Double/Half Rope as Single on glaciers

[JAL]

Is there any danger in using a double/half rope as a single for glacier travel? I saw a team of 3 last weekend using what looked like about an 8mm cord for their glacier rope.

[whidbey]

Beal Iceline.. 8.5 or so and works great. Others my not agree but it does work great for everything moderate.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Used a skinny ice floss on my last glacier outing. No problem, because you will not be loading anywhere near the limit on a crevasse fall. Just watch the slack between you and your partners, but that should already be something you are watching anyway. Right

[Gary_Yngve]

The only caution is that you might need to go from 6mm prusiks to 5mm prusiks for an 8mm rope.

[PeterC]

Another thing to watch for is that a pulley that autoblocks a prussik on a fatter rope might instead suck the prussik in and jam when used on a skinny rope. This happened to me once on a rescue practice, causing our z-pulley system to turn into a c without our realizing. The jam also resulted in all slack we had pulled up zipping back out when we let go instead of getting locked off w/ the prussik.

[Gary_Yngve]

Though a prusik jam can be annoying, it's user error not to set the prusik prior to releasing the load.

 

You can also use an ATC or other such thingie to mind the prusik should the pulley misbehave.

[jmace]

Is there any danger in using a double/half rope as a single for glacier travel?

 

Considering they are rated for single falls it would be fine.

[northvanclimber]

lots of people use a single half rope for glacier travel. personally, i've also used a half rope for alpine ice too... maybe not the safest, but nice and light. just be aware that it's a thin rope that won't take a ton of sharp-edge abuse and because it stretches so much, complex cravasse rescue systems are a bit of a pain in the ass. i'd never use a single half rope on any technical rock as it could get cut .

[genepires]

One can use a half rope for technical rock. The pitches will be short. I have used a half rope for short rock pitches with one climber tieing into the middle of the rope (with a bowline on a bight or other good knot) and the other climber tie into BOTH ends of the rope. Then there are two strands between the climbers and you have a double rope system, but you can only pitch out 25 or 30 meters. Viola, half rope on 5th class ground.

[sammy]

Should a rappel be necessary, do you have to use something like a reversino, or just use a Reverso or ATC with more caution?

[robert]

I have rapped an 8.5 with an old trango pyramid. I was careful, but it seemed fine. I haven't used a reverso, but I know Petzl gives specific rope diameters for their use.

[Gary_Yngve]

More caution (I've rapped on two strands of 6mm before with an ATC too, which I would not advise for a newbie). AND WEAR YOUR BELAY GLOVES!

 

There's also a bunch of extra friction tricks you could do such as a redirect or an extra biner.

[Mr_Phil]

Munter hitch

[Gary_Yngve]

does that get your ropes all twisty?

[Mr_Phil]

Seems to get your knickers in a bunch.

[G-spotter]

rappelling is aid.

[northvanclimber]

once, i tried to speed things up and simul-rappeled on a single strand of a 8.7 mm half rope with a reverso.. good thing i was wearing gloves!!!!!! wouldn't recommend doing that again

[ericb]

I've rapped on an 8mm Mammut doubled through a reverso....VERY cafefully....I think 8 is the bottom limit for the Reverso according to their literature. Next time I will use my glove....it was VERY fast. I spent so much time worrying about losing control I perfectly positioned the rope in a crack where it got stuck upon pulling. Good times

[northvanclimber]

I've rapped on an 8mm Mammut doubled through a reverso....VERY cafefully....I think 8 is the bottom limit for the Reverso according to their literature. Next time I will use my glove....it was VERY fast. I spent so much time worrying about losing control I perfectly positioned the rope in a crack where it got stuck upon pulling. Good times

 

[G-spotter]

I've rapped on an 8mm Mammut doubled through a reverso....VERY cafefully....I think 8 is the bottom limit for the Reverso according to their literature. Next time I will use my glove....it was VERY fast. I spent so much time worrying about losing control I perfectly positioned the rope in a crack where it got stuck upon pulling. Good times

 

A woman from Washington died on Sir Donald last weekend rappelling with 8mm through a Reverso.

[northvanclimber]

http://clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18007

[dinomyte]

The lessons learned in the "how not to die while rapelling" thread, and from the Sir Donald accident report should serve us all.

 

Story

Edited August 25, 2006 by dinomyte

[jmace]

A woman from Washington died on Sir Donald last weekend rappelling with 8mm through a Reverso.

 

Considering the web site says 8mm is fine for the reverso..shouldnt there be either a recall or some sort of saftey bulletin issued?

 

or did she not have it set up properly..or was she using a twin..? any idea?

[dinomyte]

From the report:

 

"Well running a normal ATC on a twin rope gave little friction and it became apparent she could not hold on."

[G-spotter]

I wasn't there with calipers so i have no idea if it was an ATC, a Reverso or what. I have found that a normal Reverso is pretty slippery on skinny ropes. That's one reason I switched to the ATC Guide.