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General Climbing Discussion

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Double ropes again 19-Oct-2003 At 12:41:51 PM V

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You only need one half rope for glacier travel. If someone slips into a crevasse, the force on the rope will be much less than a lead fall rockclimbing. Besides a bit of shock loading as the slack is taken up, the load will be mostly static. Also, if you're walking in a pair, your 'anchor' is the person you're roped to, and they will certainly not remain stationary (like a rock anchor) when you fall down a hole, so that will take some of the shock off the rope as well.

What works for me is to use one half rope on the glacier, and for pitching on moderate slopes --- you'r basically soloing anyway, as you're unlikely to put in more than one or two bits of gear on a pitch of say, 50 degree ice. But at least the seconder has a top rope. If you're climbing steeper stuff, like steep ice in frontpoint/traction position, or alpine rock, then twin or double rope style is the way to go. IMHO it's always good to have two 9mm ropes on you (ie. use one, keep another in a backpack) so you can do 50m rappels (and also as a backup if something happens to the first rope.

Twin/double ropes are probably better than singles for technical alpine climbing as there is generally a chance of rock fall. If one rope is cut by falling rocks (or by sliding over sharp NZ schist in the case of a fall), you'll still have another. That said, I've never fallen (except down schrunds and crevasses) while alpine climbing as I don't climb at my limits in the alps. So I've never had to "stress test" this system :-)