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Climbing ropes are a tough category of gear to review because, these days, almost all are well made and perform great right out of the package. It’s only after hard wear—climbing pitch after pitch in rain, snow, and ice, coiling and uncoiling on dirt and sand, and taking some big whippers—that a rope reveals its true colors.
To test climbing ropes properly, you need to abuse them to see what they’re made of, which is precisely what we did over months of testing. This year’s crop of top-performing dynamic lead ropes spans genres—our picks include everything from a short gym rope, to a reliable workhorse, to light-and-skinny redpointers, to a safety-first cord, to an innovative, cut-resistant alpine beast.
Updated April 2025: After months of testing, we added six new climbing ropes to this list, including the Fixe Oliana 9.2—our new favorite all-rounder. We’ve also updated pricing and info on the ropes that we previously included and still highly recommend.
At a Glance
- Best Lightweight All-Rounder: Fixe Oliana 9.2 ($245)
- Best High-End Redpointer: Black Diamond 9.4 Dry Climbing Rope ($330)
- Most Durable: Mammut Alpine Core Protect ($218)
- Best Gym Rope: Metolius Monster Gym Rope ($102)
- Best Workhorse: Singing Rock Hero 9.6 ($200-240)
- Best Safety Feature: Trango Red Flag Agility 9.5 ($28o)
- Climbing Ropes 101
- Rope Specs
- Rope Care
- How We Test
- Meet Our Lead Testers
Don’t miss: The 12 Best Climbing Shoes of 2025
(Photo: Courtesy Fixe Hardware)
Best Lightweight All-rounder
Fixe Oliana 9.2
Impact force: 7.2 kN
Weight: 58 g/m
Sheath percentage: 40%
Dynamic elongation: 34%
Available lengths: 50, 60, 70, 80, 100 m
Dry Treatment: No
Pros and Cons
⊕ Light, fast-clipping feel in hand
⊕ Low initial kinking
⊕ Minimal rope drag
⊗ Fuzzed out fairly quickly in impact zones
⊗ One end had to be cut
Much can be said for having a “quiver of one” rope—a lightweight redpointer that can also cross over into heavier-duty usage like hangdogging and complex, wandering pitches. The Oliana 9.2 nails that niche: at 56 grams per meter (the lightest ratio in the test), the 70-meter version we tested weighed only 3.9 kilograms, but the sheath’s 1×1 braiding and reassuring fusion technology (in which a chemical component creates a firm union of the sheath and the core) held up to repeated use, including short, snappy whippers on the sandstone sport climbs of Jackson Falls, Illinois.
Iowa-based tester Mary Andino noted minimal kinking out of the package—she ran the rope through the first draw on a route once, and that was that. “We climbed on vert, overhang, and slab, and the Oliana never really got kinky, even on climbs with weirdly placed or spaced bolts or lots of drag,” she said. Andino loved how light in hand and agile the Oliana was. The crux of her current project involves clipping off “absolute trash credit-card crimps” in a strenuous, ticking-time-bomb position, and the rope’s nimbleness made it easy to tag the carabiner quickly. She also appreciated how the Oliana’s low profile and smooth sheath minimized drag, as on the arête climb Cheerio Bowl, where bolts switch sides of the edge.
Her biggest criticism was the appearance of scrapes along the sheath after a few trips to the compact sandstone of Jackson Falls (though she still felt the rope was reliable and fed well). And after taking the rope to the Red River Gorge and doing another 13 or so pitches—so 40 total pitches—Andino had to cut four feet off one end, as the Oliana had fuzzed out.
“I think it was getting rubbed against the arête on Cheerio Bowl at Jackson Falls, followed by some whips,” she said. “Nothing super extreme—the scraping on sandstone plus a handful of whips added up pretty fast.”
That said, the rest of the rope was fine, and she would absolutely recommend it for someone looking for a high-end, lightweight redpoint cord.
