UKC

Thinking of doing Rock Idol at Pembroke but iv had to shorten my half ropes recently and they are about 40/42m long. 

Can anyone confirm;

1 is the Abseil is possible  with 2x40m ( i do have sport rope i could use as fixed ab rope if need too?)

2 if the route is possible with 40m ropes or is there a way to split the route?  looks like a sloping shelf about 8m up?  

Iv actually climbed Zepplin, Brazen Buttress and Star Gate 10+years ago but cant recall specific of access or what the bottom of RI is like.

Rock Idol (E1 5a)Thanks in advance.

… yes; you could get down on 40m ropes but you'll have to find a suitable anchor as near to the edge as possible...

… and yes... if your belayer belays from the top of the sloping shelf as you suggest, you should be ok - I did it a couple of years back on 50m ropes from the boulders at the bottom and had plenty of rope left at the top to sort a belay...

Defo possible to do in 2 pitches - I took a massive whipper and ended up setting up a belay on that ledge to try and calm myself down and hand the lead to someone more competent.

I have a memory of a thread so big you could hug it about halfway up the route that you potentially could belay at. 

Did it in 1980 with 45 metre ropes........lol

Makes me ask the question why the 40 metre ropes?Why not buy somethign a bit longer....

Presumably if you start with 50m and chop the grotty bits off the ends?

Thanks for the advice, i was hoping the sloping ledge would be adequate.

I had two separate incidents in Alps that caused rope damage. One of the ropes was purchased in Chamnonix to replace yet another rope that had to be retired in the first incident and haven't got round to forking out for yet another two ropes! 

Three ropes in one trip and we didn't get anything worthwhile done! At the time we were just pleased to make it down alive and as my mate said gear loss is just the cost of climbing in the alps. 

The 40m pair are great for general cragging and super light/not bulky in a pack, i just need to be careful if the route description says 45m. 

Thanks.

Not to be a party pooper but I almost slid off the end of our 50m abbing in down strait gate. My hand and the prussic came off the rope whilst still a good 5m above the rockpool. Luckily the ab was stiff enough to stay in the belay plate. I stick knots on the ends of everything down to my laces now just in case. Anyway, just to say double check they do reach the bottom. The route description for Strait Gate says 45m and we had the ab set back 5 or 10m too. 

… if you go further left (looking out) so you're above the Brazen Buttress area the crag is not quite so high...

Was just going to suggest this. There's a block right next to the edge too. Route description is 36m as it starts higher up. At low tide you can scramble over the boulders etc. to Rock Idol. 

Ah fair enough. It was a while ago. That solves that. 

Brilliant, exactly the sort of information i was after.  So excited, its been far too long since last trip!