Climbing Rope diameter

[Yeahman]

hi,

I'm looking into getting a good length of climbing rope for tall rec climbs. everyday use i am on samson 1/2 inch, i think.

A couply hundy foot of 1/2 inch rope can weigh a bit, i'm keen to hike some distance to good trees. wondering if there is a good light weight maybe smaller diameter rope i should check out?

smaller diameter, what's it like to body thrust and foot lock on? how do friction hitchs hold to it?

any other pros or cons for small dia. rope?

Thanks

 

[moray]

An 11 mm line like Samson Velocity works really well, especially with suitable hardware (like handled ascenders and some sort of metal descender). You can find even smaller static lines and lots of hardware that come from the worlds of rock climbing and caving. I am talking single rope technique here. Climbing a single rope using ascenders and foot loops is a whole lot easier and faster than any other method using just your own power.

If you plan to move around up in the canopy, you may want to drag up a shorter second rope for that purpose and switch over to standard doubled rope technique. Moving the tie-in point for a single rope can be seriously inconvenient.

 

[Soul Assassin]

I've used many ropes, I like the half inch spark.

 

[Treeman587]

I see you rec. climb. Not trying to be an @ss, just curious. Why would you wanna climb a tree for free?

And oh yeah, I use 1/2" Arbor Master. I feel the larger diameters fit my hand better and are easier to control when moving around on rope.

 

[Yeahman]

wondering with the single rope technique, how do you anchor your rope around the limb? running bowline? and slide it up to chinh tight around the branch? or over the limb and then anchored to another tree at ground level? thanks

 

[Jim1NZ]

1/2" is heavy but nice to work with all day.

11mm will ware your hands out faster but is excellent if you like to climb with gloves, its better if you dont use a friction saver also, due to less friction over the branch.

I use 1/2" arbormaster with a 11mm velocity access

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Im with Jim1NZ on this, although a smaller diameter rope is lighter to work with, in the long term you will pay for it with the extra strain on your hands trying to grip on something with a smaller diameter and less contact area with your hands.

Try to hang off a 9mm and 12mm rope to see how each feels after 2 minutes.

 

[moss]

hi,

I'm looking into getting a good length of climbing rope for tall rec climbs. everyday use i am on samson 1/2 inch, i think.

A couply hundy foot of 1/2 inch rope can weigh a bit, i'm keen to hike some distance to good trees. wondering if there is a good light weight maybe smaller diameter rope i should check out?

smaller diameter, what's it like to body thrust and foot lock on? how do friction hitchs hold to it?

any other pros or cons for small dia. rope?

Thanks

This should be in Rec Climbing forum...

The narrow diameter ropes are great for the purpose described. Velocity, Blaze, Fly - pretty much any of the "designed for arborists" 11mm semi-statics will work well. You can use mechanical ascenders/descenders or friction hitches with them. You can tie in "traditional" with a Blake's hitch as well. If you wear the cheap rubber coated sticky gloves the hand grip problem goes away. you can footlock, body-thrust or do any other arborist climbing technique on them.
-moss

 

[moss]

wondering with the single rope technique, how do you anchor your rope around the limb? running bowline? and slide it up to cinch tight around the branch? or over the limb and then anchored to another tree at ground level? thanks

Check out Jepson's Tree Climbers Companion for details on SRT anchors. Choke hitching a single line with a running bowline is one technique. Using a ground level SRT anchor gives you extra backup if you put the rope over more than one branch. However if you ground anchor you'll need a 200 ft. dedicated SRT access line and shorter DdRT line for climbing in the crown (tall eucs you want to climb?). If you choke hitch to a high single branch you better damn well know how to assess a tree. If the branch blows out you're done.

So now you understand the dilemna of hiking in to tall trees. Ideally you want to have SRT access rope and a second shorter rope for DdRT in the tree. It's a big challenge to keep weight down.
-moss

 

[gasman]

I see you rec. climb. Not trying to be an @ss, just curious. Why would you wanna climb a tree for free?

And oh yeah, I use 1/2" Arbor Master. I feel the larger diameters fit my hand better and are easier to control when moving around on rope.

I rec. climb in VA. Where ya at? Why? Because it's there. Also use Arbor Master.

 

[Treeman587]

I rec. climb in VA. Where ya at? Why? Because it's there. Also use Arbor Master.

I must be lazy. I only go up for the money. Not that I dont enjoy climbing. I guess when you do it all the time for money it is hard to do it for free.

I am in Chesapeake.

 

[beowulf343]

Curious-just got 150 feet of 1/2" xtc a couple days ago. Weighs approximately 13.2 lbs. What's the weight of an 11 mm rope? Or if you can't handle the 'heavy' 1/2" rope, then make two trips-twice the exercise. How much gear are you bringing on these rec climbs anyway? I can carry three ropes, spikes, saddles, blocks, and saw and still come in around 100 lbs.

 

[moray]

Srt

wondering with the single rope technique, how do you anchor your rope around the limb? running bowline? and slide it up to chinh tight around the branch? or over the limb and then anchored to another tree at ground level? thanks

Cinching around a limb turns out to be quite inconvenient. For one thing you have to isolate the limb for this to work, and you have to retrieve it from the ground with another line attached to the loop or link you used for the cinching in the first place. The friction can make pulling the line down almost impossible. I pretty much gave up on this method after a few tries.

Much easier to anchor one end to the trunk either by circling the trunk with the rope and cinching rope to itself, or using a sling like a loopie (I use a sling). This way you can easily retrieve your rope when done, and you don't have to isolate the limb that supports you. But keep in mind that the load on that limb is now roughly double what it would be with the first method. Also, the load on your sling or trunk anchor, because of the angles involved, tends to be much higher than on the rope itself. By using a sling, rather than the rope itself, you can anchor with something much stronger than the rope (no worries) and you know that your rope is never loaded much beyond your own weight.

 

[gasman]

I must be lazy. I only go up for the money. Not that I dont enjoy climbing. I guess when you do it all the time for money it is hard to do it for free.

I am in Chesapeake.

Yeah I don't work at the hospital for free either.:yoyo:

 

[BranchWalker74]

I have been using a 120' poison ivy rope 11mm for about 8 months and I love it. Before now I have always used 1/2" ropes. My only complaint is, it is not long enough. I am going to get a 150' soon. I normally use the same method as moray. Using my bigshot and setting my rope high in the tree and tying a running bowline at the bottom of the tree. After I ascend to the top my groundie unties the bottom, and then I switch to double rope technique. When I am climbing by myself I zip a running bowline up into the crown of the tree, so I don't have to rely on someone on the ground to help me.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Here's a link to an article I wrote on SRT. Some of the systems that I used then have evolved into others. The host site has plenty of good discussion about SRT too.

http://www.treebuzz.com/pdf/SingleRope.pdf

You can count on saving about 1/3 of the weight and volume when you go to an 11mm rope. In other words, a 120' half inch rope will weigh the same and take up the same space in your pack as a 150' 11mm rope.

Wear Smurf-gloves to get a grip on the rope. To me, the offset of weight is very beneficial. I've worn gloves for years anyway.