Best High-End Redpointer
Black Diamond 9.4 Dry Climbing Rope – Honnold Edition
$330 at REI $330 at Black Diamond
Impact force: 7.9 kN
Weight: 58 g/m
Sheath percentage: 36%
Dynamic elongation: 37%
Available lengths: 70 m
Dry Treatment: Yes
Pros and Cons
⊕ Resists kinks
⊕ Fast, easy clipping
⊕ Tight and light for the diameter
⊕ Dry treated
⊗ Grippy sheath made for slower lowering
⊗ Pricey
This rope’s balance of durability, sleekness, and light weight made it our go-to for projects in Boulder’s Flatirons, where we did our best to dish out the abuse. We took big whippers, found ourselves hangdogging on steel permadraws, didn’t obsess over the dirt that got into our rope, and ran the 9.4 Honnold Edition over grainy sandstone lips. After months of testing, the rope barely showed any wear, which is notable for a 9.4 that feels skinny in hand and climbs as smooth and airy as an ultra-light.
Boulder-based tester Brandon Fields has typically avoided Black Diamond cords, finding them to be overly bulky, stiff, and prone to wear. But after using this rope, he’s become a convert. He appreciated the Honnold Edition’s kink-free feeding and silky 1×1-weave sheathe—where each strand tightly interweaves with the next in a single-stand-over-single-strand pattern.
Even after all of our testing shenanigans, the sheath has held up very well and kept its slickness. I belayed primarily with a Petzl Neox, and was able to whip slack through at lightning speed. And on an especially heinous undercling clip on my 5.14 Flatirons project—one I’ve been leveling up my biceps curls for—I slapped this grippy rope in easily every time, enjoying the semi-stretchy catch that ensued when I (inevitably) fell a few moves higher.
Fields used the 9.4 Honnold Edition on his project on the same wall—a bouldery, traversing 5.13+ with a few fussy clips. “For high-end redpointing and projecting, this may very well be one of the smoothest ropes I’ve used,” he noted, while also calling out the rope’s hardiness. “Considering the extensive projecting abuse, the sheath remains in impeccable condition. There are a few dings and a small amount of fuzziness, but this is a small price to pay for the repeated grinding—no soft spots or areas of real concern.”
Of note: This is a fairly stiff rope, which led to a few short, sharp catches when we fell near a bolt. While its dynamic elongation (37%) is in line with similar ropes, belayers with a lighter climber would do well to jump up in a fall.
Most Durable Rope
Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect
Impact force: 8.9 kN
Weight: 59 g/m
Sheath percentage: 36%
Dynamic elongation: 31%
Available lengths: 40, 50, 60, 70 m
Dry Treatment: Yes
Pros and Cons
⊕ Aramid sheath provides extra cut resistance
⊕ Highly hydrophobic
⊕ Long-lasting
⊗ Supple for an alpine rope
⊗ 9.5 may be too much diameter for light-and-fast alpinists
The alpine—where your rope is running over sharp edges, around gendarmes, and subject to rockfall, melting ice, and gravelly sand—is hard on ropes, and it’s here where the consequences of rope failure are nearly always fatal. For this reason, an alpine rope can never be too bomber, an idea Mammut took to heart with their Alpine Core Protect, which adds a second “internal” sheath of aramid (the generic name for Kevlar) between the outer polyamide sheath and the core. It was a safety feature and longevity-enhancer our alpine tester, Anthony Walsh, appreciated big-time in the Bugaboos and at Rogers Pass, both deep in British Columbia’s rugged Purcell Range.
“After several thousand feet of alpine rock, this rope is holding up admirably well,” he said. “I can’t emphasize enough how rough I’ve been on this rope.” This included climbing on rambly, gendarme-littered ridges—with the cord weaving around countless sharp edges, sometimes as a ‘terrain belay’; and climbing 2,000 feet using the ‘fix and follow’ method, in which the follower on a multi-pitch toprope-solos a pitch and where they, falling or working beta, may put repeated wear on the same spot.
And yet, Walsh noted no significant abrasion, even after punishing climbs like the steep, 900-meter, 5.8 quartzite of the Northwest Ridge of Mount MacDonald. On the descent, the rope’s dry treatment was also highly effective at keeping out water from isothermic snow, and the Alpine Core Protect “hardly took on weight at all.”
Some in the fast-and-light crowd may wish that this cord also came in a single-rope diameter skinnier than 9.5 millimeters. (It is, however, available as an 8.0 millimeter half rope, which Walsh loved for the WI5 Buddha Nature last autumn.) Walsh also noted that, while the Alpine Core Protect stretches just fine in a fall (the stiff aramid sheath does elongate tubelike), it was more supple than your standard alpine rope. It still clipped quickly to desperate RP placements and out-of-reach bolts on the techy 5.11+ Minotaur Direct in the Bugaboos, and never got tangled at stances or while belaying.
