Brand new rope/sheath damage

Just bought a brand new Edelweiss Energy 9.5 70m, love it so far. Problem is after 5-6 pitches at Rifle this weekend, i noticed a considerable cut in the sheath,it's now possible to just barely see a bit of core in between the busted fibers.

I contacted Liberty Mountain (Edelweiss' US distributor) and they said they can't help me at all. I understand things happen to ropes, and they can't fix every bit of sheath damage that occurs, but they didn't offer an explanation, just said they can't help me.

Should i push the issue with Liberty or just cut it and now have a brand new 67 meter rope?

Worthless without pics.

How can a rope manufacturer possibly explain how you treated your own rope? It doesn't make any difference that you climbed 6 pitches. My brand new rope is getting a shitload of sheath fuzzies, but I know that is from me using it and rubbing on the rock sometimes on lowers and in other situations.

You only would have a case if the rope self destructed or something very unusual happened.

I picked up the same rope (though 80 meters) this year and it's has lasted through 10 days in the Creek and about 10 days in Squamish and has a bit of wear but, nothing out of the ordinary.

Possible you got a bad rope or that it was pulled hard over an edge at some point.

My attitude for ropes is that shit happens and the manufacturer can't do much about it. Try to keep it in good shape and when it gets damaged, cut it or buy a new one.

Sorry to hear about your rope though, that sucks!

I also bought this 70 m rope and also noticed some unusual sheath wear after only 5 days or so. Mine is also near the end.

I've also seen (and heard) that the sheath comes together weired at the mid-point of a bi-color pattern.

I like the rope though...

I doubt pushing the issue will do much. As others have mentioned, it's difficult to tell what you've done with the rope and how you've treated it since your purchase. It's not a solid business model to allow anyone who says they were nice to their rope to let them return it for a new one.

Perhaps it would be in their best interests however to give you some way to get a deal on another at some point... perhaps a 20% off coupon or something. I'd push that if anything. It's probably a whole lot easier to justify your continued biz through a nice gesture for your troubles than give you a rope.

Good input all. Yeah, generally it's an awesome rope and my guess is that one of us whipped on a sharp permadraw, causing the damage. Could have happened to any rope.
The retailer, EverestGear.com , has graciously offered me a new one at about 40% off. So i'll likely cut this one and buy another for alpine.

Its hard for a distributer to deal with rope returns. I have an eddlewies energy 60M for a season now and it pretty fuzzy but not far from expected.

my story of odd rope happenings was with an blue water 10.2 element. Fresh out of the package, full vergin rope, first climb of the day my buddy takes a 25 footer and the rope snags a flake and slices the rope to the core. So we went to drink beer; bummed out about the rope but thankfull the rope did its job.

Jeff, that BW rope didn't happen to be red, was it? I ask b/c shortly after the reported premature destruction of those Petzl ropes (the majority of which seemed to have been red), a couple folks I was climbing with semi-destroyed their brand new BW rope on a TR that I've set up close to a dozen times without incident. And the rope was red. Made me wonder if there was a bad batch of red dye and/or rope yarn at the time (about 2 yr ago).

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/rope-wear/107280190#a_107280219

I have the same rope with the same problem, core shot without any significant abuse. Now I have a 55 meter rope.

Looking at my rope, the sheath is very thin and I don't think this is a durable rope. It is light and slick but not durable.

i use cheap 10mm ropes for cragging for that reason ... if it dies i wont cry ... and they tend to be burlier than thin ones ...

ask yourself if you really need those thin ropes for what you climb ... i do have thin ones and doubles, but i save those for where they matter ...

my most used rope cost me 85 smackaroos and is still going strong with over 800+ pitches and multiple whippers

IMO many people who use thin ropes for non alpine/ice/long multi/redpoint long sport climbs at a crazy grade/etc applications do so because it looks and sounds cool ... until you need another $$$$ rope

bearbreeder wrote:i use cheap 10mm ropes for cragging for that reason ... if it dies i wont cry ... and they tend to be burlier than thin ones ... ask yourself if you really need those thin ropes for what you climb ... i do have thin ones and doubles, but i save those for where they matter ... my most used rope cost me 85 smackaroos and is still going strong with over 800+ pitches and multiple whippers IMO many people who use thin ropes for non alpine/ice/long multi/redpoint long sport climbs at a crazy grade/etc applications do so because it looks and sounds cool ... until you need another $$$$ rope

Yep

Bear, good points. But there is certainly something to be said about having less bulk and weight for long approaches and when you are hiking with the rope. I think this would have cut any rope, skinny or fat. With rope technology as it is today, 9.5 is the new 10.0

Plus it makes me look cool.

If you want to cut weight for the approach, a just long enough for the pitch 10.something and a tech cord pull line is the best of both worlds. Although lord help you if the rope gets stuck when pulled (which is why I use a Joker as the pull. Or would, if I climbed...)

I use almost exclusively Sterling Marathon ropes. They seem to last forever no matter what the diameter is.