It’s finally time to replace my Mammut 50m single climbing rope (purchased c.2006). It’s had an incredibly gentle life with no significant falls on it, but whilst in El Chorro last week, I noticed some strange coiling occurring after releasing tension on it.
In any event, this provides me with the opportunity to look at alternative rope options. Given that how I enjoy the mountains today has changed from some years back when I bought the Mammut rope, I wonder whether a two-rope set up would be better for me.
Today, I only lead-climb green routes and I am not bothered about pushing my grade – I just enjoy being outside. I do a fair few via ferratas and hope to do many more in the future. When tackling more challenging routes, and conditions allow, I like to throw up a top-rope.
I wonder whether two half-ropes would satisfy my needs, given how I enjoy the hills today. Therefore, am I correct in thinking the following about half ropes:
That I would be able to use both half-ropes when lead climbing
That I would be able to use one of the two half-ropes for top roping
That I would be able to tie the half-ropes together to form a 100m abseil length for emergency abseiling to extract an injured individual from a via ferrata, should the need arise.
That I would be able to use one of the two half-ropes as a confidence rope to support individuals on trickier via ferrata sections.
I welcome any recommendations that you may have and would be enormously interested to hear from anyone whose sense of ‘adventure’ is similar to mine!
All the best, and thanks in advance.
Jamie