Really, Walsh had far more praise than criticism for this rope, and felt that its added peace of mind more than justified the extra weight and cost.
Read our longterm review here, after Walsh took the rope up Torre Egger, in Patagonia.
Best Gym Rope
Metolius Monster Gym Rope
Impact force: 7.8 kN
Weight: 68 g/m
Sheath percentage: 35.8%
Dynamic elongation: 36%
Available lengths: 35, 200m
Dry Treatment: No
Pros and Cons
⊕ Affordable and hard-wearing
⊕ Supple handling and soft catches
⊕ Sheath is the right amount of slick
⊗ 10.2 mm diameter felt sluggish in the Petzl Neox
⊗ 35m option is short
There’s a lot to be said for having your own gym rope, especially in an era when one major gym chain has asinine rules about not taking practice falls on their ropes. Plus, most battered gym ropes tend to be thick and fuzzy (and there’s no way of knowing whose mouth they’ve been in!), and, on busy days, you have to put your name on a waitlist to get a cord.
I’ve long loved Metolius’ Czech-made Monster ropes—they last forever, and yield the perfect blend of slick and supple. This 35-meter gym rope is no different, and partners and I noted chill handling and a noticeable lack of kinking from day one.
I tested the Monster Gym rope both in the gym and at a short Colorado granite crag called Gretel’s Rock, including on an overhanging 5.14 project with a key, tough clip; the cord felt reassuringly hefty in hand for fast clipping, whippers were cushy, and my belayer was easily able to feed slack using a Grigi. The thick-feeling 10.2 millimeter cord didn’t feed quite as seamlessly through a Petzl Neox, though that device is listed as compatible with ropes from 8.5 to 11 millimeters.
The Monster Gym Rope comes in a 35-meter length and 200-meter spools for industrial gym use. As I noticed with some of the slightly longer pitches at Gretel’s, a 40m would have been nice—though 35 meters was plenty long for every gym I visited on Colorado’s Front Range, including the ones that have outlawed practice whippers.
Best Workhorse
Singing Rock Hero 9.6
Impact force: 7.9 kN
Weight: 59 g/m
Sheath percentage: 40.9%
Dynamic elongation: 35%
Available lengths: 60, 70 m
Dry Treatment: No
Pros and Cons
⊕ Affordable introductory cragging rope
⊕ Semi-firm build made for smooth, easy clips
⊕ 9.6mm diameter is good for abrasion resistance
⊗ Initially very kinky
⊗ Fuzzed out a little near the ends
Singing Rock’s affordable Hero 9.6 is a blessed throwback to the 1980s, when sturdy, high-endurance 10-millimeter-plus workhorses were the standard—and you rarely had to worry about replacing your rope with too much frequency. Like those ropes, the fatter (by modern standards) Hero 9.6 offers solid, reliability utility—and not too many bells and whistles.
Testers liked using this 60-meter rope with its middle mark and ultrasonic rope ends (in which the sheath and core in the final 15 millimeters form a single unit to prevent separation/fraying) on the single-pitch sport climbs it’s intended for. Though tester Steve Potter had to flake the Hero 9.6 five times off the factory coil to get the kinks out, he reported that the semi-soft rope fed smoothly and reliably after that initial kinking on the sport climbs of Diablo Canyon, New Mexico.
As testing wore on, Potter and his fellow tester, Scottie Alexander, both noted some minor fraying near the ends and a little squishiness where you hangdog, but felt the Hero 9.6 was still in fine form and praised its abrasion resistance on the sharp basalt.
One one route, Potter kick-ran across the wall to a chain draw on an adjacent route to check out the crux. “But in the process, I managed to inadvertently make it so that the rope, angling down from the anchors to the chain draw, ran over a rather sharp edge,” said Potter. “So I lowered, then inspected the rope, and I saw no major signs of wear.”
Both testers also noted minimal static elongation, which made the Hero 9.6 friendly for toprope- hangdogging without losing ground. Overall, the Hero 9.6 is a great pick for single-pitch sportos, especially newbies who need a “quiver of one” for dogging, sends, and toproping.
