guide rope

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A rope fastened to another rope that is lifting a load, used to guide the rope and steady the load.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• (Aëronautics) A rope hung from a balloon or dirigible so as trail along the ground for about half its length, used to preserve altitude automatically, by variation of the length dragging on the ground, without loss of ballast or gas.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a rope used to guide the movement of the load of a crane