Edelweiss Sheath Defect - Curve Unicore 9.8

I would like to share my experience with 3 Edelweiss Curve Unicore 9.8 ropes in the spring of 2014. This information is important and can be used to inform others of potential product defects so they can make an informed decision when purchasing a climbing rope.

Summary: Three Edelweiss Curve Unicore ropes failed on three separate occasions this past April and May while I was working on a climbing project. The sheath of all three ropes disintegrated within a 15-minute period of which I was working on the crux section of a route. Additionally at least one of the three ropes had a core-shot as well. It appeared as if the sheath had been ‘scraped away’ from repeated falls in a short time frame. I noticed the sheath on all 3 ropes start to ‘harden’ while working the crux, then each rope would hit it’s ‘breaking point’ and the sheath would disintegrate and tear away. It seemed as if the rope ‘built up’ to failure. Consequently, the rope felt extremely flat and soft and the sheath was severely damaged along an 18“ section of rope (the section of rope running through the draw during the falls). The bolt was at my waist when trying the crux and when I failed, I fell approximately 3-4 feet - not a big fall or impact force. This happened on all three ropes, and all on separate occasions but on the very first day of use. Furthermore, the third rope was destroyed on both ends of the rope on two different routes. After about ten minutes of trying the crux moves on a different route, the sheath hit it’s ‘breaking point’ and fell apart again, the same as the other two ropes and the same as the other end of the third rope.

After being able to repeatedly destroy this rope on demand within 15 minutes of climbing on it, on the first day out, I have come to the personal conclusion that there is a manufacturing defect with the Curve Unicore rope and that the sheath on this rope is not to be trusted. This is just my opinion, I have not officially tested the rope in any way. Following are the details of each rope.

Rope 1: April 24th, 2014
After doing a few warm up climbs without falling, I started a route and proceeded to climb up to the crux section. While working on the crux it seemed as if the sheath of the rope was ‘hardening’ from the short falls I was taking. After about 15 minutes of trying the moves, I looked down to see green fuzz floating away into the air at the same time hearing my belayer scream “dude what’s up with your rope?!” I immediately lowered to the ground and was able to wipe away a lot of the sheath material with my finger by just running it over the rope. Although no core was exposed, the rope felt flat and soft in the affected area, and I could bend it completely in half - it would not hold a coil along any part of the affected area. I contacted the supplier and told them of the issues, they had me send it back to them for inspection and replaced the rope with a new Curve Unicore 9.8.

Rope 1 Rope 1
Rope 1

Rope 2: May 17th, 2014
I received my replacement rope and went back out to the same route. I was curious if the rope would exhibit the same failure in the same way or if the first rope I received was defective or if there was something I had done to cause the issue. The second rope failed in the same way in the same time frame (about 15 minutes of working on the crux moves which involved numerous but short falls). Consequently, the sheath eventually gave away and ‘scraped off’ like I experienced with the first rope. This time though I felt it on the rope when it gave away, there was a much stiffer impact force and it felt as if the core of the rope was tearing away from the sheath (this may be due to the Unicore bonding of this rope). This second rope appeared to be damaged a bit worse than the first. I could barely see the core through the last few strands of the sheath that survived. This rope also went flat and soft, and you could completely bend it in half; it would not hold a coil along the affected section.
Rope 2 Rope 2
Rope 2

At this point I decided that there was something wrong with the Unicore rope, and that I no longer wanted to climb on that rope. Having your rope’s sheath scrape off 60+ feet off the ground twice (and having it feel like it was breaking during a fall) was enough to shake my confidence in this rope and I was ready to just replace it with a different line and be done with it. I contacted Edelweiss and their supplier in the United States for a third (different) replacement and to send the second rope back for inspection. I was confident there was a manufacturing defect on this rope.

The supplier did not agree that it was in fact a defect but rather, there was an error in the safety system that caused the rope failure. The supplier suspected the rope failed because of a slightly burred or grooved carabiner that may have cut the sheath. I informed them that I had placed my own quickdraw on the bolt I was falling on and that I had used two different quickdraws with each of the two ropes, and that I didn’t think that was the problem because that part of the system had been changed with each rope. They insisted that it must be the carabiner that caused the issue. In the interest of getting to the bottom of the issue they asked me if I would be willing to try out a third Unicore Curve rope, with a new quickdraw, on the same route and see if the issue repeated. The supplier was certain that if they sent me a new quickdraw to use with a new rope that the issue would not repeat itself again. I agreed to try this for them as I was interested in getting to the bottom of the issue as well, although I still thought that there was a defect in the rope, not in the equipment (quickdraw) being used.

