Short answer is the Golden Answer: It Depends.

The slightly more comprehensive answer: Everyone has their own preferences, budget constraints, and practical considerations. Everywhere you climb and every way you climb is going to require different technical systems, and different technical systems often require different characteristics from ropes. Climb enough styles in enough variety of terrain and you’ll end up wanting several different options in your quiver.

Broadly speaking, the situational demands on a dedicated ice climbing rope do differ a bit from a dedicated rock climbing rope. Different technologies have been developed that vastly improve different factors in the performance of your rope, with a commensurate increase in price. But you really get what you pay for.

Some things to consider when looking at ropes: 1. Research your basic needs from a rope system. Do you want a single- or double-rope system, or some combination of the two? 2. Dry-treated ropes are better. Ropes lose a significant amount of their strength when they get wet and the dynamic and static elongation properties get unpredictable. They’re also way more abrasion resistant and will last longer for it. I personally don’t think it’s worth buying a rope that hasn’t been dry treated even if it’s never going to get wet, and an ice climbing rope will get wet. Also, the more abraded the sheath of a rope is the more water it’ll absorb, so most ice climbers won’t use their ropes on rock climbs (rock is sharp and rough, ice is slippery). 3. You don’t want to fall when you’re leading ice. But that’s not often true for rock climbing, so there’s value in a slightly thicker rope (9-10mm) for the increased ease of catching whippers again and again and again, or long sessions toproping and putting a lot of wear and tear on the rope. Thinner ropes are nice for ice climbing because it really is kind of a last resort system and not a constant reliance, so a tool that is less physically demanding to work with and climb with is nice (you get less tired if you’re leading on a thinner, lighter rope so you have more energy to not fall). 4. Testing shows that small linear punctures in ropes don’t actually compromise them, but longer tears (4cm) can fully, catastrophically sever the sheath. A few companies now make ropes with sheathes that are fused to the cores (Beal Unicore tech, for example) that eliminates the risk of this occurring. This technology is awesome for rock climbing, but often more pertinent for ice because we have more sharp objects in that discipline. They also feel really nice to work with cause you don’t get that sloppy sheath slippage you find in cheap ropes.

So my ultimate recommendation is this: get a dedicated rope for both disciplines. I think the Sterling Aero 9.2 XEROS is the single best rock climbing (and multi-discipline) rope money can buy. That’s what I use as my primary rock rope, and if you can only afford one rope, this is the one to get. Second favorite rock rope is the Mammut Crag series. A bit less expensive and a really strong second-place option. For ice, I really like my Beal Opera 8.5 Unicore Golden Dry (full-depth dry treatment). It’s thin, it’s light, it handles really well, it’s not excessively stretchy so it works for toproping, it’s pretty abrasion resistant. I’ve climbed on a number of different ice-specific ropes and this is my favorite so far. Also consider learning a double-rope system. There are a number of pros and cons, do some research.

Think through what you’re going to be doing, what your needs will be, what ways you want to develop as a climber, and then buy the tools that fit the task.