UKH

I recently climbed with a friend that had a pair of Beal Opera triple rated ropes. They were amazing and were great to handle, a great colour and obviously versatile. Is there any reason (cost?) that folk don't buy these ropes as standard? What are the down-sides to them?

Cost, less durable sheath than single ropes and higher impact force than half ropes are the main issues I think.

Edelrid do triple ropes with an Aramid sheath and Beal do Unicore ropes so there are options to mitigate the sheath durability a but they are more expensive again.

A triple rated rope is likely to have more core and less sheath than a half rope of similar thickness - needed in order to achieve the single rating. and therefore probably less durable. 

Although having said that, my 8.9mm triple rated decathlon is one of the longest lasting ropes I've ever had, so "likely to be" doesn't mean "definitely is"

Cost is the main reason I would suggest, as they're just as good as halves, and brilliant for added security when climbing in a three. Wouldn't be a great choice for full on sport climbing (projecting). 

The Beal Opera manages to have an impact force, as a half, of 5.5kN which, compared to their Cobra half @ 5.3kN, is pretty amazing! (38% to 39% respective sheath percentages, both are unicore*)

The Edelrid Swift Protect Pro (with Aramid) is @ 7.7kN as a half compared to the normal swift @ 6.5kN. They have more sheath than the Beals at 41%.

Mammut seem to fall in the middle impact force wise @ 5.8 kN but with less sheath (36%!)

Shows there is a trade off between cutting/abrasion resistance (how a rope fails in real life) and impact force, which for those who climb hard above marginal gear, could make a big difference.

*Interestingly, unicore can be an issue with some belay devices as the rope deforms differently. Was a nightmare when were were trying to create the belay device performance test with repeatability/reproducibility and not tying the manufacturer to a specific rope per device!

Triple rated ropes don't necessarily have less sheath, and used as half's they have a very similar impact rating to a standard fat half, which is usually less than a skinny half...

I had one of the early Mammut Serenity ropes. That thing was one of the best ropes I've ever owned and lasted forever. I used it absolutely loads, as a half and a single and it was just superb. So I'd say it really depends on the rope you buy as to how long it lasts etc.

This may be useful https://ropeparison.azurewebsites.net/ especially for those debating whether triple ropes have less sheath than singles/halfs, and impact force comparisons.

Thanks for the correction Nick and Mike

No correction, just more info! 

Wrote a longish reply and then lost it...

I think that triple ropes are often only just within one of the standards. Up to you whether you're bothered about that or not. Also as others have mentioned they are often more expensive.

E.g. The Beal Opera you mention. In the single rope test it only achieves five UIAA falls (ff1.77, 80kg mass) before breaking. There are 99 single ropes on ropeparison, 90/99 of those achieve more than 5 in this test. There are 21 triple ropes on ropeparison, 10/21 achieve more than 5 drops before break. Clearly (and probably unsurprisingly) triple ropes are on average 'worse' at this test than single ropes.

E.g. The Edelrid Swift Protect 8.9. In the twin rope test it has an impact force (ff1.77, 80kg mass, two parallel strands of rope) of 11.8kN, only just inside the max allowed by the standard of 12kN. Dedicated twin ropes and most half/twin ropes have a much lower impact force in this test.

Obviously those two examples don't prove that "triple ropes are often only just within one of the standards", that's just my opinion based on looking at some graphs in an informal manner.

Attached a graph of twin certified ropes (triples, twins and halfs/twins), showing sheath percentage and impact force. (Unfortunately it's not really obvious on the image which are triples/twins/halfs, need to make them distinct colours at some point.)

We have a 50m opera dry treated for the mountains which we love. I don't feel the rope is a heavy wear workhorse. We also use an old Mammut Serenity and that has been bombproof showing very little wear over the last few years of cragging. The Serenity is still available but has been called something else. I would recommend that if wear is a concern.

The aramid sheath rope is great until it wets out. My mate has the green aramid triple that looks like a green snake that handles well until it gets soaked. Petsonally I don't like its limitations but I do a broard range of climbing types other than sport.

With a brief scan, I haven't seen anyone mention that triple rated ropes are heavier than doubles, in general.