Rope 3: May 30th, 2014
The third rope shows up with a new quickdraw to be tested on the same route with new gear. Within a short ten minutes the third rope failed but with more severity than the first two. This time the sheath tore away even more, and there was a clear core-shot in the middle of the affected section of rope. Although I wasn’t surprised, I decided I would switch ends of the rope and have my partner climb on a different route to see if the same thing happened. My thought was that maybe for some strange reason this particular route, or fall, or myself, was causing the problem and that we should try climbing on a different route and see what happens. The same thing happened again on the opposite end of the rope. Within ten minutes of working a crux section the sheath of the rope had scraped, the rope went completely flat and it wouldn’t hold a coil in the damaged portion. This happened on a different route with a different fall using different carabiners and with a different climber on the sharp end. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just me for some reason. I didn’t think it was but I wanted to change out every possible aspect of the safety system except the rope to see if I could isolate the issue. The only constant in the equation was the rope.
Rope 3 Rope 3 Rope 3
Rope 3

After destroying the third rope I felt certain there was a defect in the rope. I no longer felt confident using these ropes and felt they were not properly tested before reaching the market. My patience with the U.S. supplier and Edelweiss was gone, my understanding of their perspective had worn thin, and my personal interactions with the U.S. supplier combined with Edelweiss was disconcerting and frustrating. The supplier and Edelweiss have both failed to take this rope failure seriously in my opinion and have failed to adequately inspect the rope as promised. Three months later, I sent a follow up email asking where things were in the process, and they informed me that they had just gotten the ropes back to Edelweiss a few weeks ago (after telling me they were going to overnight the 3rd failed rope to Edelweiss for inspection - 3 months ago). After this I decided to share my experience publicly.

My personal experience with both Edelweiss and their US supplier has been extremely poor. But that doesn’t affect the safety and quality of their ropes. I don’t want to misconstrue my personal experience with the safety of climbing equipment. I do think there is a defect in the Curve Unicore rope, but all I have is my personal experience.

I did run across some other people who seemed to have sheath/core issues with edelweiss ropes as well though. To me there seems to be a real issue with Edelweiss ropes. Maybe the Unicore process is suspect? Maybe bonding the core and sheath together is actually a bad idea because it doesn’t let the core slip inside the sheath and absorb impact? Maybe it was just a bad batch of nylon they received? I can only venture a guess but I do know that this should be investigated since many people are putting their lives into the hands of this rope. Here are some links to some other problems people have had:

mountainproject.com/v/edelw…
mountainproject.com/v/edelw…
mountainproject.com/v/edelw…

I’d like to add that up until this Unicore rope I had climbed exclusively on Edelweiss ropes for the past five years. I often recommended Edelweiss to others as a good ‘workhorse’ rope. But after trashing three ropes on demand and talking with others it seems as if quality control has slipped at Edelweiss. The more people I talk to, the more stories I hear of Edelweiss ropes wearing out within a very short time period, often within months of use. These are people with other Edelweiss ropes, not just the Unicore models. Reports of sheaths wearing through quickly, core-shots from very little use and overall bad handling/quality of their ropes are the things I’m reading from people who have had an Edelweiss rope within the past two years. It seems to be that quality at Edelweiss has gone downhill over the past few years.

Again I want to stress that this is my personal experience and cannot verify that there is/isn’t a defect with Edelweiss Unicore ropes. It seems to me that there is, and I wanted to let people know what I went through with this rope so they can make their own informed decisions. I have given Edelweiss and the US supplier ample time to investigate this issue before publicizing this information as I think that is only fair, and if there is an issue Edelweiss is the one who should handle it and inform their customers of it. But after 4 months of no responses and no testing(by Edelweiss) I feel it’s time to share what I experienced with others.

Is the damage to the rope on the section that ran through the quickdraw biner when you fell? Or might the damage have happened due to abrasion against the rock?

looks like a repeated fall on a sharp quickdraw to me, or against a bulge of sharp rock if its true it happened on a new draw.

Yes the damage on the rope is on the section that was running through the carabiner. The rope does not touch the rock, its overhung and hangs free from the route. Its not due to sharp rock or a grooved carabiner.

The quick draws were in good condition and the third rope came wth a new quick draw for testing. The falls were all very soft catches, I was the belayer for two of the times this happened.

Kevin also sent the route I was on just weeks before I had this happen, and he had taken the same fall (often bigger ones actually) many times over the course of working it. None of his ropes failed in this manner.

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I just ordered that exact same rope from gear express. What a coincidence... crap. And it was such a great deal at a 30% discount on a closeout.

Thanks for the post. Hopefully I can get the order canceled.

