Rope Lengths

[moab mark]

Here's my question for today?

When heading out to do a canyon how much rope are you hauling?
Hopefully you are hauling enough for the longest rappel and not just webbing to save weight.
Mark

[trackrunner]

ideally 3 times the length of the longest drop. Never a problem in groups with several people. We bring multiple ropes and spread the ropes & gear around. At least two long ones (50 -60 m and the occasional 300ft when needed) and a couple short ropes. Makes it easy to spead things up in multi rap canyons when a group can leap frog.

In a small group or solo may choose my rope length more carfully to save on weight yet still enough rope to do the canyon.

[Scott Card]

Two times the length of the longest rap. Yes, we (not me) lugged two 300 footers through Heaps, twice. I do not do the pull cord thing. Personal preference I guess. I figure if you have to have a pull cord (which you do), carry a rope that you can rap on if needs be as your pull cord. The weight is worth it and yes I carry my share.

[Iceaxe]

When heading out to do a canyon how much rope are you hauling?

That depends.....

If solo or as a pair we usually lug as little rope as possible.... usually length of longest rap and a pull chord... my pull chord is 6mm and I've rapped on it in emergencies...

If we have a lot of horsepower along (bunch of strong youngin's) we'll carry more rope.... or if doing a canyon with a bunch of short drops, Imlay comes to mind, we'll usually carry several short ropes so we can leap frog the rappers and speed things up....

One other item.... I prefer to carry two short ropes over one long rope.... for example.... if doing Pine Creek we'll carry two 100' ropes...

Your mileage may vary.....

[Scott P]

When heading out to do a canyon how much rope are you hauling?

It depends. The majority of the canyons I've done were beta-less. That means we didn't know how long the drops would be so we always brought quite a bit. Most of the time it was too much, but least twice we had just barely enough. Too much is always better than too little.

[Iceaxe]

It depends. The majority of the canyons I've done were beta-less.

Yeah.... No beta is a completely different animal....

Those of you who have done Zero-G will find this amusing.... The first time we did Zero-G we had no beta..... we packed 600' of rope through the slot with us.

And the first time we did Sandthrax we had no beta... so of course we were packing a 100' rope and a 60' rope....

One more thought.... we no longer carry a bolt kit with us, even when doing new stuff.... so now we carry more rope and more webbing... YMMV