Skinny ropes thoughts comments and concerns

I'm headed in a trip where an 80m rope will be necessary for many routes. My partner and I are highly considering purchasing a skinny dynamic rope, there are a few out there in the 9.0-9.2 range that are rated for singles. What are your thoughts on the balance between durability/weight/ safety/ grigri use/ etc... thoughts... comments.. concerns.. recs! Gracias

Unicore technology seems to be the best thing to mitigate the risks associated with a skinny rope. I have three ropes with that feature and they've been great. I think Edelweiss and Beal make one or more in 80m lengths.

I have 9.1...Love/hate relationship.

Love - how light it is, so nice. Good handling.

Hate - how fast it can blast through an ATC or GriGri. You have to pay attention when lowering or catching...or it will rip through. Took a huge lead whip on it (~30ft with two blown pieces) and it has a deformed core now.

My next rope will be in the 9.3-9.5 range

I'm with Grog, I prefer a little bit more rope when using a single. 9.4 is a nice balance.

thanks guys, we will be mostly sport climbing so the risk of blown pieces SHOULD be lowered. the concern I've been harping over is fall risk/ larger than expected falls due to the rope flying through ATC or grigri.

decreased weight on long routes (encroaching on 40m) is the incentive to go for such a thin rope. perhaps there is a high performance, light weight 9.3 on the market i'm missing

I had the Edelrid Swift Pro 8.9 mm rope. It was noticeably lighter and it handled fine when belaying and rappelling through assisted braking devices although I had to be a little more careful when using a regular atc. It was a little more tangly so proper rope management was extra important. But overall, I loved the rope and used it on a bunch of mountains. Unfortunately, it was the wrong rope to use for a Tyrolean traverse and got core damage that led to me having to chop the rope. The damage was near the center so now I have 2 nearly 35 meter ropes that I use as glacier ropes. Could use them as gym ropes too I suppose although I mostly boulder in the gym.

I'm on my second Bluewater 9.1 Icon.

I currently use an 80m for really tall sport routes and it is awesome! feels light clipping the 20th bolt and handles great.

My first Icon was a 70m and I used it exclusively for all sport/trad climbing for the first year. It took a beating and now is about 50m and still going strong.

Works really well with a Grigri2, but you need to go slow when bringing your partner back to earth. It gains speed quickly.

eye of the choss wrote:. perhaps there is a high performance, light weight 9.3 on the market i'm missing

I've use a sterling nano quite a bit, bought it as an alpine rope, but ended up using it for some sport also. Lead falls with a grigri are fine, didn't notice any issues lowering. I have caught small falls with an ATC and felt it was fine as well.

The sheath isn't the best though, I've seen a fair amount of fuzzing for how much use it's really seen. I hear the bluewater icon/wave has a burlier sheath for the size.

I've been staring down the blue water icon

I use a skinny for everything except aid. The thickest rope I use anymore is 9.5mm and my main rope is 9.2 for sport climbing. For multipitch, I use a 70m 8.9mm Unicore. I have few concerns with using them, although you do need to be careful around sharp rock and make sure your belayer actually uses the GriGri the proper way.

John this is more or less exactly my concern, I don't want to be overseas with an issue. I ended up going for the bluewater 9.3