UKH

What ropes do people usually climb on, on the Bohuslän crags? Doubles or singles? If single, what length, 70m or 80m? We won't be climbing very hard, N6 ish, if that makes a difference.

Thanks

The times I’ve been there, 60-70m single has been the least fuff option. And you can even link stuff together so make stuff like Prismaster as a rope stretcher 60m pitch (you need to be careful with protection at the start, but I’ve climbed it now twice with my 60m single… but it was a proper rope stretcher).

majority of the crags are shorter, in the 20 to 30m range (and even smaller).

half ropes could be handy for those wondering face lines… but they often tend to be harder and spicy… and not Why you go there… it’s all about the (finger) cracks… not spicy face climbs.

Single rope. Take some extendable quickdraws too. In general the gear is so good that it feels like sport climbing, and you don't get in a situation where you placing multiple pieces in a similar spot to be sure, so the rope runs pretty straight. I think we used a 60 when I was there.

It depends on your preference really, you can probably get by perfectly well with either single or half ropes. As we are most used to trad climbing in Britain, we took half ropes -  60m I think. Personally, that would be my preference. As mentioned by the others though, most routes are relatively straight so single would be fine if you prefer.  Some crags are higher than 30m so having 2 ropes to ab was useful.

I've always used a single when climbing there. The only annoyance I remember was climbing Bergkirstis polska (n6-) with my wife belaying and our two at the time small kids annoying her/taking photos of me. I knew I would have to ab to take the gear out but the rope wasn't long enough to double it. So I tied it off, stripped my runners, then had to walk miles to find a dodgy scramble up to the top, drop the rope and scramble down. If I had had doubles I could have pulled them down, but it was a non climbing, family camping holiday so room in the car for gear I shouldn't be taking was at a premium!

I’m gonna put that on bad route finding. The mellow scramble is IIRC about 50m right from the start of the route. And I do recall being able to reach the ground on a doubled 60m rope. Albeit not going down from where it ended, but closer to the start. I think 60m doubled actually got you a few meters from the ground. But there is the nice ledge where you could have pulled the rope and then scramble down (Atleast I don’t recall anyone placing gear before the ledge. I certainly didn’t, and I’n a wimp).

Risking exposing my ignorance, what do the belays tend to be? Are they trees back from the edge? Nuts/friends? Are there any bolted belays to lower from or is it normal to belay at the top UK style? Do you walk down normally or is there maybe an accepted rap route for each crag?

A mixture of all of the above. Albeit less of the grit-like tops. Mostly you’ll either find good cracks for trad anchors, or convinient trees… or even bolted anchors.

Most cracks have a walk-off path (somewhere), but rappels are quite often the normal method. Either from bolt anchors (like top of Prismaster) or a convinient tree, Sometimes with in-site tat et maillon.

the local guidebook spills the beans on this, If no paper copy is found, 27Crags might ve an option as the authors have transferred Most of the crags to that platform as well.

Just to add, this is Scandinavia. So convinience is also a factor (especially for non Mountain single pitch). And bolted anchors that you can also rap from are convinient to climb many lines at said crack.

Yes, we couldn't find a copy of the guide - I think it's out of print - so we've got 27crags. 

As for ropes we've decided on a skinny single 80m that can be doubled if necessary for wandering pitches and a slightly chunkier 70m. 

Thanks everyone for the advice.