Climbing Harness

[RichH]

I used to do tech-mountain rescue, never saw leg strangulation-release-then dead ... but lately EVERYONE in the business is making it a real big deal.

The Mast Mate with fold down mast-steps at the 'top' so you can take your weight off a chair or harness ..... ahhhhhhhh!

BTW - I go up the mast 'barefooted' for better 'grip'.

 

[Hermit Scott]

24"X8" piece of hardwood or plywood if you are on the cheap. And about 15' of 1/2" 3 strand nylon. Drill 4 holes in the corners and run the line through to make a chair.
Do you know how long a 15 minute job takes? It's not 15 minutes! I use a chair like this and a harness. If I have to work on the mast head I get cranked up to the top then I stand on the seat.

 

[Steve Dion]

Herman: Cheap & Dead sort of run in the same vein. $40 or dead is that what you life is worth? It is not like you are never going to use this thing again. <g>

 

[Seattle Scott]

Steve, Hermitt is in a harness also, not just the homemade chair. So if he is tied into 2 halyards, I'd call it safe.

 

[Steve Dion]

Scott:

Thanks for the clairification! On my boat 51' feet to the deck is a BIG bounce!

 

[RAD]

My way up.....Mast mate with sail slugs into the track and a very good and comfortable bosuns chair with my self strapped into the chair and while I'm climbing the Mast mate someone else is tailing the chair halyard around the winch, I'm able to climb to the top pretty quickly and the person below ties off and I can work for quite awhile if I need to get up to the top I have the person below give the chair halyard slack and stand in the Mast mate with a safety strap around the mast.
This method works well if just my wife is around cause she or anyone else won't have to use any effort to get my fat butt up the mast.......coming down is the easy part with three wraps around the winch
my last trip up was real easy cause I borrowed a 60 ft. bucket truck and found a spot close to a dock so that this work could be done while in the water

 

[thinwater]

Me too, and no, I never heard much of it until lately.

I used to do tech-mountain rescue, never saw leg strangulation-release-then dead ... but lately EVERYONE in the business is making it a real big deal.

But there have been a number of industrial cases in the past few years. Climbers are nearly always prepared to get the victim down in moments; falls are common place and planned for. Construction work on the other hand... your 250-pound buddy is hanging injured on a 6-foot tether just out of reach and no one has a clue how to lower a man. He can easily be there 45-60 minutes, by the time the rope crew gets there and gets to him. Additionally, he took a hard fall with only the tether for energy absorption.

What I do know is that if I hang for more than about 10 minutes my butt hurts and my legs are rubbery for a while. That is enough.

 

[shipwreck66]

MastMate is what I use when there is no one with a strong shoulder to winch me up. I personally like it.

 

[Cayennita]

I have used my mountain climbing gear for over 20 years and my mast is 50 feet off the deck. I go up by my self when alone. With my wife onboard I take up a second halyard so that my wife can bring me down faster. One ascender on my chair or harness and the second one has a line made up as stirrups. Do squat on the way up, stand on the stirrups for as long as needed or seat on the chair. Mast Mate goes in the mast track. If you have a Harken system will it work? I dont have a rope luff so all my slides are always on the mast.

 

[Sumner]

I found a '42 foot mastmate with belt and tool kit that is suppose to be in very good shape on Craigslist for $250 and we bought it today.

I've looked at ascenders and such and there are so many that I don't know what I need. I'd like to be setup with a harness and an ascender, clutch or whatever it is called that I could use on a second line/halyard as a backup for safety.

I envision something I could slide up or down the second line so that if I fell or some other disaster struck it would catch and break my fall and hold me. Could someone give me a link to what I need? A link to one specific one they would recommend. The same with a simple harness that would just be there as a backup.

Ruth would be there, but she just isn't strong enough or really qualified to handle a belay line. I need something that I can use by myself. I see using this mostly in the yard with the boat on stands, so if something did happen there would be other people in the vicinity to help.

Also I envision only using the mast mate with the slugs in the track, but if anyone has used one free of the track I'd like to know how they set it up just in case we ever found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't use the slugs and track.

