A climbing harness is a device which allows a climber access to the safety of a

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

. It is used in

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

climbing,

abseiling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling the person descending controls their own movement down the rope, in contrast to Bela ...

, and lowering; this is in contrast to other activities requiring ropes for access or safety such as industrial rope work (such as window cleaning), construction, and rescue and recovery, which use

safety harness A safety harness is a form of protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards a ...

es instead.

Overview

While an improvised harness can be created out of length of rope or nylon

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, commercially produced harnesses specific to climbing rock and ice are the norm. These characteristically include a dedicated tie-in loop, padding, and amenities such as gear loops. Most commercial climbing harnesses meet the guidelines and manufacturing standards of organizations such as the

Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA, lit. ''International Union of Alpine Clubs''), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France ...

(UiAA) or

European Committee for Standardization The European Committee for Standardization (CEN, french: Comité Européen de Normalisation) is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global tr ...

. Harnesses of users involved in climbing should be attached to dynamic (

kernmantle Kernmantle rope () is rope constructed with its interior core protected by a woven exterior sheath designed to optimize strength, durability, and flexibility. The core fibers provide the tensile strength of the rope, while the sheath protects the ...

) rope, which has natural shock-absorbing stretch. In

via ferrata A via ferrata (Italian for "iron path", plural ''vie ferrate'' or in English ''via ferratas'') is a protected climbing route found in the Alps and certain other locations. The term "via ferrata" is used in most countries and languages except n ...

, the harness is attached to metal cables via a

shock absorber A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...

that can absorb some of the impact of a fall. The most common knot for attaching a harness to a rope is the figure-eight follow through, characteristically backed up by a stopper knot. Although it is harder to untie after a fall than some alternatives, it is inherently more secure, easier to tie, and easier to verify that it has been tied correctly. There are many variations of the bowline knot, including a variation of the

double bowline A double bowline (or round turn bowline) is a type of loop knot. Instead of the single turn of the regular bowline, the double bowline uses a round turn. This forms a more secure loop than a standard bowline. Naming Though called "double bowlin ...

, and some will untie themselves when repeatedly stressed and unstressed, as is common in climbing. A harness' gear loops, used for carrying such equipment a protection devices, carabiners, etc., are not weight-bearing; nor are the elastic cords which restrain the leg loops from slipping down while not under load.

History

The invention of the climbing harness has been attributed to Jeanne Immink, a Dutch climber in the late nineteenth century. Some of the first climbing harnesses were devised in the U.K. in the early 1960s by Alan Waterhouse, Paul Seddon and Tony Howard who went on to form the

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

climbing equipment manufacturers. A harness designed by British climber

Don Whillans Donald Desbrow Whillans (18 May 1933 – 4 August 1985) was an English rock climber and mountaineer. He climbed with Joe Brown and Chris Bonington on many new routes, and was considered the technical equal of both. Early life Born and brought ...

was made by Troll for the 1970 Annapurna South Face Expedition. It went into mass production shortly afterwards and soon became popular worldwide. The sit or seat harness was invented in the 1960s by Yosemite climbers. The first innovation was the Swami Belt, which was multiple loops of webbing around the waist. Then quickly came the Swami Seat, a sit harness tied from webbing revealed to the climbing world thru an article in Summit Magazine in the mid-60s, which included leg loops and an integrated waist loop. Once the seat/sit harness came to be, suppliers of climbing gear started making them with stitching replacing the knots.

Types

A sit harness consists of a waist belt and two leg loops which are normally connected in the front of the hips through a permanent webbing loop called a ''belay loop''. Belay loops are extremely strong, but nonetheless still a single point of failure that caused at least one notorious death. For rock climbing, the rope typically goes through the two "tie-in loops" that are above and below the "belay loop". The

figure-eight knot The figure-eight knot or figure-of-eight knot is a type of stopper knot. It is very important in both sailing and rock climbing as a method of stopping ropes from running out of retaining devices. Like the overhand knot, which will jam under st ...

is mostly used for rock climbing. These are the most commonly used harnesses for recreational activities such as abseiling and rock climbing, as they afford a wide range of movement while still maintaining a high level of safety. Ensuring the harness fits correctly is key to avoiding pain in the upper thigh area caused by the leg loops being too tight around the upper legs and groin area, while at the same time ensuring that a climber flipped over in a fall does not slip out. The waist belt should be tightened snugly. A chest harness is worn around the shoulders, usually with a sit harness so as to provide an additional attachment point. This attachment point allows for better balance in some situations such as when carrying a heavy pack (as the

centre of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

is above the connection to the rope) and when the person in the harness may be unable to maintain an upright position (due to injury or other influences).

Safety

In a study conducted, researchers came to a conclusion that there was no statistically significant evidence revealing a pattern between harness type and severity of climbing accidents. Direct rock contact in rock climbing was the main reason for injury, not the type of climbing harness used.

Materials

Most harnesses are made from nylon

, specifically,

Nylon 66 Nylon 66 (loosely written nylon 6-6, nylon 6/6, nylon 6,6, or nylon 6:6) is a type of polyamide or nylon. It, and nylon 6, are the two most common for textile and plastic industries. Nylon 66 is made of two monomers each containing 6 carbon atoms, ...

. Aspects are often tubular rather than flat.Tubular vs flat webbing
/ref> Different weaves are used depending on a component's function. These sometimes include polyester. Buckles are typically made of anodized aluminum. Foam and mesh are integrated into the leg loops and waist belt to make them more comfortable. Harness designers adapt increasingly advanced materials such as

Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW) is a subset of the thermoplastic polyethylene. Also known as high-modulus polyethylene, (HMPE), it has extremely long chains, with a molecular mass usually between 3.5 and 7.5 million amu. T ...

(UHMWPE),

aramid fiber Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in marine cordage, mar ...

s (Kevlar, Vectran, etc.), and

sailcloth Sailcloth encompasses a wide variety of materials that span those from natural fibers, such as flax, hemp or cotton in various forms of sail canvas, to synthetic fibers, including nylon, polyester, aramids, and carbon fibers in a variety of wove ...

to make harnesses lighter and more comfortable.

References

External links

How to choose a climbing harness?
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