Chest harness

[Burnham]

My organization requires all climbers to wear a seperate chest harness with their saddle, or a one-piece full body harness. The reason for this is to facilitate an aerial rescue should one be necessary. I don't see this practice used by those of you who have posted photos over the years. I have not observed competition rescues, or training for AR by others, so I'm wondering if the ability/need to provide upper body support for a victim plays into the picture for those of you who practice AR, and if so, how do you provide it?

 

[FBerkel]

Almost all AR practice I've done has used the standard ISA TCC type dummy, which has never had a chest harness on, in competition or practice. Typically, the thing is encountered hanging, bent over backwards from its waist attachment points.

Guys usually support the upper body in one of two ways: safety lanyard over one shoulder and through opposite side d-ring, or sling under armpits of victim, connected to prussik or small ascender on victim's rope. Having a chest harness on the victim would definitely help reduce rescue time a bit.

 

[NeTree]

Now that it's been mentioned, when I worked for Asplundh we all used single-D waist belts. But the utility vrews all used the 5-point FA harnesses. Never fell from the bucket with just a waist belt, but wouldn't that cause some spinal injury being jerked in half when you stop?

 

[Burnham]

Erik--It sure could if the fall amounted to much of anything. We are not required to use a full fall arrest harness, though. Just have the chest harness on in case you need to be rescued. Many of us use a simple butterfly or figure eight style...very light, no bulk. Once you get used to putting it on every time it never gets in the way or bothers me. I don't think you could climb tied into the correct attachment point on a FA harness anyway, which I think is always in the back, centered at the shoulder blades. So keep the slack out of your line! If I was working a bucket or scaffolding or some such situation I'd want a FA harness.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

There is a movement in Canada to require a dorsal ring on full body harneses for tree workers.

Those who I have talked to how have practiced rescue say that with a dorsal ring, it is much eaiser to control the descent.

I have not heard of anyone working with a pectoral ring.

Eventually I'm going to go with a full body with a dorsal connection point, I think it will be more comfortable then my dragging on the hips Master.

One stat that John ball brought up in his talk at the TCI Expo is that the vast majority of rescue are done by Muni Rescue personel with ladders and buckets.

Many of them are done rescue/recovery because of a failed, ill-planned rescue attempt by a crewmate.