Around the middle of June this year, I noticed the laces on my boots were beginning to fray so I treated myself to a new pair of Scarpa laces from Taunton Leisure. Today, as I was giving my boots a laces out clean I noticed the sheath on one lace had already worn through where it passed through the bottom D ring. According to my log, that means they have only lasted 25 trips! Not good value IMHO.
As a stop gap, I dug out the original laces supplied by Altberg that I had long since abandoned because the plastic aiguillettes had disintegrated making them hard to thread, and used the gas ring to melt the tips so I could thread them through until I can get some new laces. Now I know what the little slots in the side if the metal hoops you thread laces through are for - you can use a pointed object, such as a bodkin, to tease the lace through to the point where you can pull it out with a set of needle nosed pliers.