UKC

Hi all, 

I'm sure this topic has been covered but I'll post it anyway. Looking to buy my first rope, for indoors and out, and have no idea where to start. Can anyone recommend a good starting rope that isn't going to break the bank and is pretty good? 

Any info and advice would be great, 

thanks!
 

Some good deals from tte cheaper retailers at the moment in your spec eg 50m 10mm Mammut Galazy Classic at £49 form Go Outdoors.

How high are your local crags & indoor walls? If only sub 20m, then Berfreunde will often have really good bargains on their Brgfreunde Edition 40-50m ropes. But of course you could just get a 60m rope and call it good. 

Thanks for the advice, 50m would be enough length for a first rope?

I think I may get a 60m as you said to call it good. I think that would be the best bit, thanks!

Depends on your location, but 50m would be ample long enough for 95% of all single pitch trad routes in the UK. Some sport routes and some walls may require a 60m just depends on where you climb. Never underestimate how much hassle that extra 10m is going to be when your coiling it, carrying it, taking in the slack etc. By the time you move onto the Multi pitch, you'll probably be looking at getting some half ropes anyway!

Thanks for this, thats the kind of advice that I wanted! I did go for a 60m rope in the end but it'll be a good learning curve with taking it places.
Thanks again!

Maybe get a rope bag.  The ones with the bucket at the centre of the tarp are great, you just pick up the corners of the tarp give it a shake and the rope is away.   No messing about coiling ropes so 60m isn't any more hassle than 50m.    The worst wear is always a few metres from the end of the rope where it comes tight across the quickdraw after a fall and an extra 10m means you can cut the worn bit off and get more life from the rope (remembering that after you cut it the middle marker won't be in the middle of the rope any more).

A 60m rope is a decent investment that will last years if cared for. To that end I would suggest also getting a 30m rope to beat up at the wall and for shorter cragging, if it gets worn out or a nick in the middle it's no great loss.

Jk

My ropes rarely last anything like  2 years continuous use before I want to replace them for leading hard (for me) stuff. I mainly climb trad. Sports ropes must need retiring earlier from lead rope use with all those cumulative falls reducing the energy absorption capability. When we did El Cap last summer a brand new rope was looking more like a heavily used year old rope at the end. I use my old long 10mm ropes as abseil ropes and older half ropes to lead easy stuff so preserve my main lead ropes for a longer time (some of these older ropes are cut to shorter lengths to keep weight down.. eg a 40m half for The Cuillin Ridge).

I guess we just have a different definition of worn out or the usage is different. The last couple of ropes I've bought I've gone halves with a mate on a short wall/sport/cragging beater around 10mm and we had about 2 years out of each them, 2-3 sessions a week, well over 500 mostly small falls.

Hauling and jumaring on ropes on Yosemite granite screws them up fast!

jk

There is no guess. I would never use a rope thats taken anything like a hundred falls let alone 500. The BMC rope guide from memory recommends considering retirement after a single fall > FF1 (which to me is a bit OTT). However dynamic properties decline with use, especially after many falls, and if you want to risk excessive shock loading of your body that may result from a big fall I think you are foolish. I remember some Italian paper that indicated a year's heavy use degraded the dynamic properties to a third of a new rope (in a standard test rig... normal belays would be more dymamic)

You're welcome to throw your rope away after a single use if you're uncomfortable with it. I was never uncomfortable with mine.

What do you mean risk, I actually took countless falls on it with no perceptible difference in the impact on me over time or between older and newer ropes I had in circulation, I certainly never came near feeling the rope would hurt me in a fall for lack of stretch. If a rope was getting stiff and uncomfortable to fall on I'd have stopped climbing on it.

As you say, we don't climb in a test rig.

jk