AboutNicholas Bridgeland Expertise I am able to answer basic to some expert questions on the topic of rock climbing and some mountaineering. I have 2 years of experience in which i climbed about 5 in 7 days a week, work in a climbing gym as an instructor, and guiding climbing trips, one of which was to Utah, for Northern Illinois University.
Expert: Nicholas Bridgeland Date: 8/23/2008 Subject: Retiring Climbing Ropes
Question I know that everyone is saying that there is no definate formual for retiring ropes.
I manage a camp that has about 10k people in the summer time with an Alpine tower that runs 6 belay ropes. That's an average of 1666 usages per rope for the summer. Can someone tell me tha aprox # of usages they would use a rope for?
Answer Cathi,
I'm afraid your first statement is correct, there is no defined formula. This is because there are so many variables. Type of rope, type of anchor, type of belay devise, average weight of the climbers, number of falls the rope takes, severity of those falls, weather, etc.
What I would recommend though is that you visually inspect the ropes. Here are a couple of things to look for:
-If the outer sheath becomes "hairy"
-If the inner core and the outer sheath separate at the ends (about 2 to 4 feet from the tips) so that you can feel the two moving separate from each other.
