Some of Wild Country's Rocks were found to fail below their rating

A gear company has issued a recall notice on some of its climbing nuts after testing revealed some failed below their rated strength.

Owners of Wild Country Classic Rocks and Anodised Rocks bought in the last three years are being asked to check their gear to see if it is affected.

A company spokesperson said: “Following a recent failure in use of a Classic Rock, in which fortunately no injury occurred, we conducted an in-depth investigation and an extensive testing programme.

“Following the testing of over 17,000 Rocks we found some units that did not achieve their rated strength.

“The rated strength of Rocks varies, depending upon the size, from 4kN to 12kN. In a very small number of cases the failure load was below the units rated strength and in some cases below 7kN, a peak load that can be realistically achieved during a fall.

“The problems that we found were most apparent in Classic Rocks batch JBE.

“However, we cannot guarantee that other batches and Anodised Rocks are not also affected and therefore have taken the decision to recall all units with the identified batches.

“Our first priority is always the safety of our climbing and mountaineering colleagues and customers, therefore we have taken the decision to recall the Rocks with the identified batch codes.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause, and thank you in advance for your cooperation in helping us to recover as many of the affected Rocks as possible.”

The products affected by the voluntary recall are Classic Rocks and Anodised Rocks with any of the following batch codes; AG AH BII JBE.

Details of how to identify affected batches and instructions for returning them are on the Wild Country website.