UKC

I'm looking at getting a pair of half ropes, mainly for use on grit. 50m should be sufficient and I don't need dry treatment. I climb at a fairly basic level, so I don't think I need anything very high-spec. £150ish should do it.

I'm thinking either the Mammut Phoenix or Beal Legend. The Phoenix is slightly thinner (8mm vs 8.3mm) and lighter (42g/m vs 47g/m) but otherwise there doesn't seem much difference. I have a Beal single rope and its been fine for me, but I've never used Mammut gear.

Any recommendations? Alternatives at around the £150/pair price-point?

This isn't a directly helpful answer, but if they're mainly for grit then 30m should be plenty. If you can find someone else looking for a grit pair then each buying a 60m and cutting them in half would give you an ideal set of ropes for <£100! 

You can get a pair of these for £130 from Decathlon

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/rappel-86mm-x-50m-orange-id_8495246.html

I've been using a pair for a couple of years now after always using Mammuts which now cost nearly £130 each. They are good ropes and they handle just as well as the Mammuts did.

Ignore the name "abseiling", they aren't abseiling ropes at all. They are proper dynamic climbing ropes, it's just an unnecessary translation of the innapropriate French name "Rappel". Decathlon are a bit odd at times.

Speaking of which you can buy the blue one online but not the orange, however it appears the orange one is in stock at Stockport at the moment, though not the blue, you'd have to get that online. Bizarre!

Thanks, thats a good point. I'd like the option for longer routes though, so I'm happy to go for 50m. 

If it's purely for grit you could get 40m per metre, works out pretty cheap. It's 9mm so not the lightest but you won't be dragging that much up behind you.

https://www.urbanrock.com/beal-verdon-9mm-by-the-metre/

I recently bought a Beal half rope, can’t remember the ‘model’ name but it’s 8.6mm, from Needlesports, 50m for ~£55 iirc. 

JRJG 

I had a pair of those mammut 8mm ropes. Lovely to use, wore better than expected for their thickness / softness, and they're a bargain.

V12 have them on offer I think.

Urban Rock have some good pair rope deals on. I've had the Beal Cobra II ropes for two years, and they've been great - only very minor wear so far. You can get them with a slightly different treatment to mine for £150 - https://www.urbanrock.com/half-double-rope-pair-deals/

I've seen the Beal Legend cheaper - e.g. Climbers' Shop - but I've never used them and they're a bit thinner, which may mean they wear faster... Who knows!

On a different note (and rope): grit is a bit of an asshole to ropes in general. Tell any nervous seconds to let you know if they need slack, because there's nothing worse than someone calling for a tight rope, then trying to downclimb, sawing it against a gritstone edge...!! I'm still bitter, if you can't tell...! 

Thanks! V12 have the Phoenix Classic for£150 a pair, but they're £67.50 each at Needle Sports. Both free delivery.

https://www.v12outdoor.com/view-by-category/rock-climbing-gear/ropes-and-ro... They seem to be on permanent offer at various places, £127 at the mo in V12
(for 50m that is)

Yeah my mistake. The £150 deal is for 60m. Thanks for pointing that out.

Just do as yesbutnobutyesbut says, It make sense and there great ropes! I would question trying to use ropes that are any shorter, remember if you fall off near the top your belayer has to lower you to the ground rather than off the end of the rope, which would be bad!! So you'll need a rope at least twice the height of your intended crag/s 

M

Unless you go to Millstone or 'mostly grit' means occasionally something else

That's a good deal, almost shame I'm fully stocked in the rope department.

Used mine happily at Millstone, though you are correct that there are routes that’d require 50s if you were to do them in a oner. Still, Millstone and the handful of other large quarries make up a tiny percent of grit. That, and as a ‘basic level’ climber I doubt he’ll be doing the big routes at Millstone any time soon.

Point taken about the length, but I can't really justify the cost of shorter ropes for 'just grit', even if that's what they mostly gets used for. On balance I'd rather have the flexibility of longer ropes, and hauling up a few more metres doesn't seem much of a hardship. 

I went for a pair of 50m phoenixes* in the end.

(*apparently this is the plural of phoenix, even though there can only ever be one phoenix in existence at any time)

I wasn't trying to convert, just give you something extra to think about. You'd be surprised how much extra hauling and coiling 50s feels after you've hauled 30s though, I certainly notice it these days.

Enjoy the ropes, the Phoenix are lovely!