The day my 60-foot oak told me my rope was too old

Last month in Austin, I was setting up for a removal on a live oak that had split during a storm. Got my rope out, the one I'd been using for about 4 years. It looked fine, no fraying, no sun damage I could see. I tied in and started my climb. About 15 feet up, I grabbed the rope to pull myself over a branch and it just snapped. No warning, no sound. I fell maybe 6 feet before my lanyard caught me. Scraped up my arm pretty good. The rope was a 5/8" static line that I'd bought new, but I never kept a log of how many climbs it had done. After that I spent $140 on a new rope and started marking the date on the thimble with a sharpie. Anyone else had a rope fail on them without any visible damage first?

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