UKC

Hi me and my mate are buying our first load of trad gear to start going out climbing on our ones. After researching all the gear quite extensively we're still scratching our heads of rope choice. All advice appears to say getting a pair of 50 m half ropes is the best option for UK trad but obviously increases expense. So just looking for a couple answers:

Can one half rope be used lead climbing in climbing gyms?

And besides rope drag, what are the big downfalls of using a 50 m single rope for UK trad climbing?

Cheers,
Aaron

In reply to big_ron:

Using only one half rope to lead at the wall wouldn't be particular smart, you'll trash it really quickly.
You'll be restricted on the number of crags where you can climb due to the shorter length of abseils compared to half ropes (places like Sergeant Crag Slabs and Dinas Mot come to mind, other people will be able to think of other crags too).
My recommendation in terms of ropes would be to get a short single (the correct length for your local walls) and then to get a pair of these:
https://rockrun.com/products/edelrid-sinai-pro-dry-8-3mm-x-60m-pair

In reply to big_ron:

Might be helpful to know where you're planning to climb. You'll see more or less advantage from half ropes in different areas.

I don't think you could use a half rope for indoor climbing. It would be aggravatingly stretchy and most walls would stop you if they noticed because it's not what the rope is designed or rated for.

In reply to spenser:

I came across this deal earlier. Will probably go for it and just stick to top roping and boldering in doors for the time being.

Cheers

In reply to Luke90:

mainly north wales and the peaks I'd say. yeah i wont consider using a half indoors if thats what we go for

In reply to big_ron:

I started with a cheap 50m single for cragging and indoor and it served us just fine for a while. If you continue, it's inevitable you'll end up like everybody else where you have a full set of ropes for different types of routes. We take 2 x 35m serentity ropes to the crags but 2 x 60 halves on the multipitch. No different to a toolkit, theres no single supertool that does everything.

In reply to big_ron:
Get out man!!! Its summer. Climbing is an outdoor activity!

a 50m single rope is perfectly fine for trad climbing. in fact its ?????errr traditional!

In reply to big_ron:

Half ropes much more versatile outdoors.

Buy a cheap full rope to trash at the wall - recently picked up a Mammut 10mm x 50m from GoOutdoors for £47.

In reply to big_ron:
A half rope would normally not be allowed in a climbing wall, but having just researched them a bit + bought one, i found there are several tripple rated, i.e. they pass as single, half, and twin.
But for the wall you want a cheap, hard wearing, 10mm 40 or 50m rope. A 30 would do at many walls too, best check what they say, it's probably bullshit but you might have to go along with it, eg a wall i went to said a 30 was ok so i bought one, but then was told i needed a 40 or 50 for longer routes, went up a long un on my 60, marked length used when lowered to ground, found i'd used only 26m, when not stretched!

For trad, the Beal Cobra 2 8.6mm have the lowest falling force transmitted to gear, so its less likely to rip, break if small, also rated to take 16 uiaa falls, and are unicore. Read their spec + compare. Hard to beat. 50m ok but if buy 60m u could chop the falling ends after wear in a year or 3 depending on how much you get into going out and still have a 50, or you could use 1 x 60 as 2 halves on short crags, although u will have to call for slack on the left or right instead of blue vs pink!
If you link 2 to abseil make sure u know whether or knot they r the same / different lengths. + don't firget to not the ends for safety.

If u buy 1 half each it shares cost. Some people supply their own pair of halves, so they always know both the wopes history.

In reply to big_ron:

I started off using a 50m single, and that worked fine for easy stuff on most crags around wales and the peaks. You'll have issues abseiling at some places in the pass, tremadog, etc, but usually you can walk around if you need to. Also works fine down the wall and for sport climbing.
These days i use a pair of 60m halves like everyone else.

In reply to big_ron:

Using a single rope for trad climbing is not a great idea, unless the route is straight of course.
But even then, you lose the option to abseil off and pull your ropes, as a single needing more than half rope length for ab will have to be knotted to the top anchor.
Using a single on even sightly meandering route lines, in the event of a fall, or even just as you climb, the angles will potentially lift / pull lower gear out, unless you extend everything enough to get a straight line.

In reply to big_ron:

I think starting off climbing trad with a 50m or 60m single is fine. You can use it at walls and for sport routes as well. Down the line it can end up as an abseil rope for sea cliffs.

At some stage, if you stay into climbing, you'll own some half ropes.

