Some times you need rope.

I can remember one time vary vividly when I needed rope and definitely didn't have it. Picture if you will an early spring day. The mountain still retained patches of snow and ice. For the most part though winter had cleared and given way to the new plant life of spring. With me dangerous situations don't just happen. It's strange to say but they usually come gradually until all the sudden I realize I'm in trouble. This time it started out as hiking. And hiking turned into a little bouldering. And bouldering quickly turned into free climbing. Before I knew it is was stuck on a three foot ledge over a thirty foot drop. The only way out was up and to do that i had to climb four more feet and then scramble up a gradually rounded lip. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that this area was usually in shadow which allowed ice to stay built up on the rounded lip making my climb virtually impossible. I made it out in the end because i wasn't alone and my friend was able to lower a dead lodge pole to me and i was able to climb the rest of the way up. This is just one situation when even a small length of strong rope would have been a life saver. When doing anything outdoors you will find that rope can solve hundreds of problems and if you have an emergency pack of some sort in your car I highly recommend rope.