How to Inspect a Climbing Rope (When should I retire my rope?)

Rope inspection will be the most helpful step in determining when to retire your rope. Knowing what to look for during rope inspection and the potential rope downfalls will allow you to increase your ropes longevity as you learn what situations to avoid. If you want to learn more about the general rules of rope age, you can read more about the 10 year maximum recommended lifespan in this post.

Fortunately, it is quite straightforward to inspect a rope for damage.

Signs and Symptoms of Damage

Stop climbing on your rope if any of the following signals are present.

Chemical Contamination:

• If the rope has at any time come into contact with chemicals, particularly acids and bleach, but also any household cleaners or alkali substances, retire the rope. Remember that these chemicals can easily fatally damage a rope even when they are not visible. Black Diamond tested a bunch of chemicals and only acids showed discoloration.
• In the majority of rope failures that involve chemical contamination, the owner is not aware of the contamination and did not know how or where the contamination occurred. It’s important to always know where and how your rope is stored. Be vigilant about keeping your rope away from chemicals and be extremely wary of any staining or bleaching of the sheath.

Tip: Avoid storing your rope in the garage if it could be exposed to chemicals.

Tip: Avoid transporting your rope uncovered in the back of your car as this could be a place where there are contaminants from transporting grease, harsh chemicals, batteries, machinery, or even simple appliances.

Cut Sheath

• This is often the easiest to spot and the most dangerous: Retire if the sheath is damaged or cut and the core is visible.

Extremely Fuzzy Sheath

• More fuzz = less sheath protecting the core. The quote below by Singing Rock mentions if there so many fuzzies in one spot that it has completely broken through one of the woven strands, it’s time to retire.
• Most fuzziness is not a problem/OK, if there is enough abrasion to expose the core, or take a “chunk” or rope out, it’s time to retire (photo examples later in this post).

Sheath Slippage

• This is when the sheath has slipped noticeably which creates significant bunching or, even worse, sections of sheath that contain no core.
• At gyms, you might notice this happening with the shared top-ropes at the end of the rope near where you tie in – all the bending has created an overuse situation. That part of the rope should be cut off and discarded removed as it does not have all the material necessary to catch a fall.
• Many companies use glue or special weaving techniques to prevent sheath slippage.

Note: If sheath slippage is happening to the end of the rope, where it receives the most wear thanks to the tie-in process, it is possible to cut out that end from the rest of the rope. Many folks cut both sides equally, so the middle mark still represents the middle of the rope.

Sponginess

• The rope feels spongy in sections which indicates severe damage to the core. Most often this will occur at the ends of the rope where you tie-in. If this is the case, you could cut (shorten) your rope to eliminate the spongy parts and escape retirement.

Stiffness

• Stiffness could be from chemicals contamination or UV rays. UV rays in particular accelerate aging and are often felt as stiffness and seen as a lightening/discoloration.

Tip: It is particularly bad to dry your rope in full sunshine after it has got wet in the rain or after washing as wet nylon is extra susceptible to UV damage.

Deformations

• Retire if strong deformations are present such as bulges, inconsistent stiffness, or nicks.

Extreme Loading

• British Mountaineering Council recommends that if the rope has ever been subjected to extreme loads, such as any whipper with a fall factor higher than 1 it should be retired or at least demoted to top-rope duty only.

Extremely Dirty

• If the rope has become contaminated with grease, oil, or tar it’s time to retire. There’s no telling what’s happening to the core of the rope that you can’t see.
• Keeping your rope out of the dirt and sand will help prevent abrasive grains from working their way through the sheath and into the core where they can abrade the fibers. Even sand / grit can make their way to the core of the rope and cause abrasion that can be hard/impossible to see, which is one reason it’s important to keep your rope clean.

Note: Dirty ropes are harder to handle as they may not move/bend as expected.

Note: A dirty rope will wear out carabiners and belay devices faster.

Burns

• Retire if heat, abrasion, or friction burns have caused damage, making the sheath stiff in areas. Heat can also damage the core and significantly compromise the strength of the rope. In addition to stiffness / hard sections, you’ll likely notice a translucent, melted, glassy, or singed (brown/black) look to the sheath.
• Extreme friction is the most common way for a rope burn to happen and is most prevalent when two ropes (or a rope and webbing) rub together. Like if you were to lower off webbing (bad) instead of rappelling (ok) versus rappelling via a rap ring / carabiner (better practice).

Here’s a page from Beal’s rope rulebook (that we can no longer find online since their site upgrade), that shows some good examples of the rope deformations mentioned above:

Petzl also has some nice examples of when to retire (note the icons in the lower left of each example, some of these examples are OK, some require further inspection, and some are retire immediately):

Did your rope fail the test?

Why not make your next rope a sustainable one?

You can see the most Sustainable Ropes in this blogpost.

Rope Retirement all Comes Down to Inspection

An inspection doesn’t mean you need a pen and clipboard, nor does it need to take a long time. In fact, it can take very little extra time if you inspect your rope before each climb as you flake it out, and after each climb as you pack it up for the day. While you’re belaying, take note if you feel or see any inconsistencies in the rope, and inspect that area closely after the climb. This simple practice of being aware of the current condition of your rope will absolutely increase your safety margin and decrease risk.

If you want to really geek out on rope age and how that relates to retirement check out our post that goes into rope age and longevity.

Or, if you realize it’s time for a new rope, check out every single rope that’s sold in the US and a majority of the ropes sold in Europe at WeighMyRack.com/rope. There’s over 1000 rope options when you include different lengths, patterns, and dry treatments.