What diameter ropes are people using on El Cap these days?

Talked with a guy in Yosar last year that preferred 10.1 to 10.5 sterling's for el cap. Another poster here recommended a new 9.1 to jug on. I'm thinking if getting the mammut infinity 9.5 60m to practice jugging and rope soloing on, then hopefully use that same rope in 2 months attempting NIAD.

Any other recommendations for rope diameter? I don't feel that my 9.2 rope will inspire much confidence

I fail to understand the popularity of large ropes. New ropes of small diameter have better technical specs than the larege ropes of recent years past. I wish the industry would just move on to 10mm and smaller and drop large ropes all together

The 9.5 infinity would be an excellent choice for NIAD as it's light & has a relatively burly sheathe. Still, I'm not sure I'd practice jugging on it.

gription wrote:I fail to understand the popularity of large ropes. New ropes of small diameter have better technical specs than the larege ropes of recent years past. I wish the industry would just move on to 10mm and smaller and drop large ropes all together

I am not sure I would want to go smaller than 10mm. Jugging is hard on ropes and a thinner rope is going to take a beating and not last that long. Jugging on a fat rope tends to stretch less than a skinnier rope and a fat rope makes me feel better when watching the rope going over an edge or sharp flake; mammut supersafe is a great big wall rope.

Used an 9.8 for a couple trips up. Worked well with jugging over edges. No fraying. Would have loved to been on a smaller rope for weight purposes.

Jason Kim wrote: .. No one is forcing you to buy them.

Poor baby.

Jason Kim wrote:Poor baby.

Given what you intend on using it for, I think you'll be fine with a thinner rope. If you're primarily free climbing and trying to go fast and light, a thinner rope seems a good call. However, if I were doing a burlier aid route, where you'll be fixing and doing lots of jugging on the rope, I'd prefer a slightly thicker rope. If you've got a hula skirt of gear, a few ounces on the rope will seem negligible. But when you're jugging a rope way off the deck and know the rope is running over an edge, how much is you peace of mind worth? Despite rope manufacturer's claims, I think I'd rely on the anecdoctal evidence of people on YOSAR than the results of some narrow lab test.

Any kind of practice - be it jugging, working a sport route or a practice run to Dolt -oughtta be done with an old fuzzy rope past it's prime. Save your NIAD rope for the big day plus a couple test pitches beforehand to get the feel for it.

The Nose is sheer enough that you can get by with a skinnier rope, frequent attention to how the rope is running, adequate extension of gear and some gorilla tape - I stick several pieces of pre-ripped gorilla tape on my helmet for taping edges when they're unavoidable and have my buddy clean it afterward so not to leave trash on the cliff. I use a 9.4ish mammut or beal for NIAD type of stuff; 10.2 for more aid intensive routes where the extra weight on my harness isn't a limiting factor.

Hope ya crush!

JeffL:
Is it possible that people jugging on 9.x are jugging on a static line?

bluewaterropes.com/product/…

Maybe the ideal is that Blue Water haul line plus whatever thin lead line you want. If you have a dedicated haul/ jug line, you'll put way less beating on your lead line, which might give you the confidence to use the thinner (9.5mm Mammut) lead line. I'd go with Yosar's current preference. They are up on those walls all the time, and if they aren't ok with less than 10.1, I wouldn't either. If your existing 9.2, or a new 9.1 won't inspire confidence, don't take them. Too much mental stress.

Gription:
I thought I'd link the tech specs for rope from Mountain Tools. Compare the diameters to the number of falls. There is no manufacturer whose thin ropes can take anywhere near the number of falls of their thicker ropes. So, it seems like intended use still dictates diameter.

mtntools.com/cat/rclimb/rop…