rope threaded through bolt hangar, still safe?

This has been on my mind for some time. Last fall I loaned my 70m 9.8 to a friend for the weekend. When I get it back I get informed that they bailed off a route and did not have a bail biner so threaded it directly through the bolt hanger and was lowered. Looking at my rope, the part that went through the bolt while weighted is a little "fuzzy". I have inspected it like 5 times but not yet taken it out myself. There are no noticeable soft spots as far as I can tell but i'm also no expert. you can't see the core at all. Do you guys think the rope is safe to use? it's pretty beefy and from what i've read the core is the important thing so the sheath damage isn't the end of the world. Or could there be core damage that isn't obviously soft or disconnected that will manifest itself as a rope failure in a few years? Any experience/ opinions on this appreciated. 

I would stop climbing on it, make it into a lasso and round up climbers who are defying social distancing protocols.

I'm curious as to how he was attached to the bolt hanger while threading the rope through it. Did he have a carabiner, just not one he was willing to leave?

The rope's probably fine, but I wouldn't lend it to him again.

Edit: I don't think you could lower through regular hangers without severely damaging the rope.  You sure he didn't rappel?

Joe Say'n wrote: I'm curious as to how he was attached to the bolt hanger while threading the rope through it. Did he have a carabiner, just not one he was willing to leave?

oh for sure. He had draws at the very least and maybe more. He's just new and apparently felt like risking 180$ of my gear as opposed to 10$ of his

What type of bolt? If it was a glue in w the rounded metal, I’d be less concerned about the rope

I have rappelled off of a naked bolt several times with no drama.  Not like I make a habit of it, but it has happened a few times in the past 20 years! Lowering off of a bolt is a different story, however, and could damage the sheath. I would expect to see a line of sheath damage all the way down the rope from the rope rubbing against the sharp edge of the hanger. There are several hanger profiles that would be just fine to lower off of (rope damage wise), however. 

Yep, another in the “never loan a rope” camp. Even friends do stupid things.

 I once saw a strong -very young- climber easily sail through a 12c crux only to lower off a bolt a ways after that. Mental and physical strength are not equal.

To be willing to damage someone else’s gear to avoid using your own to fix a situation you got yourself into is pretty selfish. Everything you have with you is bail gear if you need to bail.

It’s not like your rope is ruined or unusable, but that is a lot of wear on it for one TR session, and wear that was completely unnecessary. Might be reasonable to ask your friend to contribute some small amount toward the eventual rope replacement based on the excessive wear and tear, like $20? Not so much to compensate you but to help them learn to think twice before potentially damaging a $200 piece of gear before being willing to sacrifice a $5 biner. It’s certainly possible to get a core-shot lowering through a hanger, and then you would need to replace the rope. Or just to drive home the point that ALL your gear can and should be sacrificed if you need to get to the ground safely.

Just a thought. You know your friend better than we do, maybe he’s already fully aware of lessons learned. 

0.5/10

A similar thing happened to me at City of Rocks. I rapped  off draws on the Just Say No anchors with a 70m Mammut 9.8 and my newbie partner J was going to clean the draws, set the rappel and rap. J had done this several times previously on the trip. If I remember correctly, there are links or chains of some sort on the anchors. No problem, right? So J sets it up, raps down the rope and we try to pull it. It doesn't move. What the &%$# ?? In our discussion, J said they threaded the rope directly through the bolt hangers. Why? No clue. We moved all over the base area and finally got an angle that worked to retrieve the rope and pulled like hell.
I think the rope is basically fine and I still use it.
The story is different if you are lowering through a bolt hanger. 

Any potential damage would be visible.  If there's no visible damage to the sheath, you're good to go.  

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/113482285/rope-damage-from-rappelling-through-bolts

Definitely a death trap. Best send it to me for proper disposal.

you need some new friends

Sounds like the dumb ass owes you $250 or a new rope of your choosing.

Dave McRae wrote: Any potential damage would be visible.  If there's no visible damage to the sheath, you're good to go.  

I mean like I said it's "fuzzy" on the section he lowered on- a little layer of fluff on the surface of the sheath. Its not like super fluffy though just barely visible. I have tried feeling, pinching, and tugging every inch of the fuzzy section trying to feel for core damage yet feel none. However i'm not sure i would recognize some subtle core damage if I felt it anyways. Maybe i'll try and have someone really experienced analzye it, or I could always cut the fuzzy section and turn it into a 55 or 60. 

And yeah, I was pretty pissed but he doesn't have a lot of money and to be fair i should have made sure he was competent on lead before enabling him with my rope 

Assuming you know what you’re feeling for, damage that’s too subtle to notice when you’re super intently looking for it isn’t damage I’d worry about.
<I am not a rope-ologist>

The type of damage that happens from lowering through a hanger is the type of damage the sheath is there to protect your core from. Or maybe damage to the core from being weighted over a teeny tiny surface area. If the sheath is intact and the core isn’t mushy, I’d whip on it.
<I am not a rope-ologist>

Fuzzy sheath can be annoying but isn’t in itself unsafe. I’d be more worried about the condition of your friend’s climbing skills, judgment, and/or friendship more than that of your rope. 

What he probably did is make your rope a lot stiffer, putting months of wear on it in minutes.  Reduced elasticity isn't something you can detect by feeling the rope, but we know it happens to a significant extent as a result of ordinary rappelling, so it is reasonable to assume lowering over a relatively sharp edge would be a far more severe type of wear.

Since all ropes wear, we all climb with compromised ropes all the time.  How much depletion of the rope's original capabilities we can tolerate is almost entirely a matter of psychology, as there is no way to know how good or bad the rope is.  With the minimal amount of sheath damage you've described, I'd guess the rope is ok for most climbing, at least where big falls and sketchy gear are not involved.  If you find yourself above your gear and worrying about how rope will perform, then you probably need a new rope, and your idiot friend should pay half the cost.

Oh, and I'd never lend him anything mission-critical again.  Ever.

oh metoluis rap hangers..where ever did you go.. 

They twisted the hell out of your rope.  Don't miss em.