What is your favourite brand of rope and why?
To fairly vote, you must have previously owned the rope(s) which you are voting for.

I've listed ropes currently available in SA. If there is another brand of rope that you would like to vote for please mention it in your reply.

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Climb ZA - Administrator

I have two PMI halfropes that are great, had Beal Jokers and really didn't like them because of: weight, they do everything but nothing well, sheath wears really quickly

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Happy climbing
Nic

Added PMI- if there is a rope that you're not keen, just mention it and say why (otherwise the simple little poll is going to get a bit too technical).

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Climb ZA - Administrator

BlueWater rocks! LOVE my Dominator rope for sport, super handling, super light, super bright :-)
And the BlueWater Excellence we use on trad is soooo nice too. I like the blue/red with lumo yellowgreen combo, blue / red never gets confused or sound the same, which is great.

I can be accused of having an element of bias......

But I have a Roca Dominator. Super smooth to use and glows on the rock!

You better add Sterling to the list too.
Would be nice to hear from actual owners of their own experiences with one or more different brands.

As an aside, what's up with Roca also calling their rope 'Dominator'?
Or were they first... Does anyone know? Couldn't find anything on a brief google stint.

mmmm, unless you have owned quite a few ropes from different manufacturers how can you compare? not to mention the variation between different generetions & type of rope for a single manufacturer (i think beal stingers are fantastic but beal edlingers are so-so)

for what its worth, i own edelweiss half ropes (8.5mm) and i am perfectly happy with them.

i think us saffas tend to buy according to this order of factors:
a) price
b) availability
c) quality
why else would anybody own a roca rope

ps: i own a roca and its a no frills no fuss good value rope. but the stingers kick ass.

I'll vote as soon as I get my Mammut ropes and had a chance to brake them in. For now, I'll say that I've owned a Roca fanatic 10mm sport rope. The handling is not very nice but it does the job. It is indestructible to the point that I wish it wasn't. I used 2 Beal jokers for many years of very heavy use in the magalies and cedarberg. They were great. Only problem was weight and bulk. I sold them to one of my buddies for a good price, they still have a couple of years in them. I don't know what Nic did with his jokers to make them wear so fast. I did everything with my ropes except outright abusing them. Which brings me to the sad next point. I have 3 Edelrid ropes. 2 Shikras (8.5mm) and 1 Hawk (10mm). They are great in every way except for one problem. Al 3 ropes have single braid sheaths. Edelrid goes on about how great this is and how hard wearing it is and how well suited it is to rough rock like sandstone and granite. It's just not true. I've notices fraying to my dismay on the very first abseil over a very smooth round edge, not even a sharp rough edge. I've never had to nurse ropes quite like these ropes, but still they are getting trashed VERY fast. The sheath will hook on anything remotely sharp or rough. I think the problem is two-fold. The sheath is way too loose and it's simply not very resistant to abrasion. I've had the half ropes for almost a year now (relatively light use, a lot of special care and Zero falls) and they are worn worse than my Jokers were after 4 years of very heavy use with little regard for wearing them out and mighty big falls. I've climbed very little on my single rope, but the same is happening. It's a shame, because it handles really well. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from the highly regarded inventors of the kernmantle rope.

Edelrid HANDS DOWN...
I have the Falcon 9.4mm and it is soft, supple and super smooth. Barely gets twists in it and is perfect to belay with through an ATC or Gri-Gri 2 I have also tried the Edelrid Hawk 10mm...by FAAAAAR the softest and most supple rope I have ever used. If they made that in 9.6 or so then it would be epic.
They both run incredibly well through a belay device and hands and clip very well too.

Seconding Yvette's vote for the Dominator, and putting my money where my mouth is.

I've had mine for 4 years. It's lasted much longer than I expected from a 9.4mm. Sadly, replacement time has finally arrived - and I've just bought another.

i concur shorti's comments on the edelrid shikra / hawk - like silk undies it has a fantastic feel to it but do not put it through any amount of abuse. dunno how they could claim that the sheath is more durable because it certainly isn't.

i also own an edelrid mamba which is decent "get what you expect" rope.

Edelrid Hawk!!! The best rope ever. I concur with everything Cuan said. So soft and supple with no coiling. Really good rope. I love it!

Ok, I've probably climbed more with my Mammut ropes than what I did with my Edelrid ropes. So here's my humble opinion:
Edelrid Shikra vs Mammut genesis: Shikras are softer and handles a little bit nicer. They weigh the same and are equally bulky (8.5mm X 50m). Genesis ropes still looks like I have climbed on them only once or twice, while the Shikras looks like I've abused them over a few years.
Winner = Mammut.

Pretty much the same story with the Edelrid Hawk (10mm) vs Mammut Infinity (9.5mm), except that the Infinity is obviously lighter and less bulky. Despite the Infinity being thinner, I'll put my money on it to easily outlast the Edelrid Hawk.

I know sheath durability is not much of an indication of how safe the rope is, but I don't think the Edelrid ropes will beat the Mammut ropes on pure strength. I'm happy to settle with "they are probably equally strong".

Bottom line, the Mammut ropes are to me the best ropes around and the best part is, they're not pink or purple. Blue and red, the way ropes were meant to be

Come off it....they're all the same

Had 2 Bluewaters for sport, which were not that great, My new Beal top gun is about average and ovalising and already showing signs of wear.
Very happy with my Mammut Genesis 8.5's-great ropes, hard wearing

Cormac

Just like cams, shoes and chicks

I have had a few ropes, my vote it for Mammut and Beal, I included the year that I purchased the rope in brackets.

2x Beal Jokers 9.1mm (2005) - use them mainly on trad, holding well, sheath still in excellent condition.
Mammut Galaxy 10mm (2006) - had it since 2006 - best rope I have had so far. Sport, Multi-pitch sport and Paarl rock granite because it is a 70m rope :-).

Others that I have had:

Lanex Altera Magic II 10.2mm (2004) - was an okay rope, retired it this year due to suspect core, used it for sport climbing until I got my Roca, though it did not do too much work, found it did not handle very well, lots of rope stretch, core twisting . Think Tendon took over Lanex.

Roca Fanatic 10mm (2005) - Sport and multi-pitch sport, used it a lot and still use it from time to time - still going strong - sheath still in excellent condition, amazing rope.

Roca Roxy 10.5mm (2007) - Gym rope, going a bit fluffy.

Yes, "Just like cams, shoes and chicks"....the new ones are kiff the old ones are kak.

I've had a bluewater 10.2 mm sport rope for a while and it is still OK. After about three years, it is starting to look and feel old. I only ever had one tangling problem with it: after rapping off the second stance on Sands of Time (due to a howling gale), it took about a month to untwist. I was later told that that was a feature of the bolts at that stance. (Above the 18-pitch.)

I very recently purchased a pair of Mammut Genesis 8.5 mm trad. ropes. They look amazing, feel great to clip and coiling them over your shoulders is a doddle - presumably because of their narrow girth. Pulling them down from abseils is infinitely easier than trying to pull my sport rope down from one. I have only climbed eight pitches with them, so far, so time will tell how they age. My only gripe: Mammut really don't seal the ends of their ropes particularly well - one of mine is already showing hints of fluffiness out the end. (I suppose this could easily be fixed with a little heat.)

Oh, and they're ONLY available in blue and red so every party is going to be yelling the same things.