Me and my friends are thinking of climb Duforuspitze from Zumsteinspitze, the South-East Ridge. The thing is that we are not sure about how long ropes we must have. How long are the pitches of mixed climbing. Will it be possible to climb it with a twin-rope of 30m, or do we have to use a single rop of 50-70 meters?

/Joel

Hai Joel,

If you use a normal glaciertravel rope, for example 8.1 it wil be no problem.
In 2006 i did the same route and we were with 6 persons.
At that time i had a beal double rope 8.1mm iceline 50m and one team used a string and the other team used the other string.
We did the whole MR tour with these ropes.
When we were with 6 on a rope we only used one string 8.1 mm 50 m.
The ridge is'nt so difficult, only narrow in the middle.

good luck, Peter

Thanks Peter for your answer!

Just to clearify; do you think that a rope of 30 meters length will be sufficent for the parts of mixed climbing, or are the pitches that long that you need a longer rope (50m)?

/Joel

That depends how many people are on the rope, two or three is fine with 30 meters but if you are climbing with a bigger group its better to have it longer then that.

But the thickness must be at least 8.1 mm.

But with more then 3 climbers in this route is anyway better to split up (if you have more rope with you)

Its really a beautiful route, at first a little tricky descending (snow/ice)down from the Zumstein, then a bit of rock, II degree (down) and then the narrow snowridge in the middle and further II degree rockclimbing with some III degree steps here and there.

And there are no "pitches" its more of a walking belay.