Thanks,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

 

[JustDucky]

If the ascending system is confusing, try this site
http://technology.darkfrontier.us/Vertical/Frog/

 

[Gunni]

Sum;
The magic device is the Petzl Gri Gri. google it for an explanation. Climb a section of 1/2" low stretch halyard dedicated for mast climbing (takes the abrasion) tied off to a halyard end (not the shackle). Tie the lazy end of the climbing line to a deck fitting to keep the line close to the mast. As Cayennita notes, tie off a second halyard for someone to belay you (as back up). You can do the up and down by yourself however. The Gri Gri brings you down in a controlled manner.

 

[Bill Roosa]

While I am a proponent of the Swiss seat as it is easy to make and you usually have a bit of rope lying about, it is not comfortable. That is (and I'm cheap) why I made a chair. Took a 24" length of 2x12 board and drilled holes in each corner. The holes are big enough to pass the 1/2" line but not a knot tied in it. The line starts with a knot goes upward through the left rear hole, up to a clevis and then down to the right rear hole crosses under the board to the right front hole then back up to the clevis and down to the left front hole and ends in a knot. You will also want to form a loop that goes around your chest and over your arms that independently attaches to the clevis also as a backup in case your board breaks or a knot slips.
Total cost was free as I had the items lying around.
I've been aloft many times with it and can attest that sitting on a hard board is much preferred to any harness and certainly a Swiss seat.

 

[RonRelyea]

RADS (Rapid Ascent and Descent System) aka: yoyo

I found a '42 foot mastmate with belt and tool kit that is suppose to be in very good shape on Craigslist for $250 and we bought it today.

I've looked at ascenders and such and there are so many that I don't know what I need. I'd like to be setup with a harness and an ascender, clutch or whatever it is called that I could use on a second line/halyard as a backup for safety.

I envision something I could slide up or down the second line so that if I fell or some other disaster struck it would catch and break my fall and hold me. Could someone give me a link to what I need? A link to one specific one they would recommend. The same with a simple harness that would just be there as a backup.

Ruth would be there, but she just isn't strong enough or really qualified to handle a belay line. I need something that I can use by myself. I see using this mostly in the yard with the boat on stands, so if something did happen there would be other people in the vicinity to help.

Also I envision only using the mast mate with the slugs in the track, but if anyone has used one free of the track I'd like to know how they set it up just in case we ever found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't use the slugs and track.

Thanks,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

Sum ... tree climbers sometimes use the "yoyo" ... see 1:51 in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF-xkQrb-6s&feature=related


here's the gear: http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=180&item=441

don't use this on your halyards ... get a dedicated climbing rope to avoid abrading your halyard. you also might want to set up the foot loops for both feet rather than using just one leg to climb.

the atn top climber shows a good setup for feet, with the climbing rope led through the middle of the foot loops: http://www.atninc.com/topclimber_en.php

 

[the_alpine]

Find a Boy Scout, a Marine or someone who was in Airborne, they'll show you how to do it.

As a long time climber and climbing gym owner, these 3 groups of people are the ones we have to pay the most attention to.

Spend a little money and get a harness. You can get them comfy enough for pretty cheap. I also recommend the ability to ascend/descend a rope on your own with ascenders, daisies and etriers, and as mentioned above - the ever so useful gri gri. This gear means nothing however if you don't have the knowledge on how to use it properly. Properly does not mean only safely, but efficiently as well. You will tire yourself out real quick if you're not efficient.

I love how similar climbing and sailing are.

 

[thinwater]

As a long time climber and climbing gym owner, these 3 groups of people are the ones we have to pay the most attention to.

Isn't that the truth.

I watched a marine Australian repel off the end of a rope into a mud flat at the edge of a river. He was OK, but my ribs hurt.

I've only seen near misses and minor injuries with Boy Scout groups, but far too many of them. The danger is even greater later away from supervision, when they think they climb on their own, believing they know something. I helped scrape up a kid whose friends described as an ex-boy scout. He fell out of his harness (buckled incorrectly), fell 200 feet, and landed about 25 feet from me.

But it can happen to ANYONE. My long-time climbing partner took a 50-foot fall after topping out on a sport route he had climbed a number of times. Perhaps his 10,000th roped climb. For reasons he doesn't understand--I was not there--he unclipped from the anchor and then asked to be lowered. He broke quite a few things, but he is recovering.

You've always got to watch out for "dumb."

 

[Coriolisbc]

How much weight can be hoisted aloft?

 

[Sailm8]

How much weight can be hoisted aloft?

If ya gotta ask it's too much!

 

[Bill Roosa]

NEVER go aloft by yourself. Always have a buddy on deck!!!