ice routes and the Alps.

Future (for next overseas trip if/when it happens):
80m x c.9mm for Euro Sport.

Basically in each of the three areas I ideally want to have a basic option that I use most of the time and a longer, thinner higher performance (but less durable) option I just use when really needed. For keen climbers having a basic 30/35m, a 60m and thin 70/80m is likely to work really well.