bail material

What do you all recommend for material to bail off routes (length, diameter, and type of material)? Headed to a less traveled area this weekend. Thanks

Not 5mm? I'm talking for out of the way, single use type applications. 

I've rapped off hundreds and hundreds of feet of 5mm. It's fine. 

I also use a really lightweight 1/2" tubular webbing, lighter than normal stuff...about 5kn, but we recently brought 80' for a route and it was way lighter and more compact than 40' of 6mm.
This is what I use, I think (I buy mine at a local shop): https://ripstopbytheroll.com/products/1-2-mil-spec-tubular-nylon-webbing

My oldest slings -- the ones I've retired from active use.  Finder/leaver biners, or quick links.

Use your cordelette. Buy new one once you get home.

Just remember to bring a knife. As we all know, be the one with the knife. 

Bail on your climbing gear because when you're bailing, you're still climbing. Skip a day at the slopes and buy $100 worth of climbing gear, enough to bail off of ten to twenty days of climbing routes.

If I'm specifically bringing material for bailing, I will use a bunch of webbing and/or cord scraps all tied together and then a few tied webbing slings if I think I'll need more, as well as a few bail biners or rap rings if I have 'em. Usually I just bring a cordelette and a bail biner or 2 if I'm attempting something where bailing is foreseeable, though. 

On trad multipitch trad routes I always carry a couple of standard-length nylon slings made from 1" tied webbing.  Five feet of webbing makes a shoulder sling tied with a water knot. Every few years I buy a length of sling in brown/grey color and make more as I use them up. 

It's nice to have a couple of slings that can be untied, are thick enough that I can comfortably rap off directly, and are not so ugly when left hanging on a rock or tree.

I don't use them as much as I used to because rap stations with rings/chains are far more common these days, but they still come in handy.

Don't bail.............once again, the "overdependance on gear generation" cracks me up. 

Every day there's five "hey! I found your gear, PM me" and five more "hey! I left some stuff, I'd like it back if you find it"

If you bail so much you have to plan to bail, go back to the gym. 

Somebody is going to get killed because someone else told them to bail on crap to save some money.

If you can't afford to stink at this, quit tempting fate.

JB

old ropes

John Barritt wrote:

John Barritt wrote:

Bail as in for weather or because I'm going to an area that may require the use of natural anchors to descend a route or I may have to replace rap material as the area has low traffic. 

Thanks for your thoughtful insight.

Thanks everyone 

tjaredj wrote:

I love it........Don't make me come up there and kick your butt you little punk! ;)

(Joe Trabucco wrote:

Listen, John.  Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I know how to build an anchor.  Was just asking about material the community typically uses to rap off. 

Bail as in for weather or because I'm going to an area that may require the use of natural anchors to descend a route or I may have to replace rap material as the area has low traffic. 

Thanks for your thoughtful insight.

Listen Joe........(just kidding) A better thread title (for us old guys) would be; "Suggestions for what to use to replace/leave for rap slings" 

Similar answer as before, take some new webbing or cord along and some welded rings or quick links to build/replace rap slings. Don't trust your life (and maybe the next guys) to some old ratty crap. JB

And make sure if you're tying webbing to use a double-fisherman's ... you know, for the next guy!

Something that IS useful is to replace items that are non-load bearing with a lightweight replacement. 

IE. My chalk bag is on 3/8s tubular webbing with 2 rap rings as a buckle. The pocket of my chalk bag has 2 more rap rings, a tiny knife, an E-light, tiny sunscreen, chapstick, and a caffeine goo. This sounds like a lot, however, the size of the pocket is so small. it's about as much bulk as 2 oval carabiners.

 I  don't bail often but when I do it goes very smoothly. I leave nothing I care about and i don't have to do it in the dark. 

ebmudder wrote:

And make sure if you're tying webbing to use a double-fisherman's ... you know, for the next guy!

You mean water knot for webbing? And DF for cord?

John Barritt wrote:

Listen Joe........(just kidding) A better thread title (for us old guys) would be; "Suggestions for what to use to replace/leave for rap slings" 

Similar answer as before, take some new webbing or cord along and some welded rings or quick links to build/replace rap slings. Don't trust your life (and maybe the next guys) to some old ratty crap. JB

Noted. Thanks. I'm with you on the "bailing."  If you think you need to bail, you probably shouldn't be on the route in the first place.

Joe Trabucco wrote:

You mean water knot for webbing? And DF for cord?

No, I mean a DF for both...there is a long thread here about the tails slipping out of water knots with repeated loading, like multiple rappers using a "fixed" rap station that you might have set up during a bail, or just because it was a good place to rap from.

The opinions were split down the middle between "I've never seen a water knot slip/I always check my tails at rap stations" to "the guy who raps after you may not know to check the tails, or might be tired, or it might be dark". The DF knot on webbing is bulkier but more secure than the water knot.