I'm doing a trip to Chamonix soon with some friends. We will probably climb some easy multi-pitch routes in the Aiguille rouges. I am a competent multi-pitch trad leader with plenty of experience in alpine terrain and I will be leading on routes which are well within my grade. However, my friends are less experienced and they will be only climbing as seconds.
In this particular situation, I much prefer to climb with two triple rated ropes. I like the added safety of the robustness of knowing each that seconder is technically climbing on a rope that is also rated for single use, and the thickness of the ropes gives me some peace of mind when you are 200m high above the void, looking at your single strand running over lots of rock edges.
However, this time I will only have 8.6mm double (half) ropes available to me.
Now, if I was climbing with two of my experience alpine climbing friends, they would probably be happy to second on a single strand of half rope each. That's fine, I trust that they understand and they have experience and they can make that decision for themselves.
But if I'm climbing with relatively inexperienced climbers instead, I'm not happy to force that decision on them.
What do you think? Am I being overly cautious? Do you think there are no particular problems with two seconders on a half rope each on wild alpine multi-pitch terrain? Or do you think I'm correct to exercise some prudence and try to find triple ropes instead? What is the general consensus amongst climbers, it's generally always OK to climb as a three on double (i.e. half) ropes?
Post edited at 11:03