Hiring climbing gear?

[Davi]

Anyone know if it's possible to hire climbing gear? Only places I've found that do it so far are ones that also have a rock face or climbing wall for you to use it on, not to take away. Need to do some work on the roof so just want a body harness and about 3m of rope for a few days!

[Munter]

http://www.hss.com/

??

[Davi]

First place I thought of. Phoned them, they do all sorts of height safety eqp. but apparently not a harness and rope?!

[Gylen]

It may make sense to just buy a harness. You can get a good step in waist harness (do you definitely need a body one?) for around £40-50 so not a huge amount.

Not sure of any rental places though...To be honest, gear that I'm using to support my life is gear that I would want to own from brand new so I was sure no-one had taken big falls on it/weakened it in the past...

[rhinochopig]

Gylen said:

It may make sense to just buy a harness. You can get a good step in waist harness (do you definitely need a body one?) for around £40-50 so not a huge amount.

Not sure of any rental places though...To be honest, gear that I'm using to support my life is gear that I would want to own from brand new so I was sure no-one had taken big falls on it/weakened it in the past...

As far as I know you can't due to the potential for litigation if it fails. You can only hire gear when it is provided by a guide.

To the O/P, buying a harness would cost you circa £30 for the most basic, and a rope would somewhere in the region of £80 for a single dynamic rope.

ETA ignore the rope costs just read you only need 3m. You can but by the metre in a climbing shop. You'd probably need a bit more though to ensure enough at both ends for knots and enough length to move around on the roof.

http://www.rockrun.com/products-Clog-Classic-Harne... Cheapest seat harness 29.99

Edited by rhinochopig on Monday 6th October 11:09

[Davi]

Gylen said:

It may make sense to just buy a harness. You can get a good step in waist harness (do you definitely need a body one?) for around £40-50 so not a huge amount.

Not sure of any rental places though...To be honest, gear that I'm using to support my life is gear that I would want to own from brand new so I was sure no-one had taken big falls on it/weakened it in the past...

Cheers Gylen, didn't realise they were that sort of money - I thought I'd be looking at that for the hire! Plenty of jobs I can foresee in the future that would be beneficial to have it for as well.

No idea about what sort of harness I need, all I know is I'm going to be standing on a 40 deg slope that is covered in soaking wet moss and lichen about 8m above ground level, I don't like heights and suffer from Menieres - so I thought it would be prudent to have something that could arrest any rapid descents!

[Gylen]

rhinochopig said:

Gylen said:

It may make sense to just buy a harness. You can get a good step in waist harness (do you definitely need a body one?) for around £40-50 so not a huge amount.

Not sure of any rental places though...To be honest, gear that I'm using to support my life is gear that I would want to own from brand new so I was sure no-one had taken big falls on it/weakened it in the past...

As far as I know you can't due to the potential for litigation if it fails. You can only hire gear when it is provided by a guide.

To the O/P, buying a harness would cost you circa £30 for the most basic, and a rope would somewhere in the region of £80 for a single dynamic rope.

Just to add, I presume you know what you're doing with regard to securing the rope, tying in etc? You need to be pretty sure of your knots and I would be wary of doing this if inexperienced- if you are well up on all this, ignore me

[Davi]

Gylen said:

Just to add, I presume you know what you're doing with regard to securing the rope, tying in etc? You need to be pretty sure of your knots and I would be wary of doing this if inexperienced- if you are well up on all this, ignore me

Nope, haven't got a clue on what's considered correct

There is however a large timber structure going up above where I'll be working to tie onto, know enough knots to tie one that won't come undone and just cut it when I'm finished.

[rhinochopig]

Gylen said:

rhinochopig said:

Gylen said:

It may make sense to just buy a harness. You can get a good step in waist harness (do you definitely need a body one?) for around £40-50 so not a huge amount.

Not sure of any rental places though...To be honest, gear that I'm using to support my life is gear that I would want to own from brand new so I was sure no-one had taken big falls on it/weakened it in the past...

As far as I know you can't due to the potential for litigation if it fails. You can only hire gear when it is provided by a guide.