In reply to Rock to Fakey:

I disagree: by default I climb on a single unless the route clearly dictates otherwise, and I rarely have issues with rope drag pulling properly extended gear out - or with rope drag in general. The key is 'properly extended', and climbing on a single will certainly teach you the benefits of judiciously extending gear. It doesn't have to end up a straight line, as long as you avoid zig-zagging all over the pitch!

In reply to big_ron:

A 10mm 60m single is a good starting rope. Make some extendable (alpine) draws to help minimise drag, plus you can use it for most sport routes too.

I've been using a single (beal tiger 10mm unicore) for the past year or so and it's been fine for most routes. I've just got a pair of Cobra IIs and they are great ropes

As others have mentioned, get a cheap rope for the wall, I think my mammut 40m was about £50 and also works for shorter sport/trad routes.

Cheers
Steve

In reply to big_ron:

Lots of advice. Here's some more.

1. Indoor walls usually won't let you use half ropes for safety reasons.
2. Trad routes tend to 'wander' a bit so having two ropes helps stop rope drag and useful for longer abseils.
3. Having two ropes also helps you to fix higher protection with one of the ropes, whilst the other one
will be protecting you from a longer fall which can happen when dragging up just a single rope.

I recently bought a Beal 9.8mm Karma single rope from GO Outdoors (15% extra sale at the moment) and it handles like a half. Two of them would be fine, or a half 9mm and a single 9.8mm, which you can still use at indoor walls.

Worked OK for me on Monday.

In reply to Rock to Fakey:


You´ d be suprised at the routes climbed before double-rope technique became the norm! And what people climb in countries where it still isn´ t standard practice.

In reply to big_ron:
Personally I use a single 40m Beal Karma 9.8 Go-Outdoors special which is generally fine on most single pitch routes, just buy some longer quickdraws and some slings. My mate insists you need to have 60m half ropes on all trad routes but dealing with the birds nests and coiling soon gets pretty tedious. I think a lot of the hype over half ropes is following the crowd - a bit like buying a VW campervan.

If you want to get one half rope, you could tie in at the mid-point and double it up indoors - but its not ideal.

In reply to big_ron:

If you're seriously into climbing (you go a lot) you're going to need a variety of ropes for various things, no way around it. One compromise is getting 2 x 60m triple ropes, it would cover most of your needs but not be as durable as a full time indoor wall rope and would need a lot of flaking on small walls (gets very annoying after a while).

Alternatively get a 35m single for indoors/small outdoor crags and a pair of half ropes for proper outdoor trad, and then if you ever go sport climbing abroad you'll need a longer single, but cross that bridge when you come to it.

In reply to jimtitt:

Indeed, I had several australians look at me like I was some kind of alien when I produced my half ropes in Arapiles, I equally gave an australian a similar look when I was handed a 1.2m sling draw!

In reply to brianjcooper:

"3. Having two ropes also helps you to fix higher protection with one of the ropes, whilst the other one will be protecting you from a longer fall which can happen when dragging up just a single rope. "

You can get round this by first clipping a long sling to the runner and running the rope through this which prevents a long fall to below a previous point. Then clip a shorter extender to the runner (use open extender and long sling's krab if no more space in a bolt). Prob unclip from long sling. Pain if you had to do it a lot though.

I now try and and maximize my enjoyment by avoiding the effort involved in carrying 2 ropes up and down to a crag, especially in the mountains, but am not doing difficult routes. Can see apparently 2x60m of rope to do a short single pitch climb which somehow seems excessive, though of course it depends on the climb and how many different ropes one can afford in the first place.

Many people who would never climb on a single half rope in effect do so using double rope with spaced runners on short routes as sometimes only one runner/rope can stop them hitting the ground (this may be more likely if more stretch than a single rope). More risk of half rope being cut too. Of course the many advantages of doubles still apply.

In reply to big_ron:

Another possibility to add to what other people have said: one option might be to get 50 or 60m of a triple-rated rope, like the Edelweiss Performance, which would be much cheaper than two decent half ropes. Example:

https://www.bergzeit.co.uk/edelweiss-performance-9-2-unicore-everdry-climbi...

You can double it up (with the second tying in at the middle) and use it as two half ropes on anything short enough (which will cover a lot of stuff in the Peak), or use it as a single when you need the full length.

Disadvantages: it's heavier for one person to carry, you get more impact force than from a real half rope, and you don't have different colours to distinguish left and right ropes when using it doubled up.

I've had one for a few years (70m and eye-searingly pink, neither of which would have been my first choice -- there were reasons why it made sense at the time), and while I've just acquired a Beal Cobra as well, the Edelweiss has served me very well and been impressively durable.