UKC

So I have a 30m scramble half rope, the Inn Pinn abseil is 17m,  plus I am 2m tall.  The rope is thus 2m short of the base.

1. Will there be enought stretch to reach the ground?
2. Is the base a bit scrambly for the last two meters and I can stop a bit above the absolute bottom?
3. Or should I do a "dodgy dangle" to un clip and lower myself off.  I can reach to over 3m so can get the rope afterwards (did this n Spain once on the Ponoc VF and it worked fine as there wasplenty of rope stretch.

Thoughts?

I've never actually tried it but always thought it wouldn't really make sense. The centre of the column that you end up abbing down is dead-vertical to the ground, and slick. The Severe climbing route is a few metres to the left on the corner. You'd be swinging across, trying to grab stuff, trying to not ab off the end. I'd rather take an extra 5m. (edit: although I never want to say it can't be done without having actually tried first, so take my words with a pinch of salt! But I'm pretty sure it would be weird and unpleasant)

A few years ago I bought a light 40 for the Cuillin and have never quite been able to make myself chop a good rope down by 5m!

For someone else, maybe perhaps with a bit of a jump for the last metre. But you've heard of sod's law haven't you?

My thought is: take a 35m rope. Beg, borrow or steal one if necessary. And continue to enjoy your ability to walk!

Unless you plan to be there at a very odd time of day, or in poor conditions there will most probably be other teams on the Inn Pin, whom you could polite ask to abb off their ropes.

Of course any waiting around will completely negate the weight benefits of not having those few extra meters on the rest of the traverse,

You could do a blocked single strand abseil  then extent the short pulling side  with a couple of slings/ spare cord. Means you can get to the ground safely and recover your rope 

Attach your belay/descender to your harness with a 120cm sling so it's above your head, then you won't need to let go of the dead rope until your feet are on the ground.

(Please note the smiley face thing.)

In my copy of Cicerone's 'Skye's Cuillin Ridge Traverse' it states, "The entire ridge can be done with a single 35m rope".

If there are two of you the first could ab of a single tied strand, then could add a number of slings as necessary to one end of the then threaded rope so that the other end comes within a metre of the ground, clip in to the end sling and counterbalance the second while s/he abs down on the single strand that reaches the bottom.

Beal Escaper

There could be other teams behind you who might be kind enough to untie your rope after dropping on a single strand. You could leave a 240 sling behind which I would take as swag on my traverse attempt coming up.

30m I'd say is pushing it but I've heard some drop on 33 and just get away with it. My 35 has a meter or 2 spare

To be a pedant on your maths... Is your waist also 2m tall?

If you take it that your harness is halfway up your body, and thus belay plate, you're closer to 3m short of reaching the ground. This isn't taking rope stretch into account. You could extend like deep soup mentioned for those margins.

3m is quite a way to "dodgy dangle" and you'll still be aiming to reach up to closer to 4m for retrieval. Even with a name like "tallsteve", that's a long way.

My vote would be to look for a longer rope, be it buying one, borrowing, or asking another party as previously mentioned.

That wasn't a serious suggestion!  Better ideas have been suggested to deal with the problem of the rope being a wee bit short, but if i were to make a serious suggestion it would be the same as yours -  taking a rope that isn't too short.

Taking the numbers at face value, a doubled 30m rope on a 17m abseil will hang with the loose ends 2m off the deck, ie just brushing the top of the OP's head if he's not exaggerating how tall he is, assuming he hasn't broken an ankle or something and is still able to stand up at that point.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/gear/rope_length_for_mountaineering-77966...

Had my feet on the ground while still on the rope.

The last bit is undercut, so that could be a factor. The one time I've done it I was with a friend who (on a long-enough rope) tried to give a gallus kick outwards off the last bit to land on the slight upslope behind. But he didn't get his feet grounded and clattered back into the base of the Pinn, resulting in a scraped nose (but thankfully nothing worse).

In terms of getting use of other people's ropes, it can be surprisingly quiet - when we arrived on a sunny Sunday lunchtime in August 2007 there was a party ahead but no one else around. Others then appeared behind us, while we were on the east ridge, but it was certainly quieter than expected.

