Caving on string

[andrewmcleod]

Mentioning for completeness that rope can also be too thick.

In the summer, a member of the party I was in declined the last pitch of James Hall O.E. because she'd not liked my (very clean and fairly new condition) 10.5mm rope. It was pretty sturdy stuff with a very robust sheath so handled more like an 11mm (Southern ropes LSK 10.5 semi static). She had a new style stop (8.5-11) and the rest of us were still using old style ones (9-12) and she couldn't stand fighting the rope.

You can have too much of a good thing.. as well as not enough!

Certainly a 50 kg caver is likely to need rather less braking than a 100 kg caver (example weights only!); the lighter you are the more hard work fat ropes are! (and the less you understand how a 'fast' rope is a problem, rather than pleasant). I suspect the average 'new' Stop is rather less worn than the average 'old' Stop as well.

 

[cap n chris]

It has long been my opinion that clubs are wise(r) to purchase 10mm-10,5mm ropes on the grounds that cavers don't replace their gear as often as work at height operators do (separate topic?) and therefore descending a 10,5mm rope is easy peasy by comparison to using a new descender which grips like shit on anything which is no longer shiney and new. Anyone with a Petzl Stop of (dubious) vintage using it on, say, 8mm, will probably need fresh underwear.

 

[moorfurlong]

What is the CIC training advice? it was Type based I believe.

A type A rope, of which I believe you can only get two types at 9mm in the UK, the rest are 10mm + However this is for professional use and Type B are safe ropes

 

[Wardy]

Just saying....
There are other Type A ropes less than 10mm
When I selected the blue version and this black one I went for a compromise - not too thin yet fully rated

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.ph...ew-blue-–-spanset-launches-ebay-outlet.33752/

Gear is always personal preference though and most people get used to something and stick with it.
As long as you know what it is and understand its limitations you are fine - Knowledge is power!

 

[JAshley73]

Mentioning for completeness that rope can also be too thick.

In the summer, a member of the party I was in declined the last pitch of James Hall O.E. because she'd not liked my (very clean and fairly new condition) 10.5mm rope. It was pretty sturdy stuff with a very robust sheath so handled more like an 11mm (Southern ropes LSK 10.5 semi static). She had a new style stop (8.5-11) and the rest of us were still using old style ones (9-12) and she couldn't stand fighting the rope.

You can have too much of a good thing.. as well as not enough!

Absolutely!

I had to bail on descending the 3rd pitch of nearby multi-drop cave, for just this reason. I had used a lightly-used "new" Stop in the cave. Said device rapells beautifully on my 10mm super-static polyester rope at home. After being dragged a short distance through the cave, it barely fed through at all...

On the 3rd pitch, I think it was someone else's 10-11mm nylon rope, said Stop didn't feed at all. I then C-rigged it, and was having to shove rope through it, to move at all. I promptly changed-over, and climbed off the pitch.

This experience quickly prompted me to start shopping for 8-9mm ropes. That cave is 5-6 drops to the bottom. The idea of carrying big heavy ropes through tight, rocky, wet crawlways doesn't excite me at all...

 

[Leclused]

Mentioning for completeness that rope can also be too thick.

In the summer, a member of the party I was in declined the last pitch of James Hall O.E. because she'd not liked my (very clean and fairly new condition) 10.5mm rope. It was pretty sturdy stuff with a very robust sheath so handled more like an 11mm (Southern ropes LSK 10.5 semi static). She had a new style stop (8.5-11) and the rest of us were still using old style ones (9-12) and she couldn't stand fighting the rope.

You can have too much of a good thing.. as well as not enough!

When using thick ropes you can consider to use a Simple with the rope in "C" instead of using a Stop. The thikness of the rope will give enough friction so you can still use the simple. That is one of the reasons why I still prefer my simple above my Stop when doing a lot of pitches where there is a mixture of rope conditions (old vs new vs dry vs wet vs clean vs dirty) then you can chose your webbing in the Simple depending on the rope condition.