UKC

I've tried to find an answer to this question on earlier threads, without success. If you are doing a mountain route that doesn't involve any long pitches or long abseils, in the interests of saving weight and the purchase price of a new rope, is it safe to use a single half or twin rope doubled up? By that I mean taking a 60m half or twin rope, folding it in half, and climbing on the two 30m "strands". I have found older threads where this technique was discussed for single ropes, and most people seemed to agree it's safe in that case, but what about when using thinner ropes? I worry that using two strands of the same rope may not be as safe as two separate ropes of the same diameter, but I don't know enough about the physics involved to be sure one way or the other. Any ideas?

In reply to Prague:

It would only be weaker at the knot (in the middle), where you have one knot rather than two. Whether this is significant I don't know, but given that ropes mostly fail over an edge I'd doubt it.

I've climbed in this manner. I wouldn't recommend it. I've often wished for more rope than 30m on routes I assumed would need less...

In reply to Prague:


Ive often double ropes over on single pitches. But I’ve not tried it on multi pitch climbs. if all the pitches are under 25 meters, I cant see it being a problem. the only draw back i can see is that if you are swapping leads one climber gets the neat double end and the other gets the huge figure of 8 tied in the middle. Wich is the weakest point in the rope.

In reply to Prague:
No problems, other than rope management - "slack on red! No the other red!"

In reply to Prague:

I've done this. I don't see why it should be an issue apart from the rope colour as someone else mentioned; but then you aren't so far apart so can see better anyway.
Re the single knot in the middle; you can always tie two, or use a "bunny" knot.

In reply to King Rat: I was thinking about easy alpine routes that are 'scrambly' in nature, where you will be moving together for most of the climb with just short sections of pitched climbing to worry about. So swapping leads shouldn't be a problem in this case. Although I can see the point about finding out halfway up the route that you really need a longer rope than 30m. Also the point about calling for slack. Seems like safely holding a fall isn't really a problem though, which was my main concern.

In reply to Prague:

if using a half rope I suppose you would alternate clips if the route is bolted ?
and if you are lowering off a sports route you have climbed with half ropes, you should clip in lower off with both ropes ?

In reply to Prague:

I was intrested to see that the Beal Joker is marked up with 3 ratings, as a Single, Half and Twin rope. Different fall forces and max number of falls in each case (logical as the tests are different).

I can only assume that it is to cover the circumstance you describe.