Can you use a rope that has been in storage for a few years?

In general climbing ropes are quite robust in terms of storage. The Safety Research Group ("Sicherheitskreis") of the German Alpine Club (DAV) has done a lot of research about this in the 90ies and their general result was: as long as they aren't exposed to sunlight or aggressive chemicals or have been strained over a sharp edge during a fall their performance doesn't change substantially. There are two articles in the bergundsteigen journal (more comprehensive but unfortunately only in German) and another one from the UIAA page that summarize the influencing factors on the strength of climbing ropes:

• Pit Schubert: Moderne Zeiten für Bergseile, bergundsteigen 3/2000; pp. 19.
• Klaus Kunigham: Spannende Seile (2), bergundsteigen 2/2006; pp. 36.
• Pit Schubert: About Ageing of Climbing Ropes, UIAA 3/2000; pp. 12.

In your case I would be cautious for another reason when buying used safety equipment: your life depends on that gear and a failure might cost your health or even your life. As you don't know the history of that equipment, you cannot judge whether it is safe or not and how it has been treated. Even if this guy tells you that it hasn't been used much you cannot tell if he's only telling so to make you buy it. Also your questions sounds as if you don't have much climbing experience yet, so you even might not be able to tell about the general quality of the gear.

Therefore my general advice would be not to buy any second hand safety equipment. The only exception I could imagine was gear from one of your climbing partners where you have at least a clue about how they treat their stuff.

posted almost 11 years ago

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Benedikt Bauer‭

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