Beal Joker 9.1 after 10 trips to the crag

Not very impressed by the durability of my beal joker so far, I know it's not meant to be a work horse, and that's not what I use it for, I primarily have tried to use it for send attempts only, but I obviously haven't sent on every red point attempt

Mine lasted at least two years. It outlasted four of my partners Nano's. I couldn't have been happier with it.

I have a 9.1mm Mammut that I love. I have been amazed with the durability.

I climbed with a guy who had a similar experience with the Joker. I love my mammut infinity 9.5. I found it to be super durable and it handles really well. I'm fairly big (170lbs) for a sport climber and have fallen on it a lot. Sucks about your rope though, those things aren't cheap!

Were you taking falls in a way that placed the rope over a rough edge or something? The sheath shouldn't be damaged like that from biners and/or belay devices after just a couple "soft" falls. And are you sure you only used it 10 times? That "undamaged" portion of the sheath looks pretty haggard to me, but I've only climbed on a Joker once before, so am not too familiar with how they wear..

I'd try and swap it out for a new one from the vendor or manufacturer. That's a pretty shitty deal.

How careful are you with your rope side carabiners? Could happen easily if the biner was worn from being on the bolt side of a draw.

Do you know if the rope was contacting the cliff as you fell? Or do you believe this is just from carabiner friction?
That wear pattern looks like coarse rock-contact abrasion... I don't know what climb you were on but seems more plausible it was the way your gear was placed/sling length that drew the rope against the cliff as you fell inducing this sort of abrasion pattern..

I'm curious, were you falling on fixed draws with worn caribiners? In a couple of cases, people have gotten the chop. I could imagine it putting a lot of wear on a rope in less extreme cases.

blackdiamondequipment.com/o…

My Joker has over a year of use with no significant wear and tear.

That is not a photgraph of a lightly used rope. The falls may have been soft, but some other external variable (not the quality of the rope) was a significant factor in those core shots. Rough edges, rope drag, rough carabiner . . . something.

Use a thicker rope

If you are fuzzying up the sheath like that ultra skinny ropes arent for you

Get a 9.5mm+

Are you lowering down and pulling the rope after every fall? Or are you boinking up and retrying the moves?

These skinny ropes are marketing genius to sell $$$$$ ropes more frequently to folks who dont really need em

;)

I had a fairly poor impression of the sheath durability of the joker I used. It went fuzzy/soft quickly with no lead falls. But it was nothing like shown here...
This looks like a rope that was pinched against something while being under tension.

the sheath initially got a little frayed from my buddy taking on this section of rope several times (hang dogging), however the day that this happened was on a consistently overhung route on my own gear, I'm super OCD about my draws so if someone places one of my draws upside down (rope side in the bolt) I switch out the biner (which gets expensive haha)... long story short I took three falls on the same part on a virtually brand new draw with no rope drag on a rope that legitimately looks brand new throughout the middle and other end of the rope and ended up with a blown out sheath...

also all my draws that were on the route were 17mm or 21mm, so when I would fall the rope wasn't anywhere near the rock

Same exact useless experience with a new Beal Joker 9.1mm rope. I took it on 6 afternoons outings. The rope got very fuzzy from barely any use.

On the next outing my friend projected a move maybe 20 times over 30 minutes. It went like: rest at the fourth bolt, make two moves, fall from the next move, rest, repeat. Overhung route, the rope didn't even touch the rock! The sheath broke through. I checked the carabiners on my quickdraws and they are super smooth; no burrs no sharpness of any kind.

the other end of the rope is very fuzzy:

newsflash: super skinny rope still bad for projecting

I have been disappointed by the durability of the joker over multiple ropes, no freak accidents, not hard on the rope, the sheath just shreds. 

If you look at the specs you'll notice the joker has a much lower sheath percentage compared to newer models at a similar or even smaller diameter. 

Rob Dillon wrote:

newsflash: super skinny rope still bad for projecting

Edelrid protect pro 8.9 is crazy durable 

That’s just plain and simple abrasion from contact with the rock and could happen to any rope.   As others have said, get a thicker rope for working projects.  

I’ve had several Beal Jokers and other Beal ropes and all have been great.   One did get worn like yours but it happened after a partner yo-yoed on it while working a hard move.   I now try to use a 10mm or an old rope I don’t care about if I know we are going to be working moves. 

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

That’s just plain and simple abrasion from contact with the rock and could happen to any rope.

Read my post again. I said that the route is overhang and that there was no contact with the rock.

Heliodor Jalba wrote:

Read my post again. I said that the route is overhang and that there was no contact with the rock.

I was referring to the op but ditto on yours.   Maybe a micro burr on a biner?    Damage like that just doesn’t happen out of the blue.