UKH

I have 2 x 8mm climbing ropes that we brought about 10 years ago, used for a few years (never fell on), and then the kids turned up and multi-pitching went out the window. We are now heading off for 3 years to go travelling, so selling all our stuff.

The rope has been stored out of the sun, in a box in a dry place in the house.

The question is - is it still safe to use as a climbing rope? and it is ok to sell this sort of thing?

We are also thinking of selling our rack, as realistically we aren't going to use it for a while (if ever) and I hate the idea of it being sat there unused. Again, is it ok to sell used trad protection?

Cheers

Nick

It's fine to sell used ropes and gear as long as you're completely honest about their history and the buyer knows exactly what they're buying. I personally wouldn't have a problem with climbing on 10-year old ropes, but I'd be reluctant to pay more than a small fraction of their new value for them. Others may have a wide variety of different opinions, all of which are reasonable as it's their lives they will be trusting to the gear.

I'll be climbing on a 10-year old rope next week, so I really hope so.

How long is a piece of...oh never mind.

They tend to last all the way down the abseil until you fall off the end.

When I last bought new ropes, 2014, 2015, from Beal and Fixe, they both came with labels saying their maximum recommended lifespan was 10 years from first use, but also that they could be used up on the first outing.

Plenty of wriggle room there for interpretation, but in terms of trading I suspect a 10 year old date stamped rope wouldn't be a high value item for seller or buyer. A used unlabelled rope probably being worth even less.

http://www.caimateriali.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf_marra/Schubert_P._Abo...