Should I chop my tagline?

I climb on a 60m 10.2 rope and I will soon be using a 70m 8.4 half rope as my tagline. Can you guys think of any situation in which the extra 10 meters of tagline would come in handy or should I just cut it to the same length as my climbing rope?

Thanks for you opinions!

-Logan

Knots for a lengthy tie in. Emergency rappel rope of extended length is sure nice to have. I'd keep it as is.

Is it ONLY a tag line now? If so, I'd chop it. Partly for weight, but mostly to help it tangle a little less. It's pretty hard to dream up scenarios where you need that extra 10m.

65 m rappels are nice! Also its a bit thick for a dedicated tag line 6mm or less will save you weight.

I'd leave it as is for now

Except you can't do 65m rappels. The weight has to be borne by the thicker rope, so the knot must be at the anchor, either blocking the rings (dangerous, be very careful about that), or in a looped-though configuration with a 'biner.

buy a 70m to climb on.
badabing

Auto-X Fil, Exactly, it is only a tagline and I want to chop it because I hate dealing with excess rope.

Rock Fencer, I love the idea of a 6mm line coiled in a daypack. How nice! I've never used or seen that setup used but I've heard it causes lots of problems that traditional two rope rappels do not.

How would I do a 65m rappel with a 10.2 60m rope and a 8.4 70m rope considering that the knot has to be on the same side as the 70m rope? The knot can not pass through the anchor to equalize the two ropes because it is on the wrong side and if I tied it to the otherside the 8.4 would feed un-evenly.

"""Except you can't do 65m rappels. The weight has to be borne by the thicker rope, so the knot must be at the anchor, either blocking the rings (dangerous, be very careful about that), or in a looped-though configuration with a 'biner."""

^That is what I was trying to explain in my above post. The extra 10m is useless unless I buy a 70m climbing line or if I get myself into a weird emergency where a 60m rope is 10m too short. Any other scenarios that I am not thinking about?

dont chop it ... you may get a 70m rope in the future ...

put the skinny through the anchors, and always pull the fat rope.
this way you have the fat rope down first (if one were to get stuck, and you needed to re lead a section to free it.)

it is always easier to pull the fat rope first anyway. less stretch.

that being said, you can do 65m raps. just let only one slide through the rap device to even out the ends. also a bonus when that knot is down over a edge now... easier pulling.

why must you only rap on one, if you have two?
it is a 8.4, plenty thick enough even for leading...

Cor, I will indeed be rappelling on both ropes. Maybe I shouldn't be referring to the 8.4 as a tag line but rather a rope that I only use for rappelling?

Putting the knot on the fat rope side allows the skinny rope to feed faster and slide through the anchor which doesn't sound like a good thing to me. Should I not be concerned about this fact?

Again, I love the idea of 6mm tagline but dual rope raps just seem so much less complicated and more error proof.

Given your scenario I'd chop the "rap" rope to match the lead line. Saves weight and rope management.

However, another option is to buy a matching half rope for your 8.4 and: when you need full length rappels, climb on double ropes (2x 8.4) and when you only need half rope rappels, climb on the single rope (10.2) and leave the half at home. This is what I do and it works very well.

if you are rapping on two ropes... there is no sliding through the anchor while you are rapping. not sure i understand what you mean.

it is nice when it slides through the anchor easier while pulling, right?

that 8.4mil rope is probably a half rope (not twin) which is more than strong enough. when leading on them, you typically clip them separately (if you had two.)

6mil is fine with a single lead line, but matt hoffmann does bring up a good point. why not just get another half rope? you will save weight in the long run (compared to your current setup.) and then you have a good alpine half rope setup..

Auto-X Fil wrote:Except you can't do 65m rappels. The weight has to be borne by the thicker rope, so the knot must be at the anchor, either blocking the rings (dangerous, be very careful about that), or in a looped-though configuration with a 'biner.

the weight does not have to be borne by the thicker rope,that is simply ridiculous in terms of these two diameters. Further more an 8.4mm half rope is perfectly fine to rap on s a single line. So you can do 70-60m rappels using different setups.

Either way the system described is far from ideal. I'd either climb on doubles or get a skinnier tag line.

Lopping 10 meters off your skinny line will save you about a pound. I can think of lots of scenarios* where you might be happy to have an extra 10 meters of rope, so it doesn't sound worth it to me.

And yeah, those diameters are close enough that I don't think you're going to have any problems with rope sliding through the anchor. Just tie 'em together and rap normally.

* rope gets stuck during a pull and you have to lead up to free it, rope gets chopped by rockfall, you need to leave a rap anchor and are out of slings, you know you have to do a 35 meter rap and can choose not to use your lead line at all, etc etc

What's the score so far? I think 'no chop' is a bit ahead of the 'chop' vote.

One more vote for NO CHOP.

Eric F. mentions some good reasons to keep the extra length.

if you do decide to chop, leave it longer than the thicker rope (60m), as the thinner rope will feed through the rap device quicker than then thicker rope.

for this reason i have heard of people rapping off the end of their skinny rope.

correct me if I'm wrong

i missed it all JLP... shit, i should probably spend more time on here!

remember Conor, watch the ends - or - yer gonna die!

"""rope gets stuck during a pull and you have to lead up to free it, rope gets chopped by rockfall, you need to leave a rap anchor and are out of slings, you know you have to do a 35 meter rap and can choose not to use your lead line at all, etc etc"""

Simple scenarios that I never considered. Much appreciated.

Thanks guys. I am psyched that I asked for your wisdom before cutting the rope. The extra bit of rope that I didn't want to deal with doesn't seem like such a big problem anymore. I'm leaving it at 70m

Thanks, Logan

Lspade, you should donkey punch you're chick tonight.