Inspecting, Caring For and Retiring Climbing Gear: What a Manufacturer's 10 Years Means, and When to Retire Immediately

🌏 中文版

The label on your harness says it was made five years ago. You look it up: Petzl says textiles last up to 10 years, so you relax. Five years left. Then you read that Black Diamond says a harness in normal use has a life expectancy of about three years. Who's right?

This is the last post in the Climbing Gear series. The earlier posts got the gear bought; this one covers using it until it should be retired: how to read the manufacturers' numbers, what calls for immediate replacement, and how to inspect each item. Where manufacturers disagree, this post sets their figures side by side without picking one; what they share is that you judge by inspection, not by age.

Climbing shoes aren't PPE; when to resole them is in post 1. Inspecting trad protection is outside this post: what to check on nuts and cams is in post 10: Nuts and post 11: Cams. The prusik cord and chalk bag have their own posts too, with inspection and retirement covered in post 9 and post 2.

Two kinds of "lifetime": maximum lifetime and service life

Back to the opening question: BD and Petzl don't actually conflict. They're describing two different lifetimes.

An article by the German Alpine Club (DAV) safety research team (in German) makes the distinction:

• Maximum lifetime (Lebensdauer): the manufacturer's stated limit, the longest the product can be used under optimal storage with no damage. Once it's passed, product liability ends and it's time to replace it.
• Service life (Gebrauchsdauer): depends on wear and damage. DAV says service life usually ends before the maximum lifetime.

Petzl's 10 years is a maximum lifetime; BD's three years is a service-life estimate. Your harness may need replacing well before 10 years.

DAV also notes that a product doesn't suddenly fail the day after its lifetime expires; the change from new to worn out is gradual. That's why manufacturers often give service-life guidance alongside the maximum, to help less experienced users judge.

Something you can do tonight: take the gear whose manufacture year you found in post 0 and write two things next to each: the year its maximum lifetime runs out, and your estimate of how often you use it.

The figures each source gives

Ropes: two views side by side

Ropes are where the numbers diverge most.

DAV's 2010 article reprints a rope-lifetime table labelled "manufacturer":

Edelrid's rope-care page says:

• Ropes age even unused; replace after ten years at the latest.
• A rope used occasionally and stored carefully can give three to six years of service.
• A rope used very regularly that takes lots of falls should be downgraded to top-rope use only after a year.
• Edelrid also says plainly that exact values for rope lifespan can't be given.

The difference is a rope used weekly for a year: DAV's table says "up to 1 year"; Edelrid says downgrade to top-rope, not throw away. This post doesn't choose. What both agree on is that years are guidance; the inspection decides.

When to retire immediately

Whatever the age, retire gear after these. Compiled from Petzl's instructions (GRIGRI as the example), Edelrid, Mammut and DAV:

• A major fall or load. One of Petzl's retirement conditions. Mammut says a fall above factor 1.0 compromises a rope. BD says a harness that's taken a severe fall may be ready for retirement even without obvious damage.
• Acid contact. Edelrid says acid damage is often invisible: the sheath may be only slightly discoloured while the core is destroyed; replace immediately after contact with acid such as car-battery acid. DAV says even the fumes of car-battery acid can be enough, and textiles should be discarded at once if acid contact is suspected.
• A visible core. DAV says retire the rope at the latest when the core shows.
• Heat or friction melting. Edelrid lists heat, abrasion or friction burns that have melted or visibly damaged the rope.
• Unknown full usage history. One of Petzl's conditions, for example an illegible marking.
• It fails inspection, or you have any doubt. Petzl's wording is "or you have any doubt as to its reliability."
• Obsolescence. Petzl says changes in legislation, standards, technique or compatibility can also make a product due for retirement.

Petzl also recommends an in-depth inspection by a competent person at least every 12 months. BD and Petzl's harness-inspection article both say to destroy retired gear so nobody else uses it.

Watch: HowNOT2 smeared oil, DEET, sunscreen and an acid mix onto the same rope and slow-pulled each sample; start at the acid section. Every other sample broke at the knot, but the acid one failed at the contaminated spot, at roughly half the usual strength. These are a few slow pulls, not drop tests, and the "no effect" results for the other substances only describe this one session. The acid result matches what Edelrid and DAV say: you can barely see it, and the strength is already gone.

Inspecting a rope

Run the whole rope through your hands before and after each use. Edelrid says go metre by metre to feel small irregularities or damage, paying particular attention after stonefall or a big fall.

Feel a soft spot? Do the kink test. DAV's Knicktest: if two fingers can easily press the bend completely flat, with no "eye" left open inside, the sheath has lost its protective function there and the rope should go. Mammut's version is the same: make a small loop and press; if it resists and bounces back you're fine, if it collapses the rope's structure is damaged.