Best Safety Feature
Trango Red Flag Agility 9.5
$280 at Backcountry $280 at Trango
Impact force: 8.5 kN
Weight: 61.5 g/m
Sheath percentage: 37%
Dynamic elongation: 32%
Available lengths: 60, 70, 80m
Dry Treatment: optional
Pros and Cons
⊕ Smooth feeding/clipping
⊕ Stiff feel good for stretchy clips and stick-clipping
⊕ Final 5 m of rope is colored red for safe lowering
⊗ Felt thick for a 9.5 mm
⊗ Rope felt heavy
Pure durability isn’t the only way a rope can make you safer; the smooth-feeding Red Flag Agility 9.5 incorporates Trango’s unique red-dyed banding system to alert climbers when they’ve reached the end of their rope. This color coding at the final 5 meters of the rope could potentially be a life saver, and I’m not sure why every rope doesn’t use this design.
Fellow tester Steve Potter agrees: “Ever since I rapped off the end of my rope a few years back, I’ve been fearful of the ends of my rope, so I really like the red ends.” By calling out those incoming ends in big red lights, you mitigate lowering and rapping accidents. Plus, having a contrasting rope-end color makes it much easier to find the ends in a rope bag.
I previously tested the skinner Agility 9.1 and noted that the red dye began to wear off after extensive use; this hasn’t been an issue with the thicker Agility 9.5. After dozens of pitches on rough, angular gneiss, the dye is still going strong, with only a few dings and muting of the initial texture change you could feel as the rope fed through the belay device.
At a thick-feeling 9.5 millimeters, this Agility is an all-arounder that promises increased longevity and durability for hangdogging. The downside to the thicker diameter is weight—at 61.5 grams per meter (the 70 m rope weighs 9.5 pounds), the Agility 9.5 starts to feel heavy and draggy near the end of a long pitch.
I noticed that weight on the zigzaggy 35-meter Deadwood route—at a secret crag off Colorado’s Peak to Peak Highway—with its pumpy 5.11+ climbing up high. But on the crux opening boulder problem lower on this same route, I loved the stiff hand, which made tagging the key, stretchy third clip a breeze. (It’s easier to extend up to a high clip with a cable!) And the sheath, with a tight 1×1 weave and notably slippery nylon, fed reliably through all devices used, though Potter noted some initial and ongoing mild kinking.
Frequently Asked Questions
What length climbing rope should I get?
From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, standard rope lengths were a mere 18 to 36 meters. Today’s ropes are most often sold in 60-, 70-, 80, or even 100-meter lengths, with some shorter options available, too (35 to 50 meters). Buyers should consider the crags they most often visit to determine the most suitable length, keeping in mind that as the rope wears, you will need to cut off abraded ends.
What’s the difference between a thin and a thick climbing rope?
Generally speaking, thicker ropes (above 9.4mm) will last longer than skinny ones (9.4mm on down). However, technological improvements such as sheath weave and rope treatment have certainly helped in fortifying skinny ropes, rendering them stronger and longer lasting. Since they’re lighter, skinny ropes are also ideal for optimizing redpoint goes or minimizing drag on complex, wandering pitches—like you find with multipitch and trad climbing.
Thicker ropes are still the preferred workhorses, as they can withstand more falls and more encounters with sharp rock. Generally speaking, 9.4 to 10.2 millimeters is considered the sweet spot for these; however, there are certainly good options below and above that range, depending on usage and need.
Single vs. half vs. twin climbing ropes
Ropes are available in single, half, and twin sizes. This review solely focuses on dynamic single ropes, which are used for single and multipitch climbing, where the risk of rope damage from sharp rock is minimal. Climbers opting to get on arêtes or trad climbs where protection may be placed to the either side of the climber might opt for half ropes (generally in the 7- to 9 mm range), each of which is strong enough to catch a fall by itself but light enough to use in conjunction with another rope. Twin ropes are typically 7 to 8 mm and are rated to be—and must be—used together. They are best suited for alpine and ice routes with rappel descents.
Do I need a rope with dry treatment?
Climbers looking to get out in wet or icy conditions should strongly consider splurging for a dry-treated rope. The uptick in price is occasionally significant, depending on the brand, but the upfront cost is worth it when you consider that ropes lose up to 30 percent of their energy-absorbing capabilities when wet.
