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Toxins
Jul 24, 2014, 4:35 PM
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I was at Ceuse a few days ago and noticed many routes that exceeded even the 40 meter range and went into the 60 meters. This would require 120 meter ropes, and it is recommended in the guidebook to use this for some climbs. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with such long ropes and their thoughts on the matter. Many routes are quite overhung or veer right so rapping off to the lower anchors with a 70 meter rope is not always an option.
Where is best to get such a rope?
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Marylandclimber
Jul 24, 2014, 4:51 PM
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Using a 120 Meter Rope sounds like hell to me. Can't you just break it down into 2 or 3 pitches? I'm not familiar with that area at all but man that is a long rope.
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kennoyce
Jul 24, 2014, 5:06 PM
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Toxins wrote: I was at Ceuse a few days ago and noticed many routes that exceeded even the 40 meter range and went into the 60 meters. This would require 120 meter ropes, and it is recommended in the guidebook to use this for some climbs. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with such long ropes and their thoughts on the matter. Many routes are quite overhung or veer right so rapping off to the lower anchors with a 70 meter rope is not always an option. Where is best to get such a rope?
I certainly wouldn't want to lug a 120m rope to the crag (especially not that crag), why can't you just tram in and LPL?
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Toxins
Jul 24, 2014, 6:47 PM
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Many extensions are rated assuming you do not stop at the first set of anchors. For example, Les Collenettes is a 13b tufa line for 80 feet and then continuing on another 100 feet or so would make a 14a, described as a spectacular route. It tops out at 60 meters.
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lena_chita
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Jul 24, 2014, 7:50 PM
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Toxins wrote: I was at Ceuse a few days ago and noticed many routes that exceeded even the 40 meter range and went into the 60 meters. This would require 120 meter ropes, and it is recommended in the guidebook to use this for some climbs. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with such long ropes and their thoughts on the matter. Many routes are quite overhung or veer right so rapping off to the lower anchors with a 70 meter rope is not always an option. Where is best to get such a rope?
I am pretty sure most rope companies don't sell 120m ropes retail. 70m or 80m is the longest I've ever seen sold.
I am also pretty sure you don't WANT to buy 120m rope. You would be better off with two 60 m ropes, or two 70m, if only because you and your partner can each carry one, and most people already have them.
You can be fine with a rope that is shorter than 2x of the route length. It takes some thinking and attention to what you are doing, but there are many options. It would depend to some extent on whether the route has fixed draws or you need to clean them, whether there are multiple people in your party who want to climb the route, whether you can bring two ropes, the overhang factor, a large difference in climber weight, etc.
The list below is by no means exhaustive.
1) After climbing the route, you trolley into the rope that is clipped through the draws, lower as much as the remainder of the rope allows (obviously in this case you have to be sure there is a knot in the end of the rope!), go in direct, re-thread the rope through the midway bolt (often there would be a quicklink or permadraw in the likely spot already, or you can bring your own), lower from there. You can fully clean the draws off the route this way.
2) if you have two ropes and multiple people who want to climb, first person climbs on 1st rope, fixes it at the anchors, and rappels on a single strand. All subsequent people climb on second rope, and rap the fixed line. The last person can rap on two ropes, or get lowered with two ropes tied together, or untie one rope, drop it, and lower as in scenario 1.
3) with one rope and the 2nd climber willing to TR/Aid. Again, knot at the end of the rope is important. First climber goes to the anchors. then starts lowering as if he had enough rope to go to the ground. The belayer lowers the climber as much as possible, until the knot gets to the belay device, and then starts climbing the route, with the first climber being lowered as the 2nd climber goes up. When the 1st climber is on the ground, the 2nd goes in direct, re-threads, lowers from midway on the route. Might not be a good idea if there is a large difference in cimber weights, or where the route is too overhanging and getting back on the rock would be a pain if the 2nd climber falls.
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kennoyce
Jul 24, 2014, 8:21 PM
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[quote "lena_chita1) After climbing the route, you trolley into the rope that is clipped through the draws, lower as much as the remainder of the rope allows (obviously in this case you have to be sure there is a knot in the end of the rope!), go in direct, re-thread the rope through the midway bolt (often there would be a quicklink or permadraw in the likely spot already, or you can bring your own), lower from there. You can fully clean the draws off the route this way.
This is the method I was refering to above, in my experience, this is pretty normal for areas with routes longer than a standard rope length, there will usually be at least a permadraw on the bolt that you would lower from.
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lena_chita
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Jul 25, 2014, 11:58 AM
Post #7 of 10
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kennoyce wrote: "lena_chita1 wrote: After climbing the route, you trolley into the rope that is clipped through the draws, lower as much as the remainder of the rope allows (obviously in this case you have to be sure there is a knot in the end of the rope!), go in direct, re-thread the rope through the midway bolt (often there would be a quicklink or permadraw in the likely spot already, or you can bring your own), lower from there. You can fully clean the draws off the route this way. This is the method I was refering to above, in my experience, this is pretty normal for areas with routes longer than a standard rope length, there will usually be at least a permadraw on the bolt that you would lower from.
Yes, this is how we did it, too. And yes, there was always a quicklink, or biner, or chain draw in a likely spot in the middle. But if we had two ropes with us, and more than 2 people in the climbing party, we probably would have done option 2, because it would have allowed for picture taking, and it would have been quicker for multiple people to rap the fixed line.
My option 3 was more for the situation where the leader fell past the point of being able to lower, and was not able to get back on the rock (with 150 ft of rope out, and lighter belayer, boinking is pretty useless). Or for people who just like doing complicated things.
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olderic
Jul 25, 2014, 3:13 PM
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Instead of all the speculation why don't you check with the locals?
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JimTitt
Jul 25, 2014, 6:59 PM
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olderic wrote: Instead of all the speculation why don't you check with the locals?
The locals are strong enough to carry a 120m rope AND climb 5.14 without spraying on the internet. Even an old fool like me can walk in with two ropes and all the bolting gear to put up routes.
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funk
Jul 25, 2014, 7:35 PM
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JimTitt wrote: olderic wrote: Instead of all the speculation why don't you check with the locals? The locals are strong enough to carry a 120m rope AND climb 5.14 without spraying on the internet. Even an old fool like me can walk in with two ropes and all the bolting gear to put up routes.
^+1
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