The lifetime of the ground triplet state of vibrationally excited C-60 has been determined in a two-color pump-probe experiment. An intense pump pulse (337 nm, 4 ns) was used to excite the neutral molecules. The triplet state was probed via single photon ionization with a weak probe pulse (193 nm). The lifetime was found to be on the order of 1 mus. This is rather low to explain recent delayed ionization results but higher than expected from an extrapolation of earlier measurements at lower temperatures. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.