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What are your thoughts on bending a 60M rope in two for glacier travel with a 3 person team? I know most places I have come across demonstrate using a single 50m rope and coil the slack around the torso at the ends. What I was wondering if you can simply bite a 60m at the middle to form a double 30m and use that instead? Is that possible? Any pros or cons I should be aware of? I It just seems like it would be easier to get in and out of your rope using a 30m.

If I understand what you want to do correctly then your solution presents a number of problems when you actually need to use it. belay devices, pulleys, and other tools are designed to thread a single rope within a single mm range. Trying to fix an anchor and get someone out of a crevasse on two ropes sounds more complicated than it needs to be. I would just coil the extra slack. Just my $0.02

For easy glacier travel between two people I have done this. For more dangerous glaciers and/or 3 people, coil the slack with some on the leader and some on the last.

mad maximus wrote:If I understand what you want to do correctly then your solution presents a number of problems when you actually need to use it. belay devices, pulleys, and other tools are designed to thread a single rope within a single mm range.

I was going to post something similar regarding pulleys, etc., but I deleted it at the last minute because I thought about whether you would actually have to pull on both ropes, or if it would be sufficient to rescue by simply pulling on one strand and ignoring the other. The climber would presumably be securely tied into both strands, whether it be with one combined knot or two separate knots.

That still doesn't mean it's correct practice; I was just thinking there would not be a problem with using pulleys like I had first thought.

Thanks for the $.02. I was also kind of thinking something like that could create a problem with rescue. Probably helpful when things are going well but could make things more difficult when they dont.