What do you look for when purchasing a climbing rope for Top Rope?

Curious to hear your thoughts, thank you! And Happy New years! BTW this would be for TOP rope 

What are your goals with the rope?

What do you care about in particular before purchasing one? 

And is there a preference for color, length, & diameter?

Cheap and fat (thick).

I guess if I did all or most of my climbing at a specific area, I’d match the length to the routes. For example, I could use a 40m for 95% of the routes at my local crag, and a 50m would suffice for the rest. That said, I personally wouldn’t get a 70m for my toproping needs. Many folks might absolutely need a 70m for their toprope, and a shorter cord would limit them…
I wouldn’t pay extra for dry treatment, either. I would pay a bit extra for bi-pattern. I would opt for something 10mm or fatter, and a lower-elongation cord would be ideal.

Durability!

I bought a dedicated rock rope rope last year. I just replaced my Allround rope, and  wanted to preserve its fancy dry treatment for ice climbing.  So, I got a dedicated rope for toproping (and moderate leads) on low angle rock. Not to expensive is nice too. I don’t climb very hard, and I set up topropes for my kids, so lots of funky, low angle terrain. The top rope often ends up running over the rock on various places. So, it won’t last super long.

Low elongation is nice. 

Personally, I prefer something just under 10mm. 10mm and up is so thick, it makes for a big heavy rope to haul up, and harder to handle, tieing knots and to load into belay and rappel devices. As they wear from rubbing on rock and running over anchors loaded, they get fatter, so starting out a bit thinner is nicer, but thin ropes are less durable and stretch more, so I go more in upper third.

Bicolor is nice. Dry treatment if it’s for iceclimbing, no dry treatment if it’s rock only. There are some ropes specifically designed for top roping, with extra tight sheaths, to handle the abrasion. I got the Mammut ‘Workhorse’. There are some nice technologies from other brands too.

Length obviously depends on where you are using it. Local area only or traveling? If it’s local, as short as possible saves some money, weight to pack, and hassle with coiling. Just make sure you account for length to tie in, and to step back far enough from the rock as you belay. In other words, you need more than you would for a rappel!

If it’s for travel, I still wouldn’t go over 70m. I don’t plan on toproping with much more rope. Think of the rope stretch! Long ropes over 70m are really more for leading with a lower than for dedicated top roping.

If you're truly only using it for toprope get the sterling revo, it's a low elongation rope that all the gyms in my area use for toprope. Or another low elongation rope, not sure how much choice there is for that on the market.

I also agree with other comments to match rope length to where you climb 95%of the time. No use buying a 60m if a 40m covers all the climbs at your crag, you'll just spend more time flaking. 

My top ropes are just old lead ropes.  

Somewhat tangential, but how much does dry treatment matter for top roping ice climbs? The strength reduction of a wet rope probably isn't large enough to be super important, and top roping wears any dry treatment off pretty quickly. Is there a reason not to just use a non-dry rope?

Patrick - wrote:

Somewhat tangential, but how much does dry treatment matter for top roping ice climbs? The strength reduction of a wet rope probably isn't large enough to be super important, and top roping wears any dry treatment off pretty quickly. Is there a reason not to just use a non-dry rope?

I think it matters in terms of handling. Belaying (lead or TR) with a wet rope is not fun.

 I have a Mammut 9.5 dry and the dry treatment holds up well after a season of TRing on ice. Have used a friend's BD dry rope where the dry treatment stopped working and it was impossible to pull through the ATC. 

Patrick - wrote:

Somewhat tangential, but how much does dry treatment matter for top roping ice climbs? The strength reduction of a wet rope probably isn't large enough to be super important, and top roping wears any dry treatment off pretty quickly. Is there a reason not to just use a non-dry rope?

If there's water on the surface of the ice, a dry rope will absorb less of it. If it's also below freezing, a dry rope will take longer to turn into an unmanageable cable. If all you have are non-dry ropes, just bring two of them. One for the morning (or until it's heavy/stiff) and one for the afternoon.

If it's cold and dry though, a non-dry rope can be just fine. The newer the better.

Static, burly sheath.... if it's for top roping, or tope rope soloing only.
BW protac is great for this. Its like 54% sheath mass. They last a very long time.
They now make that model down to 9mm, but I'd prob stick to +10mm for increased longevity/abuse. 

