Static Rope Recommendations

Okay, I currently have a 60’ static rope that I love for building top rope anchors. It was an impulse buy I made when climbing in Acadia and, unfortunately, I made no note of what it was. It’s off a spool so there are also no markings to help me out.

The one drawback of this rope, however, is that it’s too short for a great deal of the top rope setups at my local crags. Friends of mine have far longer ropes that I’ve used but, aside from their length, were inferior to the static rope that I currently have. They were generally thick and super stiff. This made it hard to tie knots and coil them tightly to fit into my cragging pack.

That said, I was hoping I could get some input from fellow Mountain Project users on what I should buy. I am looking for something around 200’-300’ in length. I’d like it to be relatively thin, very flexible, and of course very durable. What should I be looking to buy?

pigeon or sterling

I have a Bluewater 10.3 200' static I've had good luck with- I've seen it at Mountain gear for around $145. Around here though, most folks use regular dynamic ropes for cragging/toproping.... have you got a special situation?

Peter Stokes wrote:I have a Bluewater 10.3 200' static I've had good luck with- I've seen it at Mountain gear for around $145. Around here though, most folks use regular dynamic ropes for cragging/toproping.... have you got a special situation?

In reading your post, I looked again at my original post and noticed I didn't mention that I am talking about for use as an anchor, not for actually climbing on (I've since updated my post). Anyhow, were you under the impression that I was talking about using it as a climbing rope, or do you use dynamic ropes to build anchors where you climb?

Crimp Junkie wrote: In reading your post, I looked again at my original post and noticed I didn't mention that I am talking about for use as an anchor, not for actually climbing on (I've since updated my post). Anyhow, were you under the impression that I was talking about using it as a climbing rope, or do you use dynamic ropes to build anchors where you climb?

I think he meant climbing. Sure, it's kosher to toprope climb on static, but for anchoring the sawing motion of dynamic rope on rock would probably mess dynamic up pretty quickly. I've put tubular webbing around dynamic cords used on TR anchors, but I'd still rather just use cheaper static.

Crimp Junkie wrote: In reading your post, I looked again at my original post and noticed I didn't mention that I am talking about for use as an anchor, not for actually climbing on (I've since updated my post). Anyhow, were you under the impression that I was talking about using it as a climbing rope, or do you use dynamic ropes to build anchors where you climb?

No, I've never built an anchor with dynamic rope, though I suppose I could come up with a scenario where I might want to. I do sometimes use static rope to toprope solo- mostly in situations where the anchors are bomber, and I'm trying to minimize my fall length near the bottom of the route. For anchor building, I've had pretty good luck with Bluewater II Plus static rope, in the 11.5 size, but it's heavy.

Yeah, your static is awesome Dan. I need to pick one up also. Did you try calling the place you got it up in Acadia?

KevinF wrote:Yeah, your static is awesome Dan. I need to pick one up also. Did you try calling the place you got it up in Acadia?

That's the worst part, Kevin, there are several shops and I forgot which one it was. Maybe I will call them all and see if they recognize it by its description.

post a picture of it and see if anyone recognize the weave pattern.