Sure, we all know ropes need to be retired when they start to look old and worn, right? But it's so tempting to hang onto a rope for just a few more pitches. Particularly for sport climbers, Powick's tests should serve as a real-world warning: Sport climbers beat the hell out of the ends of their ropes through repeated falls, hanging, and winching, and sport routes are more likely than most climbs to have crux moves close to the belayer. It's a double whammy.
Bottom line: A hard, unsentimental look at your rope, combined with your personal knowledge of how much work it has seen, is the best guideline for deciding when to retire your cord. Don't be cheap: If it looks bad, it ain't safe.
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4 comments:
so then, the bowline is better than the 8 for tying in?
Static pulls on dynamic rope don't mean much so this report is pretty much irrelevant. The real question that BD didn't address is how the old rope would handle a drop test. I'd wager that same rope would have still withstood 3 UIAA drops without any problem. Sure it was likely a 6-fall rope when new but it's a very brutal test and surviving 3 in a row would still be fine. A careful examination of your sheath about fifteen feet from each end tells you the most about rope condition.
According to Sterling, the 8 generates less force than the Bowline:
http://www.sterlingrope.com/media/document/techmanual.pdf
Another reason to use doubles.
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