Rope Retirement

Gunkiemike wrote: And his parent, huh? Somehow I get the suspicion that your 14d climber hasn't been climbing long enough to have much experience when it comes to evaluating the useable lifetime of a climbing rope.

I know it is crazy but yes a world class top sport climber (climbing pretty much his entire life) that has climbed with all the big names and noone took the time to explain to him how to tell if the rope needs to be replaced.

Any of you pansies want to retire your flat spot ropes, I will climb the shit out of them.

ViperScale wrote: I have seen a guy who climbs 5.14d climbing on a rope that i can't believe he is still alive for using.

And yet he is alive. There's a good chance that a hard climber like that, with such a thrashed rope, has been taking *a lot* of falls. And yet, the rope never failed despite its poor condition.

The fact that you're surprised that he's still alive, one might take to suggest that perhaps your idea of how close his rope is failure didn't reflect reality.

I'm not meaning to take a dig at you specifically, you probably have a lot more climbing experience than myself. You've probably retired more ropes than myself.

I was thinking about my own rope retirement, and my own experience. The only experience I have is ropes not breaking. I think I have this in common with most climbers. We don't really know where that line between a safe and unsafe rope is, because we've only ever been on one side of the line.

So, we take a guess, and we ere on the side of caution. Probably personality traits decide how far into caution we go.

Stich might climb until its coreshot, I might climb until there's a flat spot or 4 years go by. Excluding chemicals or cutting, I'm extremely confident neither of us are going to die from our single ropes failing.
So one might wonder why I retire ropes so much earlier than Stich. Well, he nailed it, I'm a pansy. I don't know where that point of failure is, the idea of being anywhere near it scares me so I exist miles away from it.

This is probably one of the most commonly referred to papers when rope failures are being discussed, I'd suggest to the OP to read it, just for general knowledge:
theuiaa.org/upload_area/fil…

If you don't trust it then get rid of it. It's your life.

Dylan B wrote:On geez. Most of the time retiring a rope is not about failure; it's about loss of elasticity and the concomitant reduction in ability to absorb energy and reduce the force of a fall.

Exactly Dylan.

I find when climbing heavily on a rope, the lifespan could only be a season; falling becomes more jarring. Short falls on short pitches (many sport climbs) generate a good amount of [rope destructive] impact force. Heck, one wall climb can kill a rope with repeated jugging.

Physics aside, if you're questioning the fatigue of your chord, a nagging little voice will gnaw at you while you climb and effect your climbing ability. It's time for a new one.

Once a rope is showing visible signs of wear, many of my climbing partners question use (not talking a little fuzz here). We all have different points of measure. One thing, however, is certain: a climbing rope has a lifespan. Newer ropes are easier to operate, more comfortable to fall on, and are less prone to water absorption. If you're climbing often, buying a new rope annually is a good habit to get into. Safety will never be of question, and you can relegate your old ropes to toprope use, route scrubbing, etc, and save the new rope for leading.

Start working the cost of a new rope into your budget, $20/ month should do. If you climb ice, buy it late fall ensuring that the treatments are fresh for winter. Repeat.

Stich wrote:Any of you pansies want to retire your flat spot ropes, I will climb the shit out of them.

I will too.

So I just cut a "flat" section off the end of my rope. Attached is a photo of what I thought was "flat".

I also found no visible difference between the "flat" and "normal" core. So my question is, should there be? I always imagined a flat section meant the core was uncoiled or missing a strand, is that the right thing to be imagining? Is this rope not flat enough to be considered "flat"?

(Is there any good info on how much elongation is lost by a "flat" section? Feels like it could still be a safety issue near the end of a rope considering the potential for high fall factors on that part of a rope. If I'm being honest I cut it simply because I was taught to lop anything flat, but never really thought through why.)

Flat rope?

If you get a piece of twisted rope (not one for climbing) and bend it back and forth a bunch eventually the strands will start to move next to each other rather than keeping the nice round shape, this is (I'm guessing) what a flat spot is. If it were "missing" a strand then there would be a core-shot, that strand would be bunching up and bulging near by. But the rope won't "un-twist" exactly, the flat spot would be a sign of fatigue on the fibers.
(Disclaimer, I am not a rope specialist and this is just what I'm assuming happens based off my experience and logic)
That being said, my first rope was almost exclusively for top-roping and I was taking out lots of new people. It developed flat spots relatively quickly, but I used it for a full three years and did still lead on it (but I don't take big whippers).