A fuzzy sheath isn't automatically retirement. DAV says a slightly fuzzy sheath doesn't have to go straight away as long as the core is undamaged; usually it just handles worse.

Ends can be cut off. DAV says sport ropes wear hardest near the ends, and with those cut off the rope can still serve for shorter routes. Mammut says if damage is only at the end, cut it off; then melt the sheath and core together at the cut with a lighter, re-measure, mark the new middle with an Edding 3000, and write the new length on the tape at the cut. A shorter rope raises the risk of the end running through while lowering, so the stopper knot from outdoor belaying matters even more.

Watch: in Mammut's lab, Hard Is Easy asks an engineer how soft is too soft and how fuzzy is too fuzzy; start at 17:15. The engineer's rule is to compare against the same rope: a soft rope with a slightly softer spot is no cause for panic, a stiff rope with one very soft spot is; if the ends feel very different from the middle, cut the ends. Earlier in the video, a soft spot placed right over the quickdraw had its sheath burst after just two falls. That is one old rope and one soft spot, tested with a non-standard method.

Something you can do tonight: run your whole rope through your hands and do the kink test anywhere that feels different.

Inspecting a harness: Petzl's 14 points

Petzl's harness-inspection article lists 14 steps, which fall into five groups:

1. History and markings: know how it's been used and any exceptional events (falls, extreme temperatures, modifications); the serial number and CE mark are still legible; it isn't past 10 years; compare with a new harness for modifications or missing parts.
2. Webbing: waistbelt and leg loops free of cuts, swelling, damage, wear from use, heat or chemicals, including under the buckles; safety stitching on both sides free of loose, worn or cut threads. Safety stitching is the thread in a different colour from the webbing; post 3: Harness explained that the standard requires the contrast for exactly this step.
3. Belay loop and tie-in points: no cuts, swelling or wear on the belay loop; no cuts, swelling, damage or wear on the protective webbing of the tie-in points.
4. Buckles: no marks, cracks, wear, deformation or corrosion; straps correctly threaded with no twists; buckles working properly.
5. Comfort parts: foams, elastic keepers, leg-loop elastics and gear loops free of cuts or wear.

DAV adds two points:

• A harness wears most at the bridge between the leg loops and at the tie-in points, where the rope rubs constantly.
• Once the abrasion protection at the tie-in points is worn through, retire the harness. Don't reinforce it with tape; chemicals in the adhesive can weaken the material further.

BD also warns: don't sew it yourself, don't burn off loose threads, don't file the buckles.

Watch: in this sub-one-minute short, HowNOT2 pulls on the belay loops of a 2002 Petzl harness and a brand-new one of the same model. The old one looked fine, just fuzzy, yet the belay loop tore out of the waistbelt; the description puts its breaking strength at about half the new one's. A single slow-pulled sample, and a harness long past Petzl's maximum lifetime, but it shows that "looks fine" is no substitute for inspection and age limits.

Inspecting a helmet

Mammut says to inspect before and after each use and replace immediately after: a hard fall; contact with harsh chemicals such as acid; deep scratches, tears or dents in the shell or lining; tears in the chin strap, headband or adjustment system; buckle deformation; heavy, irreversible soiling; or excessive use.

Mammut also says a helmet absorbs impact through partial destruction of its shell and lining, and critical damage isn't always visible. One that's easy to miss: paint, adhesives and self-adhesive labels, like other harsh chemicals and intense heat, can weaken a helmet without outward signs; after contact, replace it.

How to judge dents in a foam helmet? DAV says in-mould helmets dent very easily; as long as the foam inside is undamaged and the shell has no holes or cracks, it's no reason to retire it. But even a small crack in the foam can impair how the helmet absorbs and spreads force.

UV and heat: DAV says among personal gear, only frequently used helmets are noticeably weakened by UV (they become brittle), and discolouration is the warning sign. Leave a helmet under a car windscreen in the sun and find a dent afterwards, and it's time to retire it.

Something you can do tonight: take your helmet under a lamp, look over every side of the shell and the foam inside, and work the chin-strap buckle. If you've put stickers on the shell, check what the manual says.

Belay devices and carabiners: look for wear grooves

Metal doesn't age, it wears. DAV says aluminium wears faster than steel; a rope carrying sand or rock dust quickly cuts grooves into aluminium, and the groove edges become sharp, which has already caused rope failures.

Wear limits from each source:

• DAV: be concerned once an aluminium carabiner has lost about 25% of its cross-section; for steel lowering rings, about 50%.
• Petzl: its care notes for belay devices and descenders say the instructions require retiring a belay device whose body has developed a sharp edge, and Petzl recommends retiring any metal product with wear more than 1 mm deep. Within that 1 mm, you can round sharp edges by hand with fine sandpaper so they're kinder to the rope.

