The Fly

Hey all,

I've been reading some of the old topics as I get ready to buy my gear, and I see that plenty of folks have good things to say about the Fly rope. Would you recommend this rope for a beginner such as myself or should I start out with good old Safety Blue? (or other?)

Thanks!
Q

I started out with Yale XTC and found it to be a great rope. Nice and fat and it held it's shape well. Plus, it never slipped. At least not for me.

I have some Fly now and love it. But it is definately more slippery than the XTC. You just need to pay attention and set the knots good. It also does not seem to hold a tight round shape like the xtc but this does not bother me.

I know some people that use the sport line and I find this too small for my fat hands.

I have safety blue that I use when facilitating climbs and it's a great rope too. Holds the knots well and does not slip at all.

Don't know if this helps.

My next rope is going to be that green and black one. Can't remember what it's called and I've lost my Sherrill's catalog. I think it looks cool and would probably hide well in the woods.

Climb safe!

Bill

Being the resident expert neophyte here… (oxymoron?)
I climb on Sherrill Yellow Jacket by Samson. Fat enough to grab but slim enough to work good with most hardware. Has enough stretch to be comfortable but not too stretchy so it doesn’t rob your power on long ascents.

I have also climbed on Samson ArborMaster-BRW. It looks and feels nice, macho and professional! However, It's too fat & too stretchy for my liking. At 8100# strength and close to 8 pounds per foot of weight, to me its overkill.

Yale Sportline: The first non-kernmantel I ever climbed on in my early days. Too thin and light for my inexperienced hands. <IMHO>

The Fly: This stuff is fast. It's great with alloy hardware, steals very little of your power on ascent due to its low stretch and minimal friction. Amazing how effortlessly this line glides through hardware (and itself!) Great for Single Line climbing.

The green & black climbing line mentioned in the post above is Yale Poison Ivy. This stuff looks great. Wish I had some!
I think it was charlieb that did a review of Yale Poison Ivy at the following link: www.tci-forums.com/viewthread.php?tid=495&page=1

Bottom Line: Fly is some neat stuff but there are better choices for conventional friction hitch climbing for a beginner. Much better choices.

Two cents worth applied,
Electrojake

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P.S. Not to confuse things but, I posted the above comments from the point of a beginning climber and his first purchase of line to be used for conventional friction hitch climbing. As your skill on rope matures your idea of what is "best" will indeed change. Mine has changed significantly in the few years I have been climbing.

Please click on the link below to see what pro's say about Fly. It is quite popular.
www.tci-forums.com/viewthread.php?tid=540&page=1#top

Ej

Why the fixation on PI? Blaze is a bit smaller and lighter with the same or better performance. For purely stealth climbs maybe go with PI. For performance go Blaze.

Fly is nice but it picks easier than Blaze. The splice is bulky. The color and hand of Fly is the best around. Well, for color, True Blue is hard to beat if you like 5/8" line that's twelve strand...joke