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Did i choose the right rope thickness?
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Evening! I just purchased myself a new rope, but now I'm unsure if I made the right decision regarding the thickness. The idea was to get an all-rounder. The rope is 9,5mm, and will mainly be used for lead climbing, top-roping with beginner friends, and hopefully some trad- and simple mountaineering in the future (Should probably get a separate rope here though?) Outside of climbing I do camera operating and photography as a profession, so I thought I should give climbing photography a go for fun, and this is where I'm unsure about the thickness. I bought myself an ascender and a pulley that I'm planning to use with my grigri, but now I'm starting to think that getting a thicker rope would've been a better idea for this specific use case? Thoughts? Best regards Yngve |
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Sounds good to me! Ropes are wear items. Just check it from time to time and chop/replace when it is getting well worn. Unless you're whipping on the toothed ascender, it should be fine. I have used tiblocs, microtraxions, and all sorts of mech advantages on even my skinny 9.0s without much to write home about. |
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You can bring an old towel to pad a fixed hanging rope if it is rubbing a lot. Clip it to a tiny prussic as needed. |
Ryan K wrote: Awesome! Thank you for the reply, Ryan! :) |
tom donnelly wrote: Good tip! Thanks, Tom! |
tom donnelly wrote: +1 for edge pro as needed |
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It sounds like you actually want 3-4 different ropes. |
Desert Rock Sports wrote: Thanks for the reply! Will definitely look into a more alpine suited rope when that time comes! I absolutely see your point. To be a bit budget friendly, the goal was to buy an all-round rope that could work for all my cragging needs as well as photography. Would say swapping the 9,5 for a 9,8 be better/different in any meaningful way? (Except weight of course). I'm guessing the wear from ascenders will show quicker, but there won't be any difference in safety? |
Yngve bd wrote: Ascenders don't wear ropes, contact with the rock does. Make sure you take care of the rope when it's fixed and you'll never wear it significantly. Jugging static ropes is nicer but it isn't that big of a deal, your rope is totally fine for every application you're interested in. I do a little climbing photography and every now and then I get to be on a static rope, but usually I don't want to carry out a separate rope just for 30 minutes of climbing photography (which is all I usually get up to) so I'm usually just on my lead line and it works totally fine. |
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I think you're fine with your 9.5. You're essentially looking for the "jack of all trades, master of none" rope. The rope you have is perfectly adequate to do all that you want, but in a perfect world you would want multiple different ropes. Static/semi static for your photography stuff, skinny dynamic for MP/lead stuff, and a somewhat fatter (like 9.8) for TR stuff. It really doesn't matter in the overall scheme of things. You may wear out your rope faster than usual because you have so many different usages of it, but that happens with ropes. Have fun and be safe! |
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Thank you all for your thoughts and replies, it's much appreciated! :) Looks like I'll stick with this rope for now, and definitely look into adding one or two extra ones for specific use cases in the future! |
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If you take care with protecting that rope you will have a good working knowledge on what to replace it with by the time that is necessary. |
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Dynamic vs static is a real difference. 9.5 vs 9.8 is not significantly different in any way. |
