100m of Spanset Premium 9mm : Many Thanks

I

ianball11

Active member
Since discovering I was the lucky winner of the Spanset 100m rope competition, I've been waiting for the chance to collect my winnings. I finally got around to it at the weekend, great stuff, I'd like to thank ukcaving and Spanset for a great prize, thank you.

100m, what to do,  leave it at 100m or cut it down  :-\

Any advice?
 
Pete K

Pete K

Well-known member
30 x spare foot loops!

I hate chopping down rope, you'll never cover every single possibility. Have a look where you cave the most and see what pitch lengths are common. What lengths do you not have? I'd be tempted to go for longer lengths and cut them down in future if under-used.
 
I

ianball11

Active member
;)

Made me laugh.

I wonder if it's a 100m or if the shrink is taken into account when leaving the factory, it's might be a case of this 100m being 105.

I should probably wash it first and then measure it.

The longest rope I have is currently 23m (I'm pretty proficient at knot passing now).  Excess rope on pitches annoys me,

The pitch where I hope 9mm would benefit me most is Hensler's High Aven pitch in Hensler's Pot, which is a 38m minimum rope, so I'm going to cut a 45m after the initial wash and so I could very well end up with 45 and a 40, which seem a little similar,  :-\

Thanks CnC

Alex! you're not wrong, though I've a bag it would fit, I just don't have the muscles to carry it!
 
aricooperdavis

aricooperdavis

Moderator
Using pitch length information from 142 UK caves (mostly from Yorkshire, the Peak District, and South Wales) we can see that the mean pitch length is 33m, and the modal pitch length is 20m. We can also create a histogram of pitch lengths.

I'm not sure how useful this actually is at the moment, I'm mainly playing with it to learn python, but it might be of interest?

 
F

Fulk

Well-known member
aricooperdavis: I once did a similar analysis of the rope lengths in the Elliott / Lawson rigging guide (which, of course, only applies to some of the more popular caves in the Dales), with the following result:

Rope length    5    10    15    20    25    30    35    40    45    50    55    60    80    90
Frequency      1      7    21    19    17    19    13      6      4      5      3      12      1      1
   
 
MarkS

MarkS

Moderator
I had a mess around with this sort of thing a while back when we were trying to decide on rope lengths for a club that was very active at the time. The real headache came from the combinations required, for example 30 m pitches may be more common than 15 m pitches but if, in any given cave, multiple 15 m pitches are more common than multiple 30 m pitches, you'll want more 15 m ropes than 30 m ropes! Quite an interesting logic puzzle.
 
R

RichardB1983

Member
MarkS said:
for example 30 m pitches may be more common than 15 m pitches but if, in any given cave, multiple 15 m pitches are more common than multiple 30 m pitches, you'll want more 15 m ropes than 30 m ropes! Quite an interesting logic puzzle.
Click to expand...

However of course if needs must then a 30m rope can be used on a 15m pitch. It's a bit awkward to try it the other way round...
 
I

ianball11

Active member
haha, I'd never use a 30m rope on a 15m pitch, if I was that short of rope, I'd probably buy a 15m rope on the way to the cave.  Reel end bargain maybe!

Actually I've 7 ropes and the longest is 24m, I'm pretty nifty at knot passes though.
 
PeteHall

PeteHall

Moderator
Why not do an epic pitch with the rope in one piece, just because you can  ;)  then if you've got plenty of shorter lengths, a 35 and a 55 would probably be a good compromise based on the pitch lengths/ frequencies above. :confused:
 
Pegasus

Pegasus

Administrator
Staff member
The prize presentation  ;)

Congratulations, Ian  :clap:

Thank you for supporting the competitions and the forum  (y)

wl
 
N

nearlywhite

Active member
Interesting graph - must have missed the 200m pitch in Maskhill  ;)

It's rope lengths rather than pitches (sorry to be that guy). I thought you might have included a couple of impressive mines.

It's a tricky problem organising that data because of run through pitches, which will favour longer ropes. I just doubt I'd take a 200m down Maskhill.

Completely anecdotal but the most useful rope when I was caving mostly in Derbyshire/Yorkshire was a 56m. So I'd suggest a 56 + 32 + 12
 
T

tamarmole

Active member
Assuming 10% shrinkage I'd go for a 60m and a 40m; as a mine explorer in the south west that combination tends to do everything I want to do.  In practice my most used ropes are a 55m and a 35m.
 
I

ianball11

Active member
I am a lucky guy, thank you.

After much deliberation and going around in circles I've decided to go for a 12% shrinkage and cut at 45m, so I'll have a 40m and a 50m.  This means I have a rope for Washfold Pot 1st pitch and Hensler's High Aven Pitch which are next on the to do list.






 
aricooperdavis

aricooperdavis

Moderator
@nearlywhite

My mistake, rope lengths was what I meant, not pitches - thanks for pointing that out!

I tried to go for rope lengths, because in the long run I want it to spit out the minimum rope lengths required to do every pitch if you're happy to tie rope together - so since you can string your ropes together in maskhill it's more convenient to think about it as one long 200m pitch.

I can see that there are issues with this, but it's a start at least!  :-[

 
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