Mountaineering Rope: a Buyer's Guide

So you’re taking up mountaineering and need some rope and climbing gear. This is the place to read all you need to know about choosing and buying your first mountaineering rope (also known as climbing rope). And to make life even easier, I’ve listed a couple of popular climbing ropes in the list below. You can also find more articles over at my blog, The Mountain Gear Blog for more articles.

The first thing you have to know about is that there are two very different sorts of rope out there. Climb on the wrong one and you can end up killing yourself in a fall. One is called static rope. In essence this means it does not stretch. That is fine if you are climbing indoors on a climbing wall or at a climbing gym using a technique known as top-roping. When top-roping your buddy keeps the rope fairly tight with little slack in it. If you take a tumble you’ll only fall a couple of inches before the rope catches you. So in this case, you don’t need much stretch, or shock absorbing ability in the rope.

But if you were to use the same rope out on a rock face where there is a risk of falling a couple of feet before the rope catches you, then climbing with a static rope is like climbing with a steel cable. If you fall, the moment when the rope takes up your slack and catches your fall will be like hitting a concrete wall. The shock to your body can be enormous. Even more dangerous is that you transmit a huge shock to the anchor points holding your rope (be they bolts or nuts or whatever). That jerk can be enough to rip them out of the rock and send you tumbling.

So unless you know that you will only be doing top-rope climbing you should steer well clear of static ropes. Don’t even think of owning one unless you really know what you are doing.

The next question you need to ask is whether you want to go for a single rope or double rope system. In a single rope system you have one long rope (usually about 60 meters long) and about 10mm or 11mm thick. This is one of the most common systems used. You clip the rope into your protection when climbing. You can double it up and use it for abseiling but your maximum abseil in any one stretch is half your rope’s length  (in other words you can abseil 30 meters).

The big advantage of this is cost because you are only buying one rope that you can use for most purposes. The downside is weight, since only one person can carry the weight, and also friction, or drag. This is because the rope is quite thick, so wherever it passes through your protection elements  (such as runners and quickdraws) it sticks just a little. This isn’t a big deal each time it passes through some protection, but it all adds up and becomes harder and harder to keep pulling the rope through after a while. On short or straight climbs (or pitches) this isn’t a big issue but it is enough to cause some people to consider double ropes.

In a double rope system you have two slightly thinner ropes (8-9mm each) that are both attached to you and that pass through separate pieces of protection. This is a belt-and-braces approach to safety as you are really doubling up on making sure that if you fall, you will be held. Having double ropes also lets you split the weight of your rope between people in a group with each taking one rope. You can also abseil to the full length of the rope by putting them both together.

Now which of the two you choose will depend on the type of mountaineering you are planning on doing. If you are planning on doing ice climbing or serious traditional climbing, then a double rope is a good bet. But if you are doing alpine-style mountaineering or general crag climbing then often a single light rope will be a better and somewhat cheaper bet.

For the beginner the advantage of buying a slightly fatter rope is that it makes for a good all-rounder. It has a weight penalty and some other disadvantages but you can do most things with it and the upgrade as you gain more experience. These ropes are also often quite durable and forgiving in that they have protected cores so they do not get so easily damaged by sharp rocks and the like and they can also withstand multiple falls before they get destroyed.

Another consideration is whether to get a rope that has a waterproof treatment. The advantage of a treated rope is that it won’t absorb water as readily as an untreated rope. This is more than a luxury since when doing alpine climbing a rope that is wet and then freezes becomes quite heavy and unwieldy.

Think very hard before buying a used climbing rope. You don’t know where it has been, how carefully it has been cared for and whether it is damaged internally. It is no good spending good money on a rope that will let you down. Ask yourself how much you think your life is worth. Then ask yourself if it is worth spending a little bit extra on the price of a used climbing rope to buy a well-made new mountaineering rope from a reputable manufacturer. Go figure.

If you want to learn more about some of the other climbing accessoriesthat you'll need you can read them on another hub that I've written on the subject.