Belay devices also need checking for braking. DAV says when the brake grooves of a tube device are heavily worn, braking force drops noticeably; with assisted-braking tubes, braking also falls as device and carabiner wear. The GRIGRI manual says to check before each use: no deformation, cracks, marks, wear or corrosion; cam and handle move freely and the springs work; no sand or debris in the mechanism and no lubricant on the rope path; then do a function test.

Locking gates: DAV says a carabiner's auto-lock can wear until it no longer closes reliably; try cleaning and lubricating, otherwise retire it. Don't use WD-40: DAV says it accelerates ageing, and Petzl says degreasers like it strip lubricant and their abrasive effect speeds wear. DAV recommends acid-free oil or silicone-based lubricant; Petzl says fluid machine oil or graphite powder, wiping off the excess so it doesn't get on slings or ropes.

Don't use aluminium climbing carabiners on slacklines. DAV says the repeated loading reduces breaking strength, and you can't see it.

Fixed perma-draws at the crag

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) describes a fatal case: a climber in Switzerland hit the ground after his rope was cut by a sharp edge worn into a permanent quickdraw; in other incidents ropes were cut with less severe injuries. DAV also says perma-draws (especially the first on a route, or the one before a roof) develop sharp edges along the groove.

The BMC's method: clip your own quickdraw first, hang from it and inspect the perma-draw; if you're satisfied, clip the perma-draw instead. DAV says badly faded slings on fixed draws are a clear warning sign and a reason to replace them with your own gear.

Watch: Hard Is Easy tested worn carabiners on Mammut's drop tower; from 21:15 come the conclusions and a crag example. A carabiner from the first bolt of a route had a flat edge worn in by the rope. It didn't feel knife-sharp, yet the rope's sheath split open after only 6 falls. Each case is a single sample. Earlier in the video, grooved carabiners still broke close to their rated strength; the danger is the rope getting cut, which is why the BMC has you hang on your own draw and feel the fixed one before trusting it.

Whether a bolt itself can be trusted is in judging bolts.

A dropped carabiner: two views side by side

A carabiner slides off your harness and hits the ground. Replace it?

• DAV: its 2010 article says the claim that dropping creates hairline cracks could not be confirmed. Its newer article is blunter: metal that's dropped doesn't develop hairline cracks; such cracks arise in production and can be enlarged and made visible, or lead to breakage, by a fall from a great height. If it looks fine after the drop, it usually is.
• BD: the QC Lab author says that when people ask about worn gear, dropped gear or gear that's had a strange event, he always plays the conservative card: "when in doubt, retire it."
• Petzl: its retirement conditions include "you have any doubt as to its reliability."

This post doesn't pick. DAV's "looks fine" still means looking: check the gate closes fully, the spring is strong, the lock works, and there's no deformation or sharp edge. If you're still uneasy afterwards, follow BD and Petzl and replace it.

Watch: Hard Is Easy dropped one Mammut carabiner model from a drone onto hard ground, cycle-loaded the samples, CT-scanned them, then broke them at Mammut; start at the break tests at 13:35. The group dropped from 100 m all broke above their rated strength, and the Mammut engineer concludes strength isn't the problem but sharp edges from the drop can damage the rope, so inspect. The video supports the DAV side, but it covers a single model and the channel is sponsored by Mammut, so it doesn't overturn BD and Petzl: do the checks above, and replace it if you still have doubts.

Care and storage

Washing a rope: the two makers differ.

• Mammut: machine-washable with a mild detergent at 30°C on a wool programme; run the rope through your hands first to scrape off dried dirt.
• Edelrid: recommends hand-washing in lukewarm water in the bathtub; if machine-washing, use a 30°C wool cycle and don't spin.

They agree on drying: spread out in a cool, shaded place; never hang it or dry it in the sun. Mammut adds: never tumble-dry it.

Other enemies of ropes, per Edelrid: sand and granite crystals (which work into the rope), UV (fades colours and accelerates ageing), and rope-on-rope friction melting (two ropes through the same anchor, lowering off a sling); even heavy chalk use can coat and abrade the first metre of rope. Use a rope bag, and don't drag the rope on the ground.

Don't keep gear in the car. Mammut says the main mistake frequent climbers make is leaving the rope bag in the car: temperatures swing, and there may be a spare battery nearby. Petzl says temperatures under a sunlit window or in a car boot can exceed 80°C.

Marking the middle of a rope: DAV says chemicals in tape, stickers and ordinary markers may harm textiles; use only manufacturer-approved ink or an Edding 3000. Mammut recommends the Edding 3000 too.