It’s worth noting that the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) has a standardized testing procedure for dry-treated ropes. In order to be UIAA Water Repellent Certified, a dry-treated rope must have absorbed less than 5 percent of its weight in water following a 15-minute test. Non-treated ropes will, on the other hand, absorb up to 50 percent of their weight in water.
Climbing Rope Specs
Ropes come with a slew of technical specs. Here are the basics buyers should know.
Impact Force
This refers to the force your body feels upon impact in a fall, and is related to the rope’s elasticity and consequently its ability to absorb energy. A high impact force is particularly of concern for trad, ice, and alpine climbers, as it means more force will be relayed through the belay system and protection. Topropers, on the other hand, may want to be wary of ropes with low impact forces, as that is a good indication that the rope will stretch more, which can make toproping “sportier.” To meet UIAA standards, a single rope must have an impact force of less than 12kN.
Dynamic Elongation
This is closely related to impact force. A high dynamic elongation indicates more stretch in a fall, which translates to a softer catch—but also a longer whip. A higher dynamic elongation may be less desirable for heavier climbers or those cragging in areas with large ledges. According to UIAA standards, a single rope should have a dynamic elongation percentage that is less than 40 percent of the rope’s length during the first UIAA fall.
Sheath Percentage
Sheath percentage is the ratio of core to sheath, and is a good indicator of durability. A rope with a thicker sheath will likely last longer; however, other factors such as number of threads, weave type, and treatment will make sheath percentage a less reliable indicator. Also, a thicker sheath will make a rope feel stiffer in hand.
Rope Care
- Avoid stepping on your rope—this works dirt into the fibers.
- Avoid dirt, period; a 2010 study by the International Technical Rescue Symposium demonstrated that a rope can lose 20 percent of its strength after just one soiling, and 40 percent after eight soilings.
- Avoid storing your rope where it will be exposed to high heat or UV radiation, such as in the trunk or backseat of your car.
- Avoid storing your rope coiled—instead, keep it stacked in a neat pile, ideally within a rope bag, which also helps with steps 1 through 3.
- Regularly inspect your rope for signs of wear, and cut damaged ends off as needed.
- As you cut down your rope, it gets shorter! Always tie a stopper knot at the end of your rope.
Read Our Complete Rope Care Guide
How We Test
- Number of testers: 6
- Number of products tested: 17
- Total number of vertical feet: 26,400
- Total number of years climbing: 103
- Least punishing testing venue: Boulder Rock Club, Boulder, Colorado
- Most punishing testing venue: Rogers Pass, British Columbia
- Worst weather: Ironically, a warm day in the high country—on an alpine descent, one cord needed to withstand the water from abundant snowmelt
- Scariest whipper: Steve Potter, jumping off the top slab of a 5.12d at the Solar Cave in Diablo Canyon, New Mexico, with the last clipped bolt a good six feet below him (and below the cave’s lip), at night, lit only by bouldering lights and a headlamp
Testers were asked to evaluate ropes using a few key criteria: how easily each rope flaked off the factory coil or whether kinking became an ongoing issue; how it fed through a device; how it held up to abrasion and other wear-and-tear; how softly or stiffly it caught falls; how it felt while climbing (Was it easy and speedy to clip? Was there rope drag or did the cord feel heavy on long pitches?); how often it needed to be cut (if at all); and, if it was dry treated, how well it held up against moisture.
Meet Our Lead Testers
Matt Samet
Matt Samet, a freelance writer and editor, has been an avid rock climber since the mid-1980s, an era when climbers still sometimes used goldline rope and no cords were longer than 50 meters. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he primarily sport climbs, boulders, and trains in the gym and on his garage wall. He has been testing climbing gear for the past 20-plus years.
Brandon Fields
Also contributing whippers and feedback to this review was Brandon Fields, a reformed gym boulderer and World of Warcraft superfan who is now a diehard sport climber. Fields also lives in Boulder, where he makes his living as a jewelry maker for Chrysalsim, an Etsy shop run by him and his wife.
Anthony Walsh
Anthony Walsh is a senior editor at Climbing and the magazine’s resident alpinist. Based in the Canadian Rockies, he is an occasional sport climber and an obsessive Type II advocate, where he obliterates an average of two ropes a year.