One 80m rope: simul climbing party of 3

For the past decade, I've always done it with two half ropes with a party of 3 on multis. I'm wondering have any of you simul climbed with a party of 3 with just one rope? Let just say this is on a easy grade 5.8 multi. All climbers are able to climb way above that grade.

My thinking of how it works is this (feel free to correct me if I'm missing anything):

80m rope.

all pitches are around 25-30m long. With one pitch that is 40m long. They are all 5.7. All bolted.

1. Leader ties in one end of the rope to lead.

2. 2nd climber ties (alphine butterfly with two locking biners) in about 5-7 meters apart from the 3rd climber at other end.

3. 2nd climber belay the leader. Leader setup anchor and belay 2nd climber/3rd climber from above.

4. As 2nd climber climbs, he unclip and take draws with him.

5. 3rd climber follows with a bit of slack after 2nd climber reaches belay station. 

Of course, no alternate leads here. Everyone stays in their position through out the whole climb.

Sounds about right. I'd allow 7 - 10m between climbers 2 and 3, if its a stretchy rope but that's a quibble. If there is a lot of traversing, making sure the space between 2 and 3 is sufficient they're not both doing a traverse at the same time (that could get ugly in a fall by either one). Maybe for routes like that you use the half ropes?

You’re basically doing the entire route with end-of-pitch rope drag, so 80m is a lot - most people simul on a 30-45m rope (or tie the second in at that point and throw the rest in a coil), so if 2&3 are only 10m apart you’d want like a 55m-60m rope max.

Pitch length only matters if you’re using progress captures at the anchors (which only helps the leader getting pulled off - if climber 3 falls #2 is going to take a weird but hopefully short fall too), but if your max pitch length is 40m you’re fine with the 2nd at 45m anyway. If all you have is an 80 I’d tie the 3rd in short of the end and dump the rest in a backpack.  2nd may want to re-clip some draws behind their knot  to prevent a pendulum for the 3rd.

When you say simul climb, do you mean all three climbers are moving at once? Or do you mean just the two followers are moving simultaneously? The second scenario is more commonly called end-roping. 

One alternative assuming you’re actually simul-climbing and not end roping as suggested above: fold the 80 in half, leader ties in in the middle (girth hitch is an easy way with no biners), and each follower ties in on their own end. You can even tie in offset from the midpoint so they’re nicely spaced. Climb it like you’re using twin ropes (safer but more drag) or doubles (make sure you’ve always got pro between you and each follower)

For simul on an 80, with party of 3: 2nd climber ties in near middle of rope. In this fashion the leader is only carrying weight of 40m on the harness, the other 40 falls to the 2nd climber. Takes more rack though - I'd always want at least two pieces between climbers 2 and 3.

What I’ve started doing as a party of 3 now is - 

First two climb as a normal team. The 2nd tags up another rope while they follow for the 3rd and fixes to the anchor.  They TR solo while the leader starts climbing again.

You could use a single rope this way also but it would take slightly longer, and wouldn’t want both followers to climb at the same time if traversing or whatever 

Phil Chan wrote:

For the past decade, I've always done it with two half ropes with a party of 3 on multis. I'm wondering have any of you simul climbed with a party of 3 with just one rope? Let just say this is on a easy grade 5.8 multi. All climbers are able to climb way above that grade.

My thinking of how it works is this (feel free to correct me if I'm missing anything):

80m rope.

all pitches are around 25-30m long. With one pitch that is 40m long. They are all 5.7. All bolted.

1. Leader ties in one end of the rope to lead.

2. 2nd climber ties (alphine butterfly with two locking biners) in about 5-7 meters apart from the 3rd climber at other end.

3. 2nd climber belay the leader. Leader setup anchor and belay 2nd climber/3rd climber from above.

4. As 2nd climber climbs, he unclip and take draws with him.

5. 3rd climber follows with a bit of slack after 2nd climber reaches belay station. 

Of course, no alternate leads here. Everyone stays in their position through out the whole climb.

Have your best climber climb last and your second best lead, and you better have your shit 100 because these shenanigans can go bad quick.