Page 63 - Duane Raleigh - Knots Ropes for Climbers

great advantage of double ropesthat of alternating clips to minimize rope drag. Also, these small-
diameter ropes are snag and tangle prone, and I can never seem to keep them orderly. Still, twin ropes
provide the highest safety margin of all ropes and are the lightest combination possible, making them
appealing to a few extreme alpinists. The rest of us will never have use for them. Twin ropes have the

number 2, surrounded by a circle, on the rope's whipping. Don't confuse twin ropes with double
ropes; they are similar but not interchangeable.

Rope Lengths

Inflation has gotten hold of ropes. Twenty years ago you bought either a 120-foot rope or a 150-foot
rope. Today you must choose among 165 (50-meter), 181 (55-meter), 198 (60-meter), and even 330-
foot (100-meter) lengths. (You can still buy a few ropes in archaic 150-foot lengths; this length saves
you a couple dollars but isn't practical or

recommended.) I'm not sure why ropes have grown longer, other than it makes sense:

better to have too much rope, and be guaranteed that ledge or anchor high up, than to have too little
and come up short and uncomfortable.

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TWIN ROPE

2