I will reintroduce myself, not sure if y'all remember the couple of posts I put up about 2 years ago. One including slacklining up in trees..I have returned from my LDS mission in San Antonio, Texas, I had a wonderful time! A little update for everyone, I just purchased my first actual tree climbing rope, the Yale Bandit, and just got out on it for the first time this evening. Great rope! I know there have been some buzz about a 9mm climbing line, but I have always used even smaller ropes to climb trees since the beginning. I love canyoneering so I always have used an 8mm and 8.3mm rope by Imlay Canyon Gear (really great stuff!) http://www.imlaycanyongear.com/ropes.php . But I have to admit, after climbing on the Bandit I am completely sold. Due to weather I only have the opportunity to go DRT with a blakes, but the feel of the rope was great, as well as the grip of the blakes. It was also much easier for my 14 yr old sister due to the larger diameter. Over all a great time, sorry no pics this time , next time! Good to be back!

Glad you're back on the forum. I've been using a 120-foot Bandit for about 16-17 months and am completely happy with it. I started out in the 1990s with 200 feet of Yale 16-strand that still looks almost like new and is still in my gear box. Then I switched to 150feet of Sportline for compactness and light weight, but after about three years it began to look sort of fuzzy/funky and gave me the impression (maybe false) that it was losing its strength. A 150-foot red Fly rope from New England was next, and it got dragged through the mud and muck in swamps and the rainforest without many issues for about three or four years, until it finally developed what I call "Fat Rope Syndrome;" no amount of milking, etc. has solved that problem but it still seems to be as strong as ever. I've also used New England Safety Blue quite a bit and like it almost as well as my first 16-strand from Yale, even though it's heavy and thick. But I fell in love with Bandit the first time I tried it -- light weight and packs up reasonably small (full pack with the rope, harness, ascenders and other gear weighs less than 21 pounds). I plan to stick with it until the rope-technology people come out with an arborist rope that's better. Several friends have also started using Bandit and they seem to be happy; leastwise they haven't threatened to kill me or something like that. Now let's sit back and see what kinds of comments we get from others in the vertical adventure world.

I've been using Chameleon and Blaze (both same construction as Bandit, just different colors) for years. Just got a 120' hank of Bandit for climbing with my family. Works well for every kind of climbing I do (yo-yo and ropewalking SRT, trad and split-tail DRT), light weight, comfy on the hands, packs down well, easy to knot, and quite a reasonable price. I grab my other ropes for specialized uses (Safety Blue for DRT if I have a short walk, Sterling HTP for long SRT pitches), but Bandit/Blaze does any of that just fine.

Welcome back from your LDS mission!

Agree with all the comments above regarding Bandit, great rope. Happy climbing!
-AJ

Hey CC,

I use Yale Blaze (Bandit's sister rope) as my main climbing line and bandit as a 24 foot lanyard. I love them both. Welcome back.

Patrick
PS. I served an LDS mission in Honduras back in the mid 90's.

!que bueno, los catrachos!

If you are ever in Idaho country, look me up and we'll take the Bandit for a ride on the many short trees we have...short bummer.