UKC

Hey up,

My 50m half ropes are getting on in life and I saw a good deal for a pair of 70m half ropes. 140m of rope is a lot to carry, though! I was wondering: would you chop them down and, if so, by how much?

I mostly UK trad climb in the Lakes and Wales, with some plans for Scotland. Going to the Dolomites or far flung places (Spain, Norway?!) would be great, but I've no imminent plans (who does, right now?). I don't do a lot of winter climbing (south of the border, who does?). I was thinking of cutting them down to 60m ropes for that odd awkward pitch that's slightly longer, but a pair of 10m ropes seems pretty useless. A pair of 20m ropes and a pair of 50m ropes sounds pretty useful (grit/short crags + standard multipitching). Or... 15m and 55?

What would you advise?

Many thanks in advance!

You will find a better deal on 60's eventually - just wait for it. 

Seems wasteful, and hassle to chop - and you'll lose the middle marker. 

I had exactly this a few years ago. 70s were cheaper than 60s so I bought the 70s figuring I could chop them. I never did, and 6 years on I just bought another pair of 70s.
I found it's fine for what I do, which sounds the same as what you do. And those few times when the extra 10m comes in useful, it's really useful. Those occasions more than make up for the (minimal, really) extra faff and weight. Happens more than you would expect in N Wales and the lakes.

Other opinions are available.

They are bound to be more than 70m long. Probably 72-73m (plenty of old discussions on here about ropes always being longer and never shorter than advertised). 

I'd cut 26.5m (no joke, I've put some consideration into this!) off each then you'll have a pair of 44-49m which is far enough from 60m that you can justify getting a pair of 60m when you see them at a good price. 

I used to have a pair of 60m plus a 42m single "wall rope" that often went out onto grit (this was cut from a 70m single, me and a mate divided the cost and as he is more OCD than me, he wanted exactly 30m!). 
Then I got a pair of 50m and chopped my 60m into two pairs of 30m and gave one pair away. 
So I had a nice choice of rope - my single to keep things simple on non-meandering routes, and the 30m half ropes for short routes that warranted half-ropes, and the 50s for longer stuff. 

If you chop your 70m half ropes to 60m you will as you say be sacrificing 2x 10m which seems a bit of a waste. 

I think 20m is a bit on the short side even for grit. 


Or follow Longsufferingropeholder's advice which I don't really disagree with!  

Ha! I like your theory of cutting the ropes until they're not at all what I want, so I can then buy something else in addition...! But, I'm not entirely convinced. My partner is already annoyed by the amount of kit lying around the spare room!

Forgot to say, there's quite a few places where I get away with just one folded in half. 35m opens a lot more doors than 30m if you're not OCD about different colours.
(Not grit though, these are skinny nice ropes. I have a cheap, fat single for the grit).
I'd encourage you to give them a chance at 70. Cut them later if I'm wrong.

I'd stick with 70s.  Use one folded in half for short climbs.  When the ends of the rope inevitably become worn, then chop 5m off each end.

I have an old pair that have been cut down to about 24m.  They're fantastic for shorter grit routes, but at taller sections of Stanage where the anchors are a little way back I've very nearly been caught out. 

If I was aiming for a dedicated new pair of grit doubles, I'd aim for 30m.  Maybe find someone else of a similar mind and buy a pair of either 60m or 70m doubles, and cut them both to give two pairs of differently coloured ropes?  Not that this helps with the main question...

Yes you want a pair of 30s for grit ideally. Love mine and they’ll make do on pretty much any route except maybe a couple in Millstone and Houghton Quarry.. but then you can always do it the old way and pitch them! Even coped with them in Ireland on multi pitch, but only just. 

Sounds good, in fact I do this fairly often, as I also have one of those fancy triple rated (?) 70m ropes, I think I am a bit naughty as it’s meant to be a single or for TWINS rather than HALVES. 

who's got the deal on?

Rock + Run

Not if you cut 5m off each end

Then you'd have 2 pairs of bouldering ropes 😀

I assume you're tongue in cheek but just in case you're not, triple rated ropes have been tested for use as single, halves and twins - so you're all good.

You've convinced me - thanks. But, if my climbing partners moan about carrying all that rope into the crag and hauling it up the climb, I'm going to be pointing them in your direction, just so you know

I wasn't being deliberately tongue in cheek but you make a good point, the clue is in the name! It's more that I am not sure EXACTLY which rope it is - it was donated to me by a friend who had bought it some years before, with dreams of doing loads of southern Europe multi-discipline climbing which never came to fruition due to life changes - it was virtually unused but somehow the wraparound labelling on the tips had come off! So it may be double rated rather than triple. I am going to look into it all this evening and see if I can find some clues! Thanks

Solution to that is easy. "I'll take the ropes then, you carry the gear". Win-win.

Or a lot of abseil tat

Email me a picture, I can probably tell you what it is. I work in the industry and rope geekery has reached pathetically high levels.