Caution - Edelrid Tommy Caldwell Pro rope

Emma Klugewrote:

The core shot was about 6 ft from the end but the leader was right shoulder in i.e. came out on the left side of the crack...

So these come in 70m or 80m? Bummer about the bi-pattern, but sounds like you've still got an almost-new 60m or 70m rope. Climb on!

Tradibanwrote:

Lets say you have 10 people with one year experience each, is that really have the same meaning as "10 years experience"? 

In other words the first year of experience isn't worth as much as the second year, the second year not worth as much as the third year and so on.

The key is to climb in large groups of older climbers from BITD 

"We had a combined 500 years experience" sounds better than 25 IMO.  

Sounds like the rope did its job, climber fell and walked away unharmed. I trade that for a rope any day.

I'm old and have used a lot of different ropes. My experience and preference pushed me in the direction of Sterling ropes. I still have a 10.5mm Sterling Marathon from 1998 that I wouldn't hesitate to TR on, but it is retired to hauling logs and such. 

This could happen to any rope IMO, just the circumstances caused it to blow up. I had a static line fray over a well padded, rounded edge (I thought), but it almost wore through. Can't blame the rope for that. 

Total speculation here, but I got a similar looking coreshot when hauling without a swivel and twisting the crap out of my rope. There wasn't any particularly sharp stuff on the pitch so I think the twisting contributed. It feels pretty dumb to say that one coreshot looks different from another, but the coreshots I've gotten from sharp rock had a fully intact sheath one one side and a hole on the other, while the kind of displaced/discontiguous look of your photo was more like the coreshot from my twisted rope. New rope often means twisted rope, so could be related?

Customer service issue?  Or, spray about being super bad-ass climber?   

I like it.

I core shot a maxim rope on the 4th day I was using it. I cut it to 40m and gave it to a friend who climbs at the gym a lot probably 3 years ago and he uses the hell out of it still. 

Looks like a kink was drug thru a crack.

I'm no more qualified than anyone else in this forum to speculate on what happened.... but since moving to Red Rock (i.e., the land of sandstone), I'll say that I've worn through ropes and clothing faster than anywhere else I've lived. Sandstone = the dreams that sandpaper is made of. 

Emma Klugewrote:

Yes, the $$$$ pink and blue one. I bought this rope thinking it was going to last at least a  year, but it didn't survive the first day of use. Apparently, if the rock so much as BRUSHES to rope, it explodes with a core shot. It only took a short whip on a vertical crack- no pinching, edges, or pendulum. While I had good initial feedback from Edelrid, the HQ response was "oh bummer.... bad luck". When a $300+ rope isn't misused but doesn't survive its first day out, I certainly wouldn't call it good luck. Must say, I'm pretty disappointed in this product and certainly don't recommend it to anyone who wants to trust their rope, or a manufacturer who takes responsibility for their shoddy gear.

Thanks for the heads up. Ropes to add to the list of "quick to core". 

Alex Honnold bi-color. 

As a counter vote, I climb on a swift eco 8.9, a hummingbird 9.2, and a boa eco 9.8. 

The swift is a friend's and for such a darn thin rope that thing has held up incredibly well. Right around 2 years of trad, sport and even TR on that thing. 

The Boa is my go to cragging rope, especially at Turkey Rock, a trad area where every anchor is tightly set back behind a large ledge that puts a ton of wear on ropes. All 3 ropes have held up fantastic after countless climbs and abuse. 

Second the motion on the Hummingbird and Swift. The hummingbird is one of my main wall ropes and it still looks like new, even well north of 100 pitches of leading, jugging, and rapping on big walls. Handles like a dream as well...

Edelrid invented the kernmantel rope in the 1950s. I've had a few ropes from many manufacturers, sometimes have an experience where it seems like the rope crapped out, abraded, kinked, stiffened, whatever, sooner than expected. One of my longest-lasting was a Marathon Pro - one of the 'worst' was also a Sterling. Sometimes you just need to buy a new rope much sooner than you hoped.

Let’s call this what is is.  

Shitty luck.   It sucks when it happens to you and often times doesn’t involve a obvious knife edge or cause.  

While there are ropes with thinner sheaths that are more likely than other to take more damage/be less durable than another.  

Coreshots happen.  Not the manufacturers fault, just part of the game.  

You would see an MP Post similar to this one of every rope make and model if you searched.   That is catastrophic damage and I doubt having XYZ durable rope would change the outcome.

My 2 cents

If this is the first time that it’s happened to you… good!   It sucks and is frustrating!  

I’ve done this to 3 ropes, maxim, edelweiss, (twice) and I think a Beal.

two of them were definitely my fault trusting edges that weren’t “that bad”

one to this day was like magic on a maxim pinnacle (notoriously burly rope) that happened in a small fall.  

Only thing we could figure is that it ran over a rounded granite slab and a small crystal sliced it.

lessons learned for me personally. I don’t big wall and I don’t notice an appreciable difference from different makes and models on longevity. (Talking standard ropes 9.3-10mm not 8.5s vs 10s)

So I buy cheap ropes.  Have payed around 100 bucks for my last two 70s. (Mammut).  If they/when they get damaged it’s less tears!