Again webbing ... Be careful!

I received some webbing ... Some runners from climbing walls and some material retrieved from the mountains.
First lets look at the runners not exposed to the outdoors for a long time:



The weakest had signs of abrasion.

But still they held more than 10 kN which is enough for all loads in climbing halls.

The conclusion: As long as you replace runners with obvious signs of abrasion you are on the safe side.

Now comes the bad news.

In the material were some slings exposed to the outdoors. Retrieved from frozen waterfalls, fixed slings in walls etc.
For example this sling, exposed for 10-15 years on a crag. It was yellow once:

 6,3 kN are not very much. We are getting closer to the loads that are possible in climbing.

The next sling: On a belay ...

Breaking load only 4,02 kN. Here its getting dangerous, for rappelling it may be enough. But consider that Polyamide gets weaker when it is wet.

Now my negative record:

Breaking load only 3,8 kN.

We have a couple of documented accidents, when climbers used such slings for rappelling or lowering down the partner, and the slings broke under body weight without impact of a fall.


I could not find any rope which was too weak.
An example:
A rope in a frozen waterfall on a belay:

Inside static ropes you find sometimes a stripe where you can identify the rope.
This one is a Teufelberger semistatic rope

It was produced 1998, that means: 20 years old.

 It held 19,48 kN.

My conclusion:

I strongly recommend:

Do not trust slings exposed to the outdoors. They may fail under body weight.

I would even say: Just do not buy them. 

There is better stuff available, core/sheath constructed slings, or take your oldest rope and cut off a piece.