Teton Tom wrote:

I guess if I did all or most of my climbing at a specific area, I’d match the length to the routes. For example, I could use a 40m for 95% of the routes at my local crag, and a 50m would suffice for the rest. That said, I personally wouldn’t get a 70m for my toproping needs. Many folks might absolutely need a 70m for their toprope, and a shorter cord would limit them…
I wouldn’t pay extra for dry treatment, either. I would pay a bit extra for bi-pattern. I would opt for something 10mm or fatter, and a lower-elongation cord would be ideal.

Is there something your current rope doesn't have that you wish it had?

Kevin B wrote:

Is there something your current rope doesn't have that you wish it had?

I don’t own a dedicated top rope. I don’t really do much (or maybe any) toproping, so don’t plan on buying one, either.

I own a 70m x 9.6 Edelrid TC duo non-dry. Excellent cragging rope for the areas I climb, especially City of Rocks. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I also own a 40m x 9.5 Mammut Gym Classic, also non-dry, which is great for the shorter basalt crags around Boise and the Snake River Valley, and of course for the gym. Don’t see myself needing another rope…

Plenty of good advice above. If you're as new to outdoor climbing as your questions suggest, you might do the following:

Find someone experienced to climb with. If you can afford a new, dedicated top rope, you can probably afford to hire a guide for a half day. Too often, I see groups of new-to-the-outdoors-climbers at the crag. The one person with a lead belay card on their harness is teaching everyone else. Numerous behaviors that are safe and even encouraged at a gym are frowned upon or even dangerous in the real world. No matter how hard he pulls or how much confidence he exudes, your gym bro who clips his chalk bag to his harness is not qualified to teach you outdoors.

Learn how to inspect anchors, inspect a rope, etc. Plenty of info online about this. 

All things considered, toproping is generally safer than leading, but... You're usually relying entirely on 2 bolts to keep you alive, and nobody gets paid to inspect or maintain them outdoors. If you're a decent human being, you won't be TRing directly through fixed gear*, so someone will have to clean, and cleaning on TR leaves no margin for error. On a long route with a stretchy rope, you may not truly be on belay until you're 10 or more feet off the deck. Many routes are cleaned with lead climbing in mind--thus the razor edge that's 10 feet to the left and the death block 10 feet to the right of the bolt line aren't hazardous unless some gumby on TR starts swinging around in hopes of finding an easier way up. Woe to those who congregate innocently in the fall-line of a toproper.

*There are exceptions to this rule, but they're too nuanced to cover here.

Logan Peterson wrote:

 No matter how hard he pulls or how much confidence he exudes, your gym bro who clips his chalk bag to his harness is not qualified to teach you outdoors.

Truth!!

Logan Peterson wrote:

Plenty of good advice above. If you're as new to outdoor climbing as your questions suggest, you might do the following:

Find someone experienced to climb with. If you can afford a new, dedicated top rope, you can probably afford to hire a guide for a half day. Too often, I see groups of new-to-the-outdoors-climbers at the crag. The one person with a lead belay card on their harness is teaching everyone else. Numerous behaviors that are safe and even encouraged at a gym are frowned upon or even dangerous in the real world. No matter how hard he pulls or how much confidence he exudes, your gym bro who clips his chalk bag to his harness is not qualified to teach you outdoors.

Learn how to inspect anchors, inspect a rope, etc. Plenty of info online about this. 

So learning from a real person = dangerous, but learning from online sources is good.

Got it.

Gunkiemike wrote:

So learning from a real person = dangerous, but learning from online sources is good.

Got it.

Yes. If you want to reduce my text to Twitter format (i.e. remove all context and nuance), that's what I said.

EDIT: My bad if I responded sincerely to a bot post.

FrankPS wrote:

Cheap and fat 

There is a man (Frank PS) who knows the business. Words out of my mouth. If I see a 11mm rope sub-$100 I buy that. I currently have 2 dedicated topropes. Use to use downgraded lead ropes like Mokracek up there, and still do somewhat, but my lead ropes keep getting thinner (ie  10.5 then 10.2, then 9.7, then 9.5 now 9.1 Beal Jokers and 7.8 doubles I think....) and as I get old(er) and fat(er), knowing that they will take less of a hit in a fall as the routes are less steep and prices have gone up, I use the skinny little things even longer before retiring them.  Have I used a 7 year old 9.1 retired lead rope to TR? Of course. But I'll drag an 11mm out first if possible.