UKC

Hello everyone,

After five years and numerous falls, inside and out, I've decided to retire my old climbing rope.

However, I'm not 100% sure it actually needs retiring as I've never kept a proper log/record of falls and wear etc. I was wondering does anyone actually do this, and should I be doing this with my new rope?

Cheers,

Alex

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

Can't say I've ever bothered. Probably should retire on age after 5 years anyway, if there's visible damage, or if you have a factor 1 or worse on it.

Neil

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

Did you actually get any Fall Factor 1 or Fall Factor 2 falls? If so, I don't think they would not be difficult to count.

But ropes used indoors get quite a bit of abuse due to frequent lowering and falls, so I guess it's the sheath that gets your attention?

One more thing... it's your own personal safety, a retailer/manufacturer/instructor/whoever will tell you to retire it, your climbing buddy will tell you that you worry with no reason, but if you don't feel safe while climbing tied to it, you probably should retire it? Also, manufacturers (I believe) say that the lifetime of soft goods is 5 years of usage and 10 years of storage.

In reply to Singleton_Alex:
The rope will be OK for anything but lead use unless it is visibly damaged or feels wrong if you feed it through your fingers. Most users don't get anywhere near the cumulative fall factor maxima.

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

I've just replaced my indoor rope after a year of using it at least once a week with lots of falls on it. It was starting to get flat spots. The new rope actually has recommended life spans with it: upto 1year for weekly use, 3 years for several times a month, 5 years for once a month. Obviously other factors may mean you'd retire it before then as others have indicated.

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

Ropes take an enormous amount of abuse before becoming unsafe. The manufacturers'advice is usually very conservative and most ropes will be fine after 5-10 years of frequent but not heavy use, as long as there isn't a lot of sheath wear or flat spots and it hasn't taken many falls over factor 1, which is actually extremely rare for most people. Generally ropes don't fail unless cut by sharp edges.

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

Never counted the use of mine or falls.
Know when it was bought but that's about it

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

I don't. I get rid when it's obviously damaged or I think it's starting to look a bit uninspiring. Climbing ropes are impressively tough, the only one I've ever snapped (stopping a car from 20-30mph. Twice) took an almost unbelievable amount of abuse.

What would you actually do with the information, what are acceptable totals/thresholds for the figures you'd be recording?

jk

In reply to Singleton_Alex:

I change my rope just as soon as the first niggling doubt sets in, which is usually based on how the rope handles. I don't want any doubts to resurrect themselves as they invariably will when I am struggling with a crux move at my limit.

Al

In reply to john arran:


Pretty much true, however repeat smaller lobs onto the rope generally mean that parts of the rope will have lost some of the elasticity of them. This can be quite evident if you mainly climb short routes (ie. sub 20m). Which is why people chop off tails from their ropes. Most often the falls on older ropes will not be dangerous, but they can feel rather nasty.

In reply to jkarran:

I generally retire ropes on a mixture of age, abuse look and feel.

My single 10mm 60 metre rope really hasn't seen that much use or many falls, I don't know how old it is but around 7 years at a guess. I don't feel like it needs retiring yet so I won't. Maybe before 10 years old though.

I retired my phoenix ropes at around 5 years old, the centre markers had worn out, they were beginning to look worn (but not dangerously so), the dry proofing had gone. They'd only seen a handful of actual falls and there were no dead spots. They had been used a lot though and abseiled on quite a bit and they are only 8mm ropes in the first place. It Just felt like the right time to get new ropes so I did.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

Your Phoenixs (Phoenices?) sound exactly like mine. I have just retired them after 5 years as well.