Is it safe to cut a climbing rope in half?
I recently bought a 70 meter climbing rope from REI because it was a great price on the outlet. Last weekend I used it for the first time in the Texas hill country, where 99% of routes need a rope less than 35 meters. The rope is overkill for what I will be climbing in the foreseeable future.
My question-- is there any problem with taking the rope to REI and asking them to cut it in half (or even 30/40) so that I have two more manageable ropes? I'm specifically asking about safety considerations, but any practicality considerations would also be appreciated.
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This is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. It's not uncommon for climbers to take a 60 or 70 meter rope and cut a few meters off the ends (since the ends of a rope take a lot of abuse). You can either take it to REI, as you suggested, and tell them you are cutting it for climbing or check out this how-to on Climbing.com.
A few things you need to consider before cutting your rope, though. If you are planning on climbing at other crags, I would check out what the height of the routes are there and make sure you'll have enough after you cut it. If you plan on climbing anywhere else in the country, I'd suggest having at least a 50m rope (and better yet, a 60m rope) to be on the safe side. I have a 70m rope and although I don't use more than maybe 50 meters of it at a time at my regular crags, it's been the difference between safely climbing a route and not when climbing at other crags. If it's a possiblity, you should look into buying a shorter rope. I say this only because I agree that it is annoying to use a rope that is on average twice the size of what you need, but nothing is more frustrating than realizing you don't have enough rope to climb a route.
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You can take it back to REI or to another gear store that deals with climbing gear. Make sure they know the rope is indeed being used for climbing. They should be able to cut it and prepare the cut ends so there isn't any fraying/unraveling, etc.
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It is safe to cut (while you are not using it). You can cut it yourself. I would use something sharp so that you get a clean cut. Healing (using a flame to melt) the cut ends and wrapping them in tape (like they come from the manufacture) will be needed.
Before you do that though, you might want to consider not cutting it at all. While a 70 meter rope is pretty long for most applications in climbing, it's certainly useful at times. A 30 or 40 meter rope is really pretty small for rock climbing. Keep in mind that will limit your rappels to 15-20 meters. Still, lightweight 30 meter ropes are made and used (usually in more alpine situations) and if you are going to use this shorter rope only for one area that has smaller crags then the decision is yours.
Just keep in mind, once you cut there is no going back on it and climbing ropes are expensive.
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Not rock climbing rope, admittedly, but as a tree surgeon, I've always cut the working end off climbing lines as it wears. After the first few feet it's often like new so I get a lot more use out of it like that.
I've also had a few times where a nearly new climbing rope has got a nick in it and I've cut it to make two shorter ropes. I like to tape it before cutting to stop any fraying, then melt the ends.
All my equipment is subject to UK loler regulations and has to be assessed every 6 months, my own cut lengths of rope have always passed inspection, provided I've transferred over the serial numbers so they're traceable. If it's good enough for the HSE it's good enough for me I say.
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