My go-to climbing line snapped on a removal yesterday

I was up in a big oak in Austin around 3pm doing a takedown. Got about 30 feet up and my main climbing line just broke right at the splice. I had my lanyard on so I didn't fall but it scared the crap out of me. The rope was only about 8 months old and I inspected it before the climb. Anyone else had a brand new rope fail like that for no obvious reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara_baker5714d ago

That exact same thing happened to my buddy Mike in San Antonio last spring, his line snapped about 15 feet up during a palm removal and he landed on a fence. He'd only had it for 6 months and it was a name brand rope too. It makes me wonder if there's some kinda quality control issue going around lately with climbing gear, kinda like how you see more appliances breaking down right after the warranty expires these days. I've noticed a lot of stuff just isn't built the same way it used to be, not just ropes but saws and saddles too. Maybe they're rushing production to keep up with demand and skipping some steps in the process. Anyway glad you had your lanyard on man, that's the scary part about trusting your life to a piece of rope.

king.andrew14d ago

Man, that story about your buddy Mike is rough. Idk, I think the whole "name brand" thing can be a little misleading sometimes. I mean, I've seen some guys swear by a certain brand that had a bad batch a few years back, and it's not like they test every single rope before it ships out. Honestly, the number of falls I've heard of from people using older, stiff ropes that just give out at the knot is way higher than brand new gear snapping. Maybe it's just me, but I bet a lot of these failures come down to how the rope's been stored or if it got exposed to some chemical on the job, not just the factory work. Good thing you had that lanyard, man, that's the real saving grace in a situation like that.