Zephyr 10.3mm x 60m Dry Rope

I've had this rope for about 3 months and I'm very disappointed with its durability. After about 5 weekend trips of sport climbing where I've taken a few short falls each weekend, I had to cut off the ends due to the core showing through. After a weeklong trip at Rumney, I had to cut off the ends again for the same reason. Now, after only 1 more weekend of climbing, it's ready for another chop. This rope is very soft and handles great, but it does not last. In fact, I'm returning it to Petzl to have them check it out. I've used Bluewater, PMI, Beal, and Sterling in the past. I recomend Sterling if you want it to hold up.

I've been using this rope for about a year of sporadic use. I have probably 40-50 days on it, mixed between sport and trad leads, with partners occasionally toproping after my lead. It has held a bunch of small whippers, but nothing big.

I've experienced none of the durability problems others have complained about. The ends have not frayed, the sheath is still in great shape with just some minor fuzzing, and the core has no soft spots. I've experienced no more kinking problems than with any other rope I've used, and when I have, it's been my fault (running the rope through draws that weren't lined up correctly, etc.) The rope gives a nice soft catch and still has a nice feel to it.

My only complaint is the center mark and end markings are now pretty faint and hard to see. Other than that, this rope has treated me quite well.

markhwebster summed up my experience as well; had the rope for two months, climbing a couple times a week. Treated it very carefully, primarily lead climbing and some light toprope use (never over any haggard edges or anything). Within the first 5 weeks I had a section of core showing and had to cut it down by several metres. Then in a couple more weeks there's another spot with core showing through. I also had the sections of one-sided sheath damage and terrible chafing. My local crag still sports fluffy chunks of this rope's sheath up on belay ledges, and the rope is pretty much retired already. For an expensive rope described as being tough and durable this is poor performance.

I bought this rope in september 2007. By Christmas I'd climbed on it 20 days and it was in tatters. The third day I'd used it I was following a route in Smith and it was kinking so bad I had 3 one foot long tails of coiled up kinks at my harness. If I'd fallen, I would have dropped about 20 feet by the time all the kinks unravelled themselves. I never coiled it, always butterflied, and I never toprope, always lead. It's always in a rope bag and carefully handled and stored. The worst thing I did to it was lead karate at smith. My partner was new to 10a cracks and fell a couple times in the same place. I was holding him with the rope running over a sharp edge (from the peapod belay), but it wasn't razor sharp, just not the ideal edge to hold a fall. At xmas in joshua tree, the sheath was showing several 6 foot sections of one sided sheath damage. It looked like someone had taken a power sander to one side of the sheath. It wasn't just hairballed, it was big tufts of sheath in long sections sticking out 3 milimeters. We had other ropes with equal abuse and no damage at all. This is my 10th rope in 30 years of climbing, never seen one get this bad in just 23 days of climbing. I returned it to REI yesterday for a different brand. I've had great luck with Edelweiss in the past.

I love the rope nice textule easy to handle does not kink much like others and pretty colors to.