PS - I'm probably taller than you (6ft 8in in old money) and I don't think I'd fancy trying this.

I’ve done it with a 32m rope. It’s a long time ago but iirc this did get my feet on the ground, but maybe only just. Use that info as you will

My 30m* rope is no longer 30m after a few years use, sure its lost 1m if not more!

* May not have been 30m in the first place! 🤣

So measure it first!

I've done it several times with my 30m rope and you do need to scramble and/or help your partner down the last metre or so. Good to have some slings and plans as a backup. Such as prussick knotting a long sling to one side of the rope, and holding tight to that, before taking the knot out of that side and letting that slip through your abseil device. Or jumping to the ground

If there is any doubt then there is no doubt. Take a longer rope

It would be nice to take a 30 wouldn't it, but you know the answer really. I suspect the guide wouldn't recommend a 35m rope if a 30 would do it. Your profile says 'dad of two'. Just take a longer rope and enjoy the day without worrying about it.

I've recently done this after finding out my new 60m rope was 60m unlike my old 60m which was closer to 70m...

Remember it's easy and safe to reverse the Inn Pinn if you are a steady climber. I know somehow it seems a bit artificial however.

Met a lad alone at the top once who didn't even have a harness. He joined us for the rest of the ridge and gave us a lift back to our car. 

I've done that a couple of times but it depends how busy it is!

At least if it's busy OP will probably be able to use someone else's rope to ab. 😀

You're going to be spending more on getting to Skye and back in petrol than a 35m rope costs. 

If you have two cars with tow hooks you can pre stretch your 30m rope to 35m.

You could also cut it in half, and rejoin with 4m of accessory cord in the middle.

What about roped descent by the way you ascended? I've have actually down-climbed this without any problems sans rope, but you wouldn't want to slip!!!

I suspect you will not make many friends trying this on a nice day.

I actually bought a 36mm cut length of 8mm hawser laid polypropylene rope from Timko with abseiling in the Cuillin in mind. Currently they sell 50m for £6.60 not inc delivery and doubtless many other suppliers are available.

Its much lighter than similar diameter nylon rope and thick enough to abseil normally (I use classic or sitsling + light screwgate with doubled rope over shoulder). Plaquette works fine too. Obviously just for abseiling.

Many strongly disagree with using this rope on safety grounds.  While I'd be OK with arguing my point it might be better to avoid diverting this thread and to read  posts in "what_rope_for_backup_on_winter_grade_2_ridges-756024" which probably covers the topic and contained plenty of criticism for balance; I think I was described as moronic and negligent.

Indeed - any timorous/nervous person coming up the east ridge (eg me when I did it) probably wouldn't be overjoyed at encountering someone heading back down. Apart from the halfway stance, it's not like there are passing places, after all. You also might get comments from a guide or two - we got sarcastic grief from a stroppy guide with clients who caught us up - "You just take your time lads, don't mind us", etc.

If?

I was there last year on a glorious sunny day(a Friday) and there was only one team ahead who had just finished the abseil and were on the Sgurr Dearg summit.

So it is possible.

Next day the ridge was heaving but we'd gone climbing.

Were you aiming for the world record for shortest abseil rope? Do you double it up for those tricky 18mm descents?

Thanks. Obviously 36m! I am indeed negligent, at least when typing.

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I'll probably go for the single strand and pull down.  Don't ab short drops much and don't really want another rope to clutter up the cupboard.  I have a 20m half route that'll give plenty I think.  It sounds like a hang and drop in that location will be a bit daft.

Surely just climb up, ab down on the single strand, walk round climb up and get your rope back?

The reversing descent of the short side is not that hard, but it is slower than the abseil and you wouldn't want to attempt it in poor weather. I suspect we had around 35m of 9mm when we did it.

Loving the use of 'gallus'. 😀

If you're going to risk it, and benefit from the stretch in your rope, it'll need to be skinny and supple enough to yield stretch. Some old thick singles tend to be less bouncy. Having some belly timber obviously helps.