Advertised Rope lifespan

Hey all,

Lots of companies say their ropes are good for about a year. But I've had mine for two years, and mostly used it in the summer. The core is still completely intact (I checked every inch). So should I use my rope until there is obviously wear and tear or is that pushing my luck?

There's more to the lifespan of a rope than time. And a year is pretty short, unless you're falling on it regularly.

If the rope still looks and feels good, keep using it.

I'd love to see a link to any manufacturer saying the rope only lasts a year. Maybe under "heavy/daily/guiding use", but certainly not ordinary rec use.

I don’t know where you got this, because there is a huge variation on how people use their ropes.

One person’s “year” means 4-6 sport climbing trips of 2-4 days each, and another person’s year is guiding clients who toprope 5 days a week, all year round.

It sounds like your use of rope is relatively light, and your rope is still fine.

Sorry I guess not manufacturer recommendation but REI recommendation. They say that weekly use gets you a year or less which I think is really conservative.

https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/when-to-retire-climbing-gear

Rei really means daily where they said weekly.  The next category which is a few times a month is more or less once a week considering there are about 4 weeks in a month.

Almost everyone looks at the wear of the rope and get new ropes when the core is visible or otherwise damaged.  Many people will cut off the end of a rope if the damage is near the end, even buying longer ropes than they need in anticipation of this.  Sport climbing or gym climbing can involve falling repeatedly on the same section of rope causing damage there leaving the rest of the rope relatively unused and undamaged. 

I usually climb trad multipitch routes on weekends and ropes last 3 or 4 years barring catastrophic events. I had one rope chopped by a falling rock on its 1st use another almost brand new rope's sheath sliced lengthwise for several feet by a sharp rock during the pull to retrieve the rope from a rappel.  

https://blog.weighmyrack.com/lifespan-of-a-climbing-rope-when-to-retire/

This "weigh my rack" post has a nice chart showing average lifespan of rope used with varying frequency.  I currently have three lead ropes that I use in different situations.  I've retired many ropes over the years and it's never been because of sheath damage or because a specific amount of time has gone by.  It's when the whole rope is starting to feel "flat" as I handle it.  With the three ropes in use, that's typically around 3 years for the most used rope.  But I'm not a person who's taking a lot of falls. The use is mostly lowering and long raps. If you are a sport climber pushing your grades and are taking a lot of short falls, the ends of your rope are probably going to go flat sooner than the whole rope.  That's where the "cut the ends off" practice comes from.  When I was working, and climbing less, I sometimes had a rope for 5 years.  So I personally don't think you'll ever know whether to retire a rope by how much time has gone by, unless it's been sitting in a closet for 15 years. Pay attention to how it feels.

Any lead rope I retire goes into top rope use, I have used some ropes for top roping for 15-20 years if they look good.  Ropes are much more robust than you think.   I just got back from a crag I'm developing deep in the desert and had a rope stashed under a boulder for 8 months, I thought it was out of the sun but inspection showed some UV ray fading to the outer sheath.   Since it was a mega hike in and it was the only rope we had we used it and even took a few lead falls on it and it did fine.  Its retired now but it goes to show just how robust ropes are.   On the other hand I took a slide for life in a fixed line on El Cap that was highly sun damaged and the sheath disintegrated as I was jugging it, not a fun experience 2000 feet off the deck.

Kevin Mokracekwrote:

Any lead rope I retire goes into top rope use, 

Kevin, all my retired ropes these days go to Erik :-)!

Taylor Bartonwrote:

Sorry I guess not manufacturer recommendation but REI recommendation. They say that weekly use gets you a year or less which I think is really conservative.

https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/when-to-retire-climbing-gear

"Never ask a barber if you need a haircut."  REI is in the business of selling you ropes.

I pretty much use a rope until I feel bad about passing an iffy spot through my belay device LOL