Petzl Dragonfly 8.2mm Half Rope

A few months ago I used one of these ropes on the Black Ice Couloir. The climb was a bit "modern" with thin and mixed sections and the rope was perfect, offering security and weight savings so we could move fast. The Valhalla Traverse was really fun with a little new snow to keep it interesting and offer some footing over the frozen kitty litter type material that you have to cross get to the Black Ice. These ropes are light weight and have great handling. The butterfly coil, as an other reviewer already said, really works well, eliminating the need to coil and uncoil your new rope several times to get the kinks out before use. These ropes are showing noticeably less wear than a pair of Beal cords that I had a couple years ago with even fewer pitches on them. Orange and green happen to be a couple of my favorite colors too!

These ropes are bad. The very first time I used them the sheath tore exposing the core of the ropes. This was from normal wear and tear - no falls or sharp edges. I sent the damaged ropes back to Petzl for warranty and they could not offer me anything; not even covering the shipping cost for the return. I now learned that other people have had similar problems with Petzl ropes, so I recommend you avoid Petzl ropes altogether.

These ropes are really light and run really smoothly. They are built rock solid and repel water very well. The colors are very vibrant and easy to see all the time. Great ropes.

Got these several months ago for a trip to Red Rocks, and have since been selling all my climbing buddies on the magic of doubles. As has been said here, they're light (duh), handle great, and inspire confidence. These are my first set of doubles, and they've converted me into a believer.

These are great ropes- supple and smooth and they don't tangle. If you do long wandering trad routes, half (double) ropes are the way to go. Belaying takes a bit more skill since you'll be clipping on only one rope at a time. For me the double rope system feels really safe and convenient on multi-pitch trad routes. On shorter routes I still use just a single.

The Petzl Dragonfly is a light weight half-rope that excels on long ice / mixed routes and alpine peaks where weight savings is critical and frozen ropes are not an option. The tightly woven, single-pick sheath coupled with dry treatment on both sheath and core create a rope that is exceptionally good at shedding water. Even after long days of ice climbing in wet conditions the ropes fared well. The ropes have proven durable while ice climbing, but I have climbed little rock with them. My inclination for rock-specific climbing is to go with a thicker, more durable rope(s). The Petzl Dragonfly's are my first choice when wanting the ability to rappel a full rope length while counting every ounce.

I bought a set of these ropes. Within 10 uses over the course of 4 months, the sheath came completely off of the core. We noticed that every time we rappelled, our ATC's would have copious amounts of sheath built up on them. The blue rope is completely core shot and the orange rope has shown signs of serious wear, indicating that the sheath could fail at any time. I have talked to some gear shops that indicate they have heard of similar problems with Petzl ropes. We have some Metolius half lines (7.8mm) with about 3 seasons on them under similar use that currently are not showing any signs of wear.

To help facilitate descents, the middle of each Petzl cord is marked with a black bar. Even with this marking, it’s sometimes a good idea to tie a knot at the end of the rope as an additional safety measure.