How long climbing gear lasts, according to the people who make it.

Why makers publish a lifespan at all

Regulation (EU) 2016/425, Annex II point 1.4(e), requires the maker's information to give, where applicable, the month and year or period of obsolescence of the product or its parts. The European Commission's guidelines (5th edition, October 2025) say this can be an expiry date, a limit on use, or an incident, giving a harness after a fall and a helmet after an impact as examples. They also say makers do not have to mark a date of manufacture.

The BMC's Technical Group wrote in 1999 that since the European PPE directive took effect, which it dated to 1995, makers of gear that degrades must give lifetime guidance, usually as a shelf-life figure and an in-use figure. The amended Directive itself (Directive 89/686/EEC, Article 16, as replaced by Directive 93/95/EEC) let member states permit, until 30 June 1995, the marketing of equipment that met their own national rules in force on 30 June 1992; 1995 was the end of that transition period. It described shelf life as the time in average storage after which significant degradation may have happened and called those figures conservative. It called in-use life "rough guidance at best", and said physical checks and first-hand knowledge of the gear's history are the most reliable indicators.

The UIAA, introducing its inspection recommendations (undated), adds that a standard only sets a baseline for new equipment in the laboratory, and that the maker is the primary source for any specific product.

Makers' statements side by side

Where the statements disagree

Maximum rope age

For their own ropes, Sterling caps storage plus use at 10 years (2019), Edelrid allows 12 years unused (2013), and Beal allows up to 15 years including 5 years of storage (2014).

When the clock starts

DMM and Black Diamond count from the date of manufacture; Petzl's 2024 rope notice gives 10 years without saying when the count starts. Blue Ice counts its 10 textile years from first use. Beal counts years in use separately from up to 5 years of storage. Two items of the same age can therefore be at very different points in their makers' stated lives.

Metal gear

DMM, Blue Ice and Edelrid give their metal products no time limit, and the 2001 BMC text expects karabiners to last at least 20 years. Black Diamond's 2016 ice tool figures are far shorter, from 1 to 5 years under normal use. A climbing website, in an article we could not date, reports DMM and Wild Country as recommending a 10-year maximum for metal parts, which DMM's own instructions contradict. Petzl is quoted in search snippets as giving metal products an unlimited lifetime; we could not open that page, so Petzl's position on metal is unconfirmed.

How often gear is examined

Petzl recommends a detailed inspection by a competent person at least every 12 months, more often with intense use (rope notice, 2024). A DMM harness document, seen only in search results and without a date, is said to recommend a thorough examination at least every six months; that is unconfirmed.

Where the makers agree

Across the statements cited above (Petzl 2024, Beal 2014 and 2019, Edelrid 2013, Sterling 2019, Black Diamond 2019 and DMM), the reasons makers give for retiring gear early overlap: a major fall or load, a failed inspection, contact with chemicals, visible damage, an unknown history or a marking that can no longer be read, and any doubt about reliability. Several of them, including Petzl, Beal, Black Diamond and DMM, say gear may need retiring after a single use, or even before first use if it is damaged. Sterling notes that chemical damage can be invisible.

Several makers present their time limits as maximums rather than promises; Beal, for example, calls its figure only a potential lifetime. Each maker's own instructions describe what it treats as a reason to retire its product.

Shared equipment

The BMC said in 1999 that the questions its Technical Group was asked most often concerned retiring equipment, especially gear held in pools. It said pool managers often set a fixed retirement period unless damage appears sooner, and gave the example of a heavily used climbing centre retiring lead ropes after one year and a rarely used one after about four years, calling both reasonable if based on an understanding of how the gear degrades. The BMC also said its Technical Group had by then spent thirty years investigating equipment failures and written over 300 reports.

The gear care page sets out what makers say about storage and cleaning, which they link to lifespan, and the recalls page lists products withdrawn regardless of age.