Single rope
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I have always used a single rope, that's what I was taught with, but as I am starting to get more aggressive with trad climbing, I see lots of half ropes and twin ropes, yet most literature says use single. I can understand why for each, but would like to hear some opinions from those experienced. |
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Use a single when possible, and doubles or twins where necessary. |
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William Kramer wrote:I have always used a single rope, that's what I was taught with, but as I am starting to get more aggressive with trad climbing, I see lots of half ropes and twin ropes, yet most literature says use single. I can understand why for each, but would like to hear some opinions from those experienced.I would go single or twin. Halves can cut down on drag a lot, but they are harder to manage, and they are a bit concerning to catch big whippers on. The main point of twins is to allow to do full 60m raps, or less commonly, for redundancy. If you dont need to do 60m raps, I would stick with the single. |
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Simple: try before you buy. Climb with some friends who use doubles and twins. |
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To add a few things to David Coley's excellent summary, doubles (meaning half ropes) make dangerous clips much safer (so much so that they would make sense on some sport climbs) and allow you to place and clip marginal overhead pro without paying a penalty if it blows before you pass it. |
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" but would like to hear some opinions from those experienced." |
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For me. . . |
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Rgold / anyone
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NC Rock Climber wrote:Rgold / anyone Isn't it true that ropes certified as 1/2 ropes can also be used in twin configuration (both strands clipped to every piece) and that you can switch from 1/2 to twin or twin to half configuration in a pitch? I believe that there was a post on MP that provided some pretty compelling support from a rope manufacturer (Mammut?) that the above is true, but my brief search didn't turn up the thread.Some doubles are rated as twins. However as far as I'm aware, this only means that they pass the relevant UIAA drop tests for both configurations. There are other issues, like using them with small carabiners. A pair of 9.1mm "twin" ropes are going to look fat in a small carabiner, and you will need to use normal sized lockers at belays if you clove hitch the stands to the same locker. You might also miss out on the low weight of the twins. E.g. Beal Joker (which is also rated as a single). Round the other way, if half ropes get as thin as twins (say, 7.7mm), then I'd be concerned about holding a fall on a single strand with a normal belay plate. Having said that, many climbers have been using half ropes as twins occasionally for many a year, and other using their twins as half ropes (but watch the stretch). |
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NC Rock Climber wrote:Rgold / anyone Isn't it true that ropes certified as 1/2 ropes can also be used in twin configuration (both strands clipped to every piece) and that you can switch from 1/2 to twin or twin to half configuration in a pitch? I believe that there was a post on MP that provided some pretty compelling support from a rope manufacturer (Mammut?) that the above is true, but my brief search didn't turn up the thread.Correct answer: Only if they are certified as a twin as well (most are not). Real-world answer: I have no problem clipping halves as twins, certified or not, because the impact force is still low enough as to not matter for the applications in which I would clip them as twins. Exceeding 12kN with any rope system managed by a plate belay device is extremely hard if not impossible, even if the impact force rating of the two ropes were to exceed 12kN. Worth noting is that, falling on two halves clipped as twins provide a rougher catch than most ropes (although not all ropes), so keep that in mind if you want to try this technique on tiny wires or something like that. |
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mountainproject.com/v/doubl…
Found the thread. Read Bearmolesters post about half way down the page. There is a ton of great information there. |
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Clipping halves as twins that have a half rope impact force of 6KN or less is no worse than falling on a maxim rope ... Most of whom have an 80 kg impact force of >9 kn |
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bearbreeder wrote:I can count on one hand the number of partners i have that i trust belaying with halves ... You need to be spot on with feeding the rope and catching falls ... More so if you dont have an assisted locking deviceI alluded to this but it is a critical point worth emphasizing. The belayer has to be fully attentive and has to know what to do. One of the tricks is for the belayer to watch the ropes directly in front of him or her so as to know exactly which strand needs slack and which has to be taken in. If you watch the leader all the time you'll be taken by surprise repeatedly and probably end up pumping out both ropes rather than just the correct one when the leader is clipping. The leader can help by calling out the color of the rope they are about to clip, but the second should be able to manage perfectly without that help. If the leader has clipped one strand overhead, then that strand will have to be taken in (until the leader passes the high piece) while the other strand is paid out. Here again the bad or inexperienced belayer ends up paying out both strands, thereby negating some of the value of the leader's high clip. |
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rgold wrote: I alluded to this but it is a critical point worth emphasizing. The belayer has to be fully attentive and know what to do.The flipside is that its not hard to train people with twin ropes ... And a person holding twin ropes through and atc guide has quite a bit of friction So if your partner aint skilled with halves, use them as twins ... Just be aware the impact force will be in the 9-10 kn range .... Same as a maxim single Hand breaking force on ropes from journal of mountain risk management ;) |