First climbing rope

[Tuppers]

I am looking to buy my first rope for year-round scrambling and winter use and the Beal Joker 9.1 appears to tick all the boxes (http://bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/corde-joker.php)
Does anyone have any thoughts on this particular rope or any other recommendations?
Thanks.

[elperronegro]

(05-21-2012 02:04 PM)Tuppers Wrote:  I am looking to buy my first rope for year-round scrambling and winter use and the Beal Joker 9.1 appears to tick all the boxes (http://bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/corde-joker.php)
Does anyone have any thoughts on this particular rope or any other recommendations?
Thanks.

The link didnt work, think the address is http://www.bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/corde-joker.php

There is a good section here about choice of rope at
http://bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/typecorde.php#choix

Its a long time since I last bought a new rope but it seems to me that the Beal Joker would be ok for most simple glacier, easy rock ridges etc. Any idea what the difference is between "Golden Dry" and "Dry Cover" treatments?

[Tuppers]

According to the Beal website, 'Dry Cover' means that each filament of the sheath is waterproofed whilst 'Golden Dry' means that every filament of the sheath AND the core is waterproofed.
For winter use I guess this would be good as the rope wouldn't absorb water and get heavier but it comes at a price.

[elperronegro]

The Beal rope that I saw that may just fit better is the Booster 9.7mm. Maybe a bit easier to control than the Joker, weighs a bit more but in their paper brochure it states that it is 5* for snow climbing (Joker 0*)

http://bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/corde-booster.php

[Tuppers]

Thanks for that. The only issue I have there is that the Beal literature says it's for "very experienced climbers". Is there a reason for this that isn't explained in the product informatiom/specification?

[Tuppers]

I went ahead and bought the Beal Booster 9.7mm with Dry Cover and christened it last week on a traverse of the A' Chir ridge on the Isle of Arran. Bearing in mind the rock is granite, the rope performed well and suffered no damage at all. We didn't do any abseiling but belaying from above and below was straightforward with good friction obtained. My only 'gripe' as the elder member of the team is that I somehow ended up carrying the rope!