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Best sport climbing workhorse of a rope?
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My partner and I have been struggling to find a rope with satisfactory sheath durability. We’ve been through a Mammut Infinity and four Sterling Velocities. We typically sport climb twice a week, usually projecting, putting our ropes through a heavy beating. We fall quite a bit (5-10 ft), but are rarely taking major whips (15+ ft). After a few weeks the sheath will be completely trashed, but we’ll cut each end about 3 times before retiring the rope. This last Velocity has only been with us since April and it’s already on its fifth cut. Is this the reality of hard sport climbing, or is the Velocity not cut out for this kind of work? Have y’all had better success with ropes you’re loyal to? Please let us know!! This is getting expensive |
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What diameters are you getting? If you buy fat (minimum 9.8, preferably 10+) it will last substantially longer IMO, although I don't whip nearly as often as you do. |
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Definitely try something thicker. The infinity is 9.5 and the velocity is 9.8. Try a 10.2 to 10.5 for your next rope. I have a sterling 10.4 but I think it’s been changed for their current line up. What kind of rock is it out of curiosity? And what rope end carabiner do you have on your draws? Something beefy and round will help the ropes durability too. Check out the DMM Revolver wiregate for the ultimate in buttery smooth rope flow and uber soft catches. Although they certainly won’t address your expense problem. |
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I just started buying longer ropes. 100’s are readily available, and if your only lopping 2-5 meters off every month they last a while. I sport climbed 3-4 days a week last summer/fall on a Beal opera, it’s approaching 60m now, but the rest of the rope is fine. I would scale longer over trying to go thicker. 150m for ~350 bucks. hiking 150m to the crag is annoying, but you can just chop it to 100 and 50 or whatever works with your crag of choice. Maybe your crag has short approaches |
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I agree with Matt as well. Length does make sense for sure if you’re sport single pitching that heavily. 80m and 100m ropes are totally findable.
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Some good beta above that I don't disagree with, but consider that longer ropes are MORE expensive than a standard 60m, and fatter ropes are typically LESS expensive! 10.5 ropes seem to last forever, but you may want a tuber, Madrock Lifeguard or Gen1 Grigri to not have it lock incessantly while paying slack quickly. |
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One nice thing about getting thiccc 60’s as Linnaeus mentions is they are cheap and you distribute the risk of getting a Lemmon across many ropes. I suppose with my strategy you can get burned if you get a freak coreshot at the middle mark right out of the gate. |
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I really like Mammut and after I went through a few 9.5 Infinity ropes I recently picked up a 10.2 Crag Classic in sale. It definitely feels a bit more bulky but still very nice to climb with. Maybe get something like that for projecting and then pull out the 9.5 for the Red Point attempt? |
Alex Fletcher wrote: 99% of the time we’re climbing on southeast sandstone, but the only portions of the rope receiving any fraying are what run through draws during a fall. Interesting point about basket size though, we hadn’t considered that thinner could mean more detrimental. We climb a good bit on permas, but have an arsenal of BD posiwires that could be contributing to the problem. |
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Beal "Be Free" quickdraw have a specific rope side carabiner with a 12mm diameter to be extra gentle on the rope. At the very least try a steel quickdraw with a large radius (i.e. the Trango ones) on your 1st draw and any crux draws. Save the light stuff for the red point. If TR'ing through two draws at the top, use steel biners (Trango ones work pretty well). |
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Have you felt your draws, honestly it sounds like your draws are fucking up your rope. |
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Sterling’s and mammut are really fine and durable ropes. Most likely your blowing through your rope because all of the sand that covered the ropes in the south east |
Dylan Randall wrote: This is pretty normal sport climbing use.
This is not a normal result. I usually get about a full year of climbing out of a cragging rope and then another year or two out of it in a lower impact role.
No. I've had really good luck with the the cheapest Edelrid mid-fat 9.5-9.8 ropes. (2x Ecos, 1 TC Edition) They all did fine for a full Fall/Winter/Spring of sport climbing with a similar use profile to yours and then another year or two of a more mellow trad cragging rope. (where I was still falling on them from time to time, but way less frequently) |
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Imho Mammut Dry is the best bang for your buck if you want durability. My infinity lasted forever, first rope that I retired from being too short… It works wonders to pull your rope through a Beal rope brush or just some old towel after each day or after it got particularly dusty/chalky. Doing this has tripled the usable lifespan of my ropes. |
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OP, do you use a rope bag with a tarp? Do you ever wash your rope? It helps. Agree with other recs for a steel biner for first bolt and inspect your other draws. Might be time for better rope-side carabiners, but you're sending hard enough stuff in the Red that there are a lot of permas, but you've still got the first bolt for your own draw and draws to lower off of. Max Tepfer wrote: Yeah the Edelrid Boa Eco can take a beating. It gets pretty heavy at 80-90 feet though. You can get them really cheap. I got a 70 m for $130 once. I think I'll spend the money on sub 9.8 mm ropes going forward though. |
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Hello, Mammut infinities are fairly durable rope for the size. It is likely other factors as mentioned. I have been less than impressed by sterling and edelrid personally. Sometimes longer draws or short slings might help on sport routes to prevent the rope from rubbing against certain features in a fall. Thank you |
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If the timeilnes aren't exaggerative I'd suspect permadraws on projects or your draws are to blame for the short rope life. If you're replacing when the ropes fuzz out please send those ceterpillars my way. The toughest rope I've ever owned (I've only owned 12 different kinds), is the cable-like Edelweiss Element Ii 10.2mm Unicore SuperEveryDry which is a strange cobalt purple with teal marker and dark middle mark. It is TOUGH. I bought it for cliff inspection, rebolting, etc so I'd have thoughts of rope wear farther in the back of my mind than the present activity. It is a beast. This cable took about 5 days to break in to be nicely manageable but now it is one of the ones I grab most often. It seems to stretch less than say the TC Edelrids, various mammuts, and sterlings I have. That could be a great thing or a bad thing depending on what you need. https://libertymountain.com/climb/ropes/ntn20370-edelweiss-element-ii-102mm.html |
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Maybe a good time to mention that Mammut has discontinued the Infinity, right? |
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Pretty sure Mammut just renamed the Infinity (just like they renamed all of their ropes). 9.5 Crag Classic seems like the same specs: https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/climbing/climbing-rope/mammut-9-5-crag-classic The SE has a lot of sand at the base of climbs, def make sure to use a rope bag! |
Josh Rappoport wrote: Yeah they just changed all of the names up. They're actually more intuitive now though. Here's the breakdown on the new ropes from Mammut. They also added a new "sender" vs "workhorse" distinction. OP could look at their 9.9 mm Crag Workhorse Dry rope which is the most durable rope Mammut has ever made. |
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My 2 cents: Mammut has a really incredible lifetime warranty. If your rope is really getting thrashed that quickly, send them a message - I’m sure they’ll send you a replacement. If durability is your number one concern, as mentioned before, edelweiss Unicode dry ropes handle like shit but are absolutely bombproof, get yourself an 80m edelweiss and you’ll be good to go for a while. |
