UKC

I'm in Beijing this week.

This evening I had a wander round the silk market which is an enormous bazaar which flogs everything you can think of. You walk round these stalls and booths which are staffed with teenage girls asking you if "you wanna buy some jeans mister. Very cheap" or "I gor rilly nice Mont Blanc pen you wanna buy? etc, etc. The final sell price is generally about 25% of the asking price.

Anyway there was a booth tucked away in a corner which was flogging outdoor stuff, Marmot pants, Haglofs rucsacks, headtorches etc. Lying on a shelf was an Edeldrid climbing rope. I passed up the opportunity of asking the price and therefore a possible bargain.

Was I wise or a fool to do so?

In reply to Removed User:

I want to say a fool but probably wise..

In reply to Removed User: I overheard a conversation on the Zermatt cable car between a guide and client (as you do). He was explaining that his apparently top of the range Mammut softshell had in fact cost him a few pounds in Nepal but was nevertheless made of the "proper" material. Apparently off cuts from factories where genuine Mammut jackets are made find their way to backstreet seamstresses who craft good looking jackets out of the pieces. Not sure quite how true this is but the clothing might be worth a look. I would leave the rope...

In reply to MG:

So it might be made from off cuts or something?

I guess the only way an Edeldrid rope would be cheaper in China is if it were made there/here. Anyone know where Edeldrid make their ropes now?

In reply to Removed User: The words "barge pole and big sh1tty stick" spring to mind. Just not worth it.

Clothing is a different story. Barter away!

In reply to cap'nChino:

Agree on the clothing front, though a lot of what you buy in places like Nepal (having just been there) is not genuine fabric just branded that way, but it is very cheap and I don't expect it to perform or last like my UK sourced stuff.

IMHO with a rope its really not worth it, nor for any other safety critical piece of equipment as you want to have total confidence in it.

In reply to MG:

Have you seen the Mammut Transformer rope? http://www.mammut.ch/en/productDetail/201001720_v_3199_70_98_2/9.8+Transfor...

In reply to Removed User:

Wise to pass. I bought a North Face down jacket in silk alley about 20 years ago and it turned out to be an excellent buy. If it's a fake it's a really good one. But ropes or climbing aids, I would avoid. Even if it's genuine, was it used in a test lab, stored improperly, defective, etc.?

From the Edelrid web site, the family business was sold to Vaude in 2001. Up to that point the ropes were probably made in Germany. Since then, who know, maybe even China...

In reply to summitboy:
They are made in Isny in SW Germany.

Having just got back from China, my experience was anything genuine, whether made in china or not was more expensive to buy than back here if bought from a decent shop - our hosts us shopping where the locals would go not the tourist only areas. Perhaps silk from the government run shops is an exception - although expensive you get a better material for you money than you would in the UK.

In the tourist areas it's hard to distinguish good stuff from crap. You might buy a bargain made cheaply or stolen but equally it might be an unsafe rip-off of a genuine item.