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Old 11-19-2008, 01:41 PM
Ian McColgin Ian McColgin is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Hyannis, MA
Posts: 368
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I use a chest and sit harness together for both safety and comfort. By itself a sit harness is much less comfortable than an oldfashioned plank bo's'n's chair but it's much safer for all the leg movement in climbing. So I run the fall and hoist up through a large 'biner connection the two sides of the chest harness. That keeps everything nice and close - less physical effort staying near verticle - and it allows a near reclining position while working thus taking some strain off my buttocks and giving me far longer - like an hour or so as opposed to mere minutes - before my legs numb out.

There are two different ways to utilize the ascenders, and I switch back and forth.

The classic mountaineer method I learned on has a loop to each foot with a second loop from whatever's the lower ascender to the sit harness. This lets you climb and descend using both legs and can be quite smooth and fast.

Alternativly, some preferr to hand two loops from one ascender and keep the other only for the connection to the sit harness. You hoist using both legs dragging the harness ascender up as you go. Sit on it, push the feet ascender up, and repeat.

If you're going up on one static line, it's well to sit in the harness down near the deck and, weight on the line, secure the lower end. That minimizes the stretch. If you're as lazy as I and go up on a pully, sitting on the hoist and usin the ascenders on the fall, bring the line through a deck level (or so) pulley and secure to the sit harness. Again, sit on it while securing to get the slack out.

The single line approach does not leave enough slack to hook in a descending ring, which I dearly love, so I mostly go the pulley approach. That way, sitting on the hoist and one ascender, I can ease the part of the fall leading up to me from deck, creating enough slack to feed the ring into the fall a bit below the ascenders. Then I shift weight to the descending ring, hold with one hand, and unclip at least the feet only ascender with the other. Easy enough to hold the other ascender gate open with one hand, controling the descent with the other.

The selvagee safety is really simple. Just a tape with a 'biner at each end wrapped around the mast three or four times and both 'biner's to the chest harness (less clutter there). Mostly the coils just lay loose against my thighs which are usually on either side of the mast. In test falls I've tried, it takes about 4' - 6' to tighten up around the mast and stop me. It does involve shifting the safety at every set of spreaders and any intermediate halyards. I usually hook the safety to something fixed while working to give a little more freedom, like one loop around the mast above the spreaders on itself through a 'biner, the other 'biner still on the harness, if my work is out at the end of the spreader. Or, if wrestling with a tricolour or antenna, having the tape tight around my buttocks and the mast head, like a lineman, and standing up on shortened stirrups to position my body a bit over the truck.

Have fun in the air & G'luck
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