Are rope specific bags necessary?

I see rope specific bags for like $40+ everywhere. They don't seem big enough to hold all your gear comfortably. Does anyone just use a tarp and a backpacking-style frame pack like an osprey kestrel? I guess that'd be annoying to climb with it on, but if you're not climbing with it on what difference does it make?

Very few things are “necessary”. It comes down to preference. Many people use an Ikea bag to carry a rope in. I have been through several bags for climbing and each one gives different options. Currently my go to is the BD crag 40 and it is definitely worth it for me over using a less specialized bag. 

Stubby haul bag, coil the rope

Odds are.. if someone plops down a rope bag and doesn't flake the rope before climbing, they'll drink hard seltzer and not bourbon

I used to be in the no rope bag camp until I started using one. No need to flake the rope, just pull it out and go. I dont think the pain of having a different bag is that high. 

My drink of choice is a neat scotch, or a French 75 if that makes a difference for you. 

Well, I'll be a fan of flaking the rope over here. Habitual, maybe. From days of trees and chainsaws, I like to take a look and feel the rope before turning things on. Make sure no knots.

Just finished a bottle of Lagavulin 16 recently. Alright stuff, with a complex flavor of burning dirt and antique coffee table. It's probably the peat I'm tasting. I'm a bigger fan of Speyside Whisky.. although, I could've got three bottles of Maker's Mark for the price. I like a little bit of ice, too

Colin M wrote:

I see rope specific bags for like $40+ everywhere. They don't seem big enough to hold all your gear comfortably.

That's 'cause they're rope bags and not meant to "hold all your gear".

Marc801 C wrote:

That's 'cause they're rope bags and not meant to "hold all your gear".

Yes of course but then you either have to wear all your gear or have another bag. I'm meaning with the intent of using a single bag for all.

Colin M wrote:

Yes of course but then you either have to wear all your gear or have another bag. I'm meaning with the intent of using a single bag for all.

You're looking for something called a pack. You can then put your rope bag inside or lashed to the outside or give it to your partner to carry.

Depends what "all that gear" means. For trad climbing, no rope bag comes close to fitting it all. For sport climbing, I can fit ~10 draws and harness and random stuff in the Petzl Bolsa easily with a 60m, tight with a 70m.

I have a bag for the rope that turns into a tarp, and I still flake the rope every damn time.  Usually I dump the rope off on a rock or just flake it back onto the tarp/bag.  I get why it is ostensibly not required, but one time was enough for me.

I've never had "hard selzer" tho.  I usually drink rye or cheladas if I'm feeling facy.  Tho I still don't understand how that impacts my rope baggin'.

I use an old piece of tyvek.

Marc801 C wrote:

You're looking for something called a pack. You can then put your rope bag inside or lashed to the outside or give it to your partner to carry.

Marc... thanks for setting Colin straight.

Colin- out here in California we do a ton of climbing on volcanic stone and desert rocks. You sometimes find yourself up to your ankles in dirt, sand, scree and cactus pricks. 

A rope bag works really well when your climbing sport and the climbs are packed together. Just keep the “ground end” tied into the black loop- you always have a knott in the end. Then when you pull, it sort of lands on the tarp - find the top end and hand it to next victim..... or tie to the color loop, pick up by the corners and move it over to the next climb.... 

You ditch the tarp when you’re going climbing - trad I guess you call it. Then you need a pack to get everything up the approach. Including the IPA’s. 

Decathlon makes a tarp+bag combo for ~$16. I'm also on team coil and flake for each session/day and then transport in the rope bag

For toproping there is no real advantage to a dedicated rope bag. You can use a tarp if you want, but it seems like most people in CT just let the ends of the rope land on the ground.

For single pitch cragging with fixed anchors at the tops of climbs (especially sport climbing) rope bags are still not necessary, but really convenient. I waited a few years to get one but now pack it every time I go somewhere like Farley or Rumney.

For multi-pitch trad climbing, the rope bag is just extra weight and bulk to bring to the base. Leave it at home.

Nobody ever climbs with a rope bag on. They're for leaving on the ground as a tarp for your rope and for quickly packing it up and unpacking it so you can move it to the next climb over.

Hell, none of this is necessary. 

Bryce Adamson wrote:

Nobody ever climbs with a rope bag on. They're for leaving on the ground as a tarp for your rope and for quickly packing it up and unpacking it so you can move it to the next climb over.

Besides never having to flake the rope, and how much cleaner the rope bag keeps my rope, the other thing I like about a rope bag is how tightly and neatly it compresses the rope. I often load it into the bottom of my pack when I’m doing approaches with lots of big talus hopping and raging spring Sierra stream crossings. It helps put the pack weight in a more stable place than lying it across the top and cinching it up there. And to Bryces point about “nobody” ever climbing with a rope bag: all my rope bags have backpack style straps. If I’m doing shorter multipitch routes (up to 300-400 feet), where I don’t feel the need to carry food or water but I have to do a walkdown, I wrap my shoes in the rope bag and use it as a pack. Roll everything into it at the top for easy transport back to the base. 

Trango Antidote and/or DMM Classic Rope Bag.  I have both, and they work well for sport climbing/cragging. I can fit a 70m rope, dozen or so draws, harness and shoes into either one. 

If I am trad climbing, I am bringing a pack, and the rope rides across the top of my pack. 

Haha. The very first rope I bought 10 years ago was a fat-ass Mammut rope (like a 10.8mm or something) and it came with a free ropebag. It's still my rope bag, it has been bagging probably 5 or 6 different ropes through the years at this point. With a thiner rope there's a bit of free space, though with 70meters ropes of smaller diameters things about even out.

None of the rope has every complained, so I assumed it's fine.

Other than the obvious benefits of a rope bag, such as keeping your rope clean and dry, easy to move between routes, and not having to flake it, a really nice feature is tying the ends into the loops on the rope bag to close the system when sport climbing. You also always know where the ends are. BD rope bags have a red and green loops, green is the top and means go, red is the bottom and means stop.

Also, if you are using a rope bag and having to flake your rope your using it wrong, just my 2 cents. 

I use a rope bag for one-pitch sport and like them for ease of moving between routes and keeping the rope clean. As to not having to flake the rope—that is indeed [normally] true... but, count me in as part of the “flaky crowd” in that I always flake the rope anyway. Why? I once had a knot show up in the rope as I was belaying and have no idea how it got there. Thankfully, there was just enough rope to allow the leader to lower back to the ground—another 10-20 feet and we would have been doing some problem solving. Good thing the leader hadn’t started up the route tied in to the other end, closer to the knot.  As John Reece alluded, just one such experience and it’s likely you’ll be flaky, too. It also gives you a chance to feel/inspect the length of the rope on a regular basis.