2024 Rope Discussion

I recently had all my sport climbing gear stolen from my car in Reno and I now find myself in need of a new rope. I had a 9.6 Sterling XEROS for about 2 years and had to cut about 1 meter off the end because of a core shot from wear and tear. 

I generally climb trad in the Gunks. I am looking for something with good performance, with workhorse potential, and is bi-color. The TC Eco Dry from Edelrid seems like the best bang for my buck, but have read mixed reviews. Curious what peoples' thoughts are. Rope has to be at least 70m and I am kicking around the idea of buying an 80... What do people think? 

70m - 9.5 - Mammut is always my go to.  If its going to see a lot of top roping I use the 9.8. 

Brad, any of their ropes you like in particular? 

I have a friend who bought the TC rope and said it was by far the worst rope he has ever owned. I think it now lives in his training room as a corner pad to protect your head from the step into the house if you fall off the woody.

I was a long time edelrid fan until I bought a 9.8 mammut dry rope that I loved. It held up super well to lots of abuse and is still in pretty good condition after 5 seasons of good use. I think edelrid has gone down a little in quality recently so i have stopped recommending their ropes to beginners.

I recently switched to non-dry Beal ropes for work (9.8) and personal use (9.5). So far all of those ropes are in better condition after a couple of trips than any of my old ropes. I am really happy with the sheath percentage, handling, colors, and price. I will probably switch to Beal for a while until something else comes along that I find to be better quality.

I've gotten a lot of use out of my Edelrid Swift Protect 8.9mm. It's now my go-to cord for everything except development. 

A couple of my other favorites:
- Beal Stinger 9.4 Unicore when partners are scared of the Swift Protect.
- Beal Tiger 10.0 Unicore (feels like 9.8, incredibly durable without being clunky) for projecting

That ghastly TC rope should be excommunicated for taking the name of TC in vain. 

I've had better experiences with my edelrid ropes than I have my mammut rope, edelweiss is to be avoided and Beal offer nothing compelling. 

I like my mammut 9.8 and I like the 9.5 I just prefer my swift more and it's probably held up much better to boot. 

Avoid the TC.  

My own data has shown that Mammut ropes enhance both your climbing and sexual performance.  

I've been very happy with my Tendon Master 9.7.  EpicTV has the 70m bicolor for 200ish and I think I got it shipped for around $240 a few years ago.  Not sure if any of the US retailers are closer in price now but they weren't when I ordered mine. 

A dry treated bicolor 70m for under $250 is a damn good deal in my book.  Price aside it handles very well and exceeded my expectations to the point I'd pay more for a replacement when needed.

I find Mammut ropes are great as are Beal.

I use Mammut 9.5 and 8.7 as well as Beal 10.0, 9.1, and 8.5.

Beal is my new favorite. The 10 and 9.1 have been amazing and durable ropes for many applications. 

Best bang for your buck is the mammut as others have said.

Gunks climber here- I’ve never once thought that I’d like an 80m there. What would you need it on?

I’ve had good luck with Beal and Sterling for ice and alpine  

I use Edleweiss 10 mm for my workhorse ropes and for the price have been very happy 

The edelrid 8.9 Swift protect is the first rope I have ever had strong feelings about. Every other rope is kinda just a rope, but that thing is special. And I own a comical amount of ropes. 

I’m a huge fan of the Beal Stinger 9.4. More UIAA falls, high sheath percentage, soft catches. For trad, maybe not, it’s a sport rope for taking whips, low drag, and feeds like butter though the belay device. 

Todd Berlier wrote:

im sure you need all the help you can get..

Well, I don’t like to brag, but I have 10 ropes.  

Mark Pilate wrote:

Well, I don’t like to brag, but I have 10 ropes.  

Can we steal the right numbers of ropes is n+1 joke from the cyclists? We're a bunch of nerds, right?

What don't y'all like about the 9.3 TC? I've only heard good things about it from the few people I've met who have one.

The 9.3 Tommy Caldwell rope (blue and purple) is a good rope if not a bit pricey. It's the best biweave in town which is nice on big rappels.  

The 9.6 Tommy Caldwell, light green with the weird white/black thread biweave is absolute garbage. The biweave tends to bleed or get dirty and be really hard to see and the rope gets fuzzy in a way that makes it brutal to pull through a grigri. It's like the cheapest biweave you can buy but it's awful.

Doug Chism wrote:

I’m a huge fan of the Beal Stinger 9.4. More UIAA falls, high sheath percentage, soft catches. For trad, maybe not, it’s a sport rope for taking whips, low drag, and feeds like butter though the belay device. 

Curious why you'd say maybe not for trad? Sounds pretty good to me

Another vote for the Mammut 9.5. I’m on my third one now (originally the infinity, now the crag dry), and they’ve all been great. I mostly sport climb, with lots of projecting, so my ropes see a lot of wear, and the Mammuts have really impressed me with their durability.

I have an 80 so that I can cut it down a few times be fore retiring it. If I climbed mostly at the gunks (which I have in the past), I’d get a 70. (And depending on how much hard projecting at the gunks I was doing, I’d get the skinnier version.)

I'm on my second Edelrid TC 9.6 now (the one that many here seem to dislike). It's my workhorse. I like the lower price, I haven't had any problems feeding through gri/atc, and the faint bi-pattern is a non-issue for me. The weird green color does lack sex appeal.  

Moved away from the Mammut 9.5 because of repeated sheath issues, but that's just me. 

Like Fritz and others I love the Beal Unicore ropes (Opera for beefy double/twin, parties of three, or single alpine, Stinger for sending, Tiger for walls) but at the Gunks (where OP climbs), where full 70m top-roping is not uncommon, we sometimes like to link rope-stretching pitches off the ground, and lead falls happen in ledgy terrain, the Beal ropes are too stretchy (static elongation of 9.5% vs. 6% / 7.4% for Mammut / Edelrid; dynamic elongation of 37% vs. 30% / 31% for Mammut / Edelrid ). 

EDIT. Reversing my endorsement of the green TC rope. See post on page 3 dated 7/3/24. 

Doug Chism wrote:

I’m a huge fan of the Beal Stinger 9.4. More UIAA falls, high sheath percentage, soft catches. For trad, maybe not, it’s a sport rope for taking whips, low drag, and feeds like butter though the belay device. 

Before I got the Swift Protect, the Stinger was my go-to for multipitch trad. Andy's point below about stretch is a valid one, however. My experience with the Stinger has been on vertical routes without ledgy terrain.

Whenever I replace my Swift Protect (currently at 77 meters), I would pay a premium to get another one. I've gotten such good deals on used cams from you fine gentlefolk here that I don't mind dropping some extra coin on a rope.