Metal gear: Petzl says not to use stamps or punches on metal; an electric engraving pen (less than 0.1 mm deep) next to the serial number is fine, as is a small amount of paint where nothing rubs against rope or other gear. Don't paint plastic parts.

A gear record sheet

The UIAA's 2026 buying advice suggests recording brand, model, serial number, purchase date, inspection dates and usage. Add the maximum lifetime and retirement conditions from this post, and a simple sheet looks like this:

Log every big fall, drop, chemical contact or day baking in the car under "events". Step one of Petzl's 14-point check is knowing the history.

Something you can do tonight: add "max lifetime until" and "retire when" columns to the spreadsheet you started in post 0, and fill them in for every item.

Practice: five scenarios

Answers are under each question. Think first, then look.

1. Your harness is four years old, you climb three times a week, and the protection at the tie-in points has a small hole. A friend says, "It's nowhere near 10 years, just tape it."

2. Your rope spent a summer in the car boot next to a spare battery. It looks completely normal.

3. Running your two-year-old gym rope through your hands, you feel a noticeably soft spot in the middle.

4. Your locking carabiner slides off your harness onto the rocks at the crag.

5. Outdoors on a steep route, the first bolt has a perma-draw with a badly faded sling.

Series recap

This series followed the order in which you spend money:

0. Rent or buy: buying order, CE and UIAA, manufacture year, why not second-hand.
1. Climbing shoes: shape, fit, stretch, current models, resoling.
2. Chalk bag: waist bag or bucket, opening and closure, belt or harness clip.
3. Harness: gear loops, adjustable or fixed leg loops, fitting.
4. Belay device: tube, assisted tube or cam device, rope range.
5. Carabiners: Type H and pear shape, screwgate or auto-lock, anti-cross-loading.
6. Helmet: hard shell, foam or hybrid, fitting.
7. Quickdraws: solid or wire gates, sling length and width.
8. Rope: end markings, diameter, length, dry treatment.
9. Prusik cord: tie your own or buy sewn, nylon or aramid.
10. Nuts: curved or offset, which sizes first.
11. Cams: how far your first rack goes, matching sizes across brands.
12. This post: inspection, care and retirement.

Posts 1 to 11 each compare a handful of current models, with reviews and test and first-hand videos.

Further viewing: gear-testing and instruction channels

The videos embedded in this post come from the two channels below. They're a good starting point if you want to dig further; keep each channel's limits in mind while you watch.

• HowNOT2: run by Ryan Jenks. It started in 2016 as highline safety instruction and grew into breaking climbing, caving and canyoneering gear, plus the Bolt Busters series that pulls bolts out of real rock. Its value is in the cases beyond the rated number: knots, wear, old gear, bad placements. Limits: most tests are slow pulls on a home-built rig with one to three samples, and Ryan himself calls it entertainment, not science; the channel is backed by an online gear shop, and some tested items are sold there.
• Hard Is Easy: run solo by a climber who signs as Ben, a former software developer. After watching a hard catch slam a climber into the rock in Tonsai, Thailand, he designed his first experiment; the channel now focuses on experiments and physics explanations about belaying, ropes, carabiners and belay devices, with several recent episodes filmed in Mammut's lab. Limits: most experiments are his own design, not EN/UIAA standard tests.

Update Log

• 2026-10-24: The series now gives each piece of gear its own post, making this post 12; the harness-stitching cross-reference now points to the harness post, the series recap lists all 13 posts, and the intro points to the inspection sections of the nuts, cams, prusik cord and chalk bag posts
• 2026-10-23: Added gear-testing videos from HowNOT2, Hard Is Easy and similar channels, plus a channel guide

References

• Ausrüstung aussortieren oder weiter verwenden? (DAV Sicherheitsforschung, in German)
• Lebensdauer von Alpinausrüstung — Im Zweifel für den Zweifel (DAV Panorama 5/2010, in German)
• What is the lifetime of my Petzl equipment? (Petzl FAQ)
• How to inspect your climbing harness (Petzl, 2018-01-24, archive.org snapshot 2024-01-27)
• Tips for protecting your equipment: Belay devices, descenders (Petzl)
• GRIGRI Technical Notice (Petzl)
• QC Lab: Worn belay loops and retiring a harness (Black Diamond)
• Ropes: care instructions (Mammut)
• Climbing Helmets: care instructions (Mammut)
• How to wash and care for a climbing rope (Edelrid)
• Climbing rope care: hazards every climber should know (Edelrid)
• The dangers of worn perma-draws (BMC, archive.org snapshot 2023-09-14)
• UIAA Advice: Ten things to consider when buying climbing gear (UIAA, February 2026)
• Outdoor belaying
• Judging bolts