In reply to Dave the Rave:
Led my first E1 with a borrowed 11-year old Whillans harness and a borrowed 12-year old rope.
With such things it isn't just the age that's the issue, it's how often they've been used and where, how they've been stored and, as in my example, the mindset of the user (I was well up for that first E1 tick).
Three years at a wall seems fair enough. Two years ticking Chamonix routes on rough granite in the alpine sun might be a year too long. Eleven years for a harness that's been used every now and then, stored away somewhere out of the sun and borrowed from someone I trusted because mine was locked in a garage seemed OK to me.
T.
Post edited at 17:02