This would be my recommendation. Learn some stuff about the rope choices, think about what you do or want to do, then re ask yourself these questions or re post here with details. Soooo many choices for so many styles.
I have 2 climb lines, long and short. Prune line and kill line. Same rope cuz i like consistency. It's abrasive resist-ish cause I'm rough on stuff. If your a careful and gentle person on ropes that may leave you open to things I wouldn't ever suggest cuz of how I am.
Rigging lines, same thing. I do natural crotch rigging mixed with rigging rings, and I'm it overly gently with it. I also do speed lines lot. I jave 150' rigging line (long enough out my way) for 90% of what I do. Abrasive resistance again was important for my rope choice because of how I am. But i would also love to buy a long static line for my.speed lines where I need it tighty tight.
Start with cost effective ropes so you can learn what YOU like as you go. Work with what you have, and learn what you want that fits your style so you can continue to do motw and more withbwhat you have. Takes time but asl questions and youll get it
Hey, CutHighnLetFly! I noticed that you like ropes that are rugged, and that is of interest to me. Only you never named the ropes that you use that you find to be so tough. What is the name and diameter of your favorite climbing line?
Also, to everyone reading this thread generally: I saw this thread going by when the original poster started it. I guess I felt like staying out of it initially just because there are so many more experienced climbers on this forum, that I thought they'd have better input for the guy. Big mistake. It seems like he may have left us since nobody answered his post the whole first day he posted it.
Hey,
@treethings! If you are still lurking out there, jump back in & let us know you're still interested. I meant no offense by my lack of reply, I was just expecting someone else to give it a go, & it just didn't happen for awhile.
To answer the question of whether and why to get a spliced eye in a rope, for me I vote yes to getting a spliced eye in one end of the rope only. A hand splice is supposed to retain about 90% of the strength of a rope, if I have my facts right. I think a knot can cause a loss of about 40% of a rope's strength. I'm not sure of the numbers for sewn splices. Also, having a spliced eye in a rigging rope makes it easy to do knotless rigging, where you just clip in a rigging biner to the spliced eye & use an "endless loop" sling to quickly girth hitch a branch to be removed. Having an eye in a climbing rope eliminates having a bulky termination knot that can interfere with the function of a climbing hitch, for those that still like to climb using the DdRT method.
To answer the original poster's question about which ropes I use: for climbing, I have Vortex, which I think is a 12.7mm rope. It's big and heavy and soft on the hands, easy to grab, but I managed to pick it pretty badly once with a foot ascender. Probably operator error, but this is why I have an interest in hearing from people who have found a really tough climbing line that also works well in both hybrid and fully mechanical devices, if such a thing exists.
My first rope, which I still use & get grief for, is a Mammut rope intended for mountaineering. Highly dynamic, so it can absorb a lot of energy in the event of a fall. The stretchyness never bothered me.
I also recently bought some Samson Voyager climbing rope, which I think is an 11.8 mm diameter rope. I've only climbed on it once or twice so far, but I like the way it feels in the hand. It seemed to work ok in the Rope Runner, but it was my first time using both the Rope Runner and the Voyager rope, and it was a brief climb, and not too high. I was just showing a curious friend my basic method for getting into a tree.
I only own two rigging ropes. 1/2" Sampson Stable Braid, which gets used for almost everything I do, plus a 5/8" Yale Polydyne rigging rope, which is a lot more stretchy or dynamic, intended to be used to catch falling wood, and preventing breaking due to its energy absorbing characteristics. So far I haven't had to use it much, as I'm not a takedown artist yet. It is nice to have two rigging ropes, though. The biggest use I put the Polydyne to was to suspend a block, and then run the 1/2" Stable Braid through it, for rigging out tree branch sections.
That's about it for me.
Tim
