Can Worn Biners Cut A Rope?

Many modern sport crags have fixed draws, especially on the popular routes. Over time, the rope end of the ‘biners on these draws gets worn down, and start to develop some pretty serious grooves. Kolin Powick, the quality assurance guy over at BD, has conducted a test on these worn ‘biners to see if the rough edges could cut a rope in a fall. You can check out the results here.

In his tests, he was seeing ropes get cut on the first drop, and severed clean through on the second drop, but he points out most people would stop climbing after the first drop had exposed the core. His conclusion:

“Though it is unlikely a fall onto a sharp-edged ‘biner would cut your rope, most likely the sheath would get cut, exposing the core. However, it’s always better to be more safe than sorry and swapping out old beat-up gear is a good habit to get into.”

Certainly something to think about next time you are projecting a route with fixed draws.