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So this is pretty interesting. I know seeing this, the initial reaction is to blame the biner (as yes, that damaged sure does look like rough biners and crazy wear)

Several years ago I had this EXACT SAME THING happen to me with a Beal 9.7mm Booster. I had been a loyal Beal user for several years with zero out-of-the-ordinary issues. I purchased a 60m 9.7mm Booster from Backcountry and took it to the crag soon thereafter. The SAME sheath disintegration happened to me within the first 6 climbs I did. All in the areas where the weighted rope ran over a biner. At first I thought the fixed draws were the culprit but after inspecting the rope carefully, it appeared that the sheath itself had issues. As described by the OP, my rope was coming apart FAR TOO easily. Ropes that have bad abrasion wear still maintain their integrity (the fraying strands, if pulled held up). My failures mimicked the OPs in that the sheath was falling apart. A busy I was climbing with said he had seen that in the past and it was linked bad to a "bad batch of nylon" if that is such a thing.

I sent it back and replaced with a different brand (ironically, edelweiss).

I have 3 Edelweiss ropes (none are the unicore ) and have had no issues with them.

The fact that Beal and Edelweiss both have UniCore in their lines AND have had similar issues makes me wonder if their source plant is the same?

Either way, that failure looks legit in my experience and would like to learn what is going on here as well

I've had that same rope for 9 months and have nothing negative to say about it. It is not my favorite rope I've ever owned, but it is a great value.

Jay Samuelson wrote:Kevin also sent the route I was on just weeks before I had this happen, and he had taken the same fall (often bigger actually) many times over the course of a few months. None of his ropes failed in this manner.

Maybe if you both followed the 4-plan you'd have hot flashed the routes?

Jay Samuelson wrote: Rope 3: ...The third rope shows up with a new quickdraw to be tested on the same route with new gear. Within a short ten minutes the third rope failed ....

Questions to Jay regarding Rope 3:

1. Where the falls onto the new quickdraw that the supplier sent you, and was this draw otherwise virgin - i.e. no previous use?

2. Was the rope unused or completely virgin with no previous falls up to this point addressed in question 1?

I think you should donate the ropes to the Gunks top roping community.

Hey Mike, yes the quickdraw was brand new with no previous use. The rope had seen a few falls before I got back on the same route for testing, but on the same day. When I took rope 3 out, I did a few warm ups and took a few falls, then got on the project. I think that the falls before-hand contributed to the more rapid failure of rope 3.

Rebahays: Unfortunately I don't know that, I should've recordered the lot/batch numbers of the ropes but I didn't think to do that at the time. I did recieve all ropes within about a month period, I would guess they are in the same lot but I don't know.

Thanks for the heads up Jay. Given the facts that you have presented, I don't think there is any plausible reason why this is in anyway okay. The fact that Edelweiss has not reacted well is pretty unfortunate.

Jay Samuelson wrote:Hey Mike, yes the quickdraw was brand new with no previous use. The rope had seen a few falls before I got back on the same route for testing, but on the same day. When I took rope 3 out, I did a few warm ups and took a few falls, then got on the project. I think that the falls before-hand contributed to the more rapid failure of rope 3.

Case dismissed.

What you have here is a contaminated sample then instead of a controlled test. If you had taken that new quick draw, clipped it into a hanger, clipped the rope into the draw, took some falls on the rope, and then saw failure, your case would hold up.

But with the possibility of the rope experiencing falls on other draws and nothing to ensure that the earlier falls didnt damage the new draw......case dismissed.

mike gibson wrote: Case dismissed.

Hah, I don't think that you can just blow off Jay's "test" just because he used the rope on some other draws. Don't be such a dismissive pain in the butt. A brand new rope should not fall apart like is shown is his pics under almost any circumstance save for a severely grooved and sharp biner. Unless there was obvious visible damage prior to falling on the rope and the rope exploding, then there is very likely something seriously wrong with the rope.

Jay, for the warmup falls, what kind of shape were the biners in? Are they new? Grooved at all etc?

Post pictures of the biners in question, please.

Just as I was going to ask what biners you were using on the rope end of those draws...

J. Albers wrote: Hah, I don't think that you can just blow off Jay's "test" just because...

All you have here is speculation and opinion. OP had the perfect opportunity to prove the problem, but now there is no way to know exactly what happened to the rope - unless Edelweiss wants to speak up.

Mike, I can ensure that the quickdraw was not damaged because I did not use it on the warm up routes. The new draw only saw use on one route, so it was impossible for the new draw to be damaged at all. Now you could argue that the falls on the other route caused damage to the rope, which is possible i guess. Those draws were also fine upon inspection though, so it doesn't seem likely. And if a few falls damaged the rope its still a major problem with this rope.

And after destroying one end of the third rope, i switched ends and my buddy got on a different route with a different fall, and with new quickdraws although not brand new. This end of the rope, which was 'virgin and pristine' as well as an almost new quickdraw, also failed within the same time frame.

The ropes were destroyed on 4 different quickdraws, all either new, brand new or in fine shape. If i trashed a rope (or 3) on shitty draws I wouldn't claim defect, I would claim stupidity.