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Climbing Calculators Based on UIAA Standards

Convert climbing grades between French, Yosemite and UIAA systems. Calculate rope length for any route and find out when to retire your rope, harness, helmet, carabiners, and slings. The ten year textile ceiling comes from Petzl and Black Diamond; the shorter retirement ages by usage frequency are this site's own conservative working thresholds, because no standard publishes them.

Convert grades →

Tools

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Grade Converter
Convert between French sport grades, Yosemite Decimal System (YDS), UIAA, and Hueco V-scale bouldering grades instantly.
FrenchYDSUIAAHueco V-scale
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Rope Length Calculator
Calculate the minimum rope length needed for any climbing route. Enter route length and climbing style to get the recommended rope size.
SportTradMulti-pitchFormula
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Rope Retirement Checker
Find out when to retire your climbing rope. Enter the year of manufacture, usage frequency, and fall history to get a safety verdict.
UIAA guidelinesAge checkFall historyVerdict
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Harness Retirement Checker
Find out when to retire your climbing harness. Enter the year of manufacture, usage frequency, and impact history.
UIAA 105Age checkImpact historyVerdict
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Helmet Retirement Checker
Find out when to retire your climbing helmet. Retire after any impact: EPS foam is a one-use energy absorber.
UIAA 106EN 12492Impact checkVerdict
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Carabiner Retirement Checker
Find out when to retire your carabiners. Check age, shock load history, gate function, and rope wear grooves.
UIAA 121Shock loadGate checkVerdict
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Fall Factor Calculator
Calculate fall factor, the ratio of fall distance to rope paid out, and the peak impact force it produces. Compares that force against the UIAA 101 rope limits.
UIAAFall factorImpact force
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Anchor Load Calculator
Calculate force on each anchor point from the angle between strands, using the standard trigonometric relation. Wide angles multiply the load fast.
UIAAAnchorV-angle
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Sling & Quickdraw Retirement Checker
Find out when to retire your slings and quickdraws. Separate guidance for Nylon vs Dyneema/Spectra.
UIAA 104NylonDyneemaVerdict

Retirement: Metal and Textiles Age Differently

Textiles have a date, metal does not. Petzl and Black Diamond both cap plastic and textile products at ten years from the date of manufacture, whether or not the item has ever been used, and both state that age alone does not retire metal hardware. So a rope, harness, helmet or sling has a calendar running against it from the day it was made, while a carabiner is judged on inspection, deformation, wear and what has happened to it. Five checkers on this page work through that, one per piece of gear.

GearReference standardAge ceiling, unused
RopeUIAA 10110 years
HarnessEN 12277, UIAA 10510 years
HelmetEN 12492, UIAA 10610 years
SlingsEN 566, UIAA 10410 years nylon, 8 Dyneema
CarabinerEN 12275, UIAA 121No age limit on metal

Age ceilings are the figures each checker applies for an item that has never been used; every one of them shortens with use, down to a single year for daily climbing on most of this list. The standards column names the document each page references, not a retirement age: none of these standards publishes one.

The rule the whole cluster shares is short. Doubt is itself a reason to retire. Where a standard or a manufacturer does not define a threshold, and mostly they do not, the judgement is yours, and the cost of being wrong is not symmetrical. Not knowing an item's full history counts as doubt, which is why found gear and second hand soft goods go straight out of service.

Straight to the question you probably arrived with: a damaged carabiner is retired, not repaired; a helmet that took a real impact is finished that day; a sling you found in situ is never trusted; a rope with visible core is done in its current length; and a harness showing its wear indicator goes out of service today.

Frequently asked questions

What climbing calculators are on this site?

Nine, in two groups. Four are planning and physics tools: a grade converter between French, Yosemite, UIAA and Hueco systems, a rope length calculator, a fall factor calculator and an anchor load calculator. The other five are retirement checkers, one each for ropes, harnesses, helmets, slings and carabiners, which score age, use and damage history and return a verdict.

Which UIAA standard applies to which piece of gear?

UIAA 101 covers dynamic ropes, UIAA 104 slings, UIAA 105 harnesses, UIAA 106 helmets and UIAA 121 carabiners, alongside the European standards EN 892, EN 566, EN 12277, EN 12492 and EN 12275. Each retirement page links the document that applies to it. Read what those standards are for: they define what a product must do when it is new and tested in a laboratory, and none of them publishes a retirement age.

How often should I inspect climbing gear?

Before every session, and in detail at least once a year. The quick check is visual and by feel, and it is what the checklists on each retirement page are written for. Petzl recommends a detailed inspection at least every twelve months on top of that, and treats a serious fall or load, a failed inspection, an unknown history or any doubt about condition as reasons to retire an item on their own.

Are these climbing calculators free?

Yes. Every calculator here is free, with no account, registration or subscription. They are reference tools rather than a substitute for instruction: the verdicts are starting points, and the gear in your hands is what decides.