Saddle safety PSA

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

here's how i maximize safety for me

always climb with lineman's belt and tether on tree and use best practices/minimize slack

at height, i turn my lineman's lanyard into a secondary tether with just enough slack that it does not interfere with my primary tether (a few inches of slack) or bind up

i use a climbing rated nylon sling to attach the secondary tether to a part of my saddle that is strong enough to hold me but not my bridge (so that the secondary tether is truly redundant.....with only single point of failure being the back webbing of the saddle or i slip out of the saddle altogether)

then just be ultra vigilant and know that it CAN happen to you....no climbing overly tired, hurried, mad, etc.....act like your life depends on every move because it does

oh, and keep your waist belt and leg straps reasonably tight

I don’t use a redundant tether, or bridge because I inspect and I trust my equipment but everything thing else you said in that post is 100% spot on for me. I do not fault guys for redundant bridges or tethers though because as you said, your life depends on it! Great post Raisins

 

[raisins]

Now if we are talking about just flipping upside down and flipping back up, it’s easy. It’s also easy to use your tether to assist (so sit up strength isn’t required lol) but again in a fall scenario, the inverted position may also be accompanied with back or pelvis injury so you won’t be sitting up right easily even if you aren’t unconscious. It is also disorienting if you fall hard and whip upside down. It’s being inverted during a fall that is currently the hot topic for the standards committee now that the head of the TMA is chairing the subcommittee. Basically TMA will support no standard that allows a someone to go inverted in a fall and still call that a pass on a drop test. So basically for saddle manufacturers to pass drop tests (linesman loop, as well as saddles) the dummy cannot go beyond 180 degrees in a drop. This may actually give certain designs such as 2 panel saddles a slight advantage. I’m curious/eager to see how all of that plays out. Having saddles adopted into the TMA would be hugely helpful with insurance premiums as well as law suits involving wrongful use for saddles.

until fall rated saddles are a thing (neglecting the upside down thing), i wonder if the safest system would be a rock climbing harness used with a sit drag or drey or fleece saddle and then just always stay facing the tree just like using a saddle

the rock climbing harness can take any reasonable fall and the sit drag etc kind of provides a little redundancy

i don't go this route because it seems like more stuff to worry about and i fell my odds of a brain fart might go up

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

until fall rated saddles are a thing (neglecting the upside down thing), i wonder if the safest system would be a rock climbing harness used with a sit drag or drey or fleece saddle and then just always stay facing the tree just like using a saddle

the rock climbing harness can take any reasonable fall and the sit drag etc kind of provides a little redundancy

i don't go this route because it seems like more stuff to worry about and i fell my odds of a brain fart might go up

A rock climbing harness is no safer to fall in than a saddle. The difference is while rock climbing you have long long dynamic lead ropes that can stretch to absorb falls, or you have a belayer that leaps as you hit the bottom of your rope, to help absorb some of the force. On a short static line, a RCH is no different than a saddle in a fall

 

[raisins]

A rock climbing harness is no safer to fall in than a saddle. The difference is while rock climbing you have long long dynamic lead ropes that can stretch to absorb falls, or you have a belayer that leaps as you hit the bottom of your rope, to help absorb some of the force. On a short static line, a RCH is no different than a saddle in a fall

i thought they were often made more sturdy and drop tested and certified

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

i thought they were often made more sturdy and drop tested and certified

This is where the UIAA comes in. Their standards for testing are not like a FBH drop test for ANSI. That’s a common misconception because all certification and drop testing criteria is not universal. It’s all in application. 90% of RCH are used in conjunction with either dynamic lines, or belayers. So their criteria is pass fail based on those concepts. They are pull tested to like 15kN (3200 lbs breaking strength) I’ll attach some video examples of these tests.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

Here’s an article talking about the testing procedures for RCH.

Behind the Scenes: How Climbing Harnesses Are Designed and Tested

With their ominous-looking hooks, wheels, and metal appendages, the machines for testing climbing harnesses looked like relics from a torture museum.

www.climbing.com

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

Please keep in mind a slow static pull test and a dynamic fall apply forces very differently. For example a dyneema runner is much stronger than nylon in a static pull but when shock loaded it is much weaker than that same nylon runner. The same concept applies to saddle and RCH tests

 

[Islandshooter]

Please keep in mind a slow static pull test and a dynamic fall apply forces very differently. For example a dyneema runner is much stronger than nylon in a static pull but when shock loaded it is much weaker than that same nylon runner. The same concept applies to saddle and RCH tests

Always a great source of info, brother! Again, you are the reason I can continue to one stick climb with the most confidence and the least amount of risk possible! Thanks

 

[Beacher]

Love this thread. Sorry I'm late to the game. Very curious about your setup though as I would have though hooking into a carabiner that is sideways over a branch would be a bad idea.

At least, if you substitute the branch for a rock ledge, that set up is definitely pictured in the WTH never-in-a-million-years section of my carabiner's manual. Perhaps the redundancy of the lowerside one in your video mitigates this but, if I understood correctly, it sounded like that was only added after you took the first fall.

Thoughts?

Feel free to point me to another discussion. Genuinely interested in ensuring I always use my gear in a way that minimizes failure.