To the O/P, buying a harness would cost you circa £30 for the most basic, and a rope would somewhere in the region of £80 for a single dynamic rope.

Just to add, I presume you know what you're doing with regard to securing the rope, tying in etc? You need to be pretty sure of your knots and I would be wary of doing this if inexperienced- if you are well up on all this, ignore me

Good point. To the OP learn how to tie a figure of eight for tying in at the harness end and it really depends what your going to attach yourself to as to which sort of knot you'd want at the other end.

The other thing you need to consider is how to recover yourself if you do slip. Being rescued by the fire brigade hanging from your chimney for an hour will be both embarrassing and you'll run the risk of suspension trauma.

[chris_w666]

Only a licenced climbing centre would hire you equipment to use under their supervision.

If you borrowed some equipment and used it incorrectly they would be liable.

Best to get someone in to do the work or buy the gear you will need.

[Davi]

rhinochopig said:

Good point. To the OP learn how to tie a figure of eight for tying in at the harness end and it really depends what your going to attach yourself to as to which sort of knot you'd want at the other end.

The other thing you need to consider is how to recover yourself if you do slip. Being rescued by the fire brigade hanging from your chimney for an hour will be both embarrassing and you'll run the risk of suspension trauma.

Heads off to Google figure of eight...

Recover wise, all the work I'm doing is at least 2m above the bottom edge of the roof, and within a 2m range left and right of where I'll tie off - my plan was to keep the rope length such that if I do slip I'll simply end up pretty much in the same place but flat on my face. If the worst comes to the worst there is scaffold on 2 sides a short distance away, its just not immediately below where I'll be working hence the need for additional safety.

[chris_w666]

http://www.animatedknots.com/indexclimbing.php?Log...

Best Knots resource I have ever found.

[Ganglandboss]

I admit I know cock all about sports climbing equipment but I have been trained in use of harnesses for construction.

• For construction use, only full body harnesses are permitted - could anyone advise if there be an could be an issue with a belt harness?
• Are you using the harness for fall arrest or as a support? Falling even relatively short distances without anything to absorb the energy can injure you very severely - would dynamic rope be effective such a short length?
• If you did fall, would you be dangling over the edge or still on the roof? Is there an issue with being able to be rescued?

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you tighten the leg straps - you see plenty of scafolders with the straps dangling. The instructor who taught me showed us some very graphic photos of a numpty who had fallen, dropped into the harness as it caught him and trapped his left bo11ock with the strap!

[Davi]

Ganglandboss said:

• For construction use, only full body harnesses are permitted - could anyone advise if there be an could be an issue with a belt harness?
• Are you using the harness for fall arrest or as a support? Falling even relatively short distances without anything to absorb the energy can injure you very severely - would dynamic rope be effective such a short length?
• If you did fall, would you be dangling over the edge or still on the roof? Is there an issue with being able to be rescued?

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you tighten the leg straps - you see plenty of scafolders with the straps dangling. The instructor who taught me showed us some very graphic photos of a numpty who had fallen, dropped into the harness as it caught him and trapped his left bo11ock with the strap!

• permitted or not, I've been up there all weekend in a storm trying to limit the damage to the decoration so a bit of nylon rope round me would be an improvement

• Both. Accept what you are saying, but I reckon falling 3ft onto my face even with a nylon rope is going to injure me a damn site less than a freefall of 8m onto a pile of hardcore and bits of steel
• no risk of dangling, just enough slack to mean if my feet go from under me then my waist will end up where my feet were. Recovery could easily be performed from the other side of the roof (which doesn't have any tiles, felt etc - just timber and boards and can be accessed from the scaffolding or at a push from inside)

Point noted about leg straps, I'll be checking those

[Munter]

Take a web enabled mobile up with you will you. That way if you do get "hung up" you can log on and let us know. Then call the emergency services.


Although seriously dont go up there without means to call for help. Or a buddy checking on you.

[Davi]

that'd give Rich873452610 a field day - "help, I'm hanging upside down off a roof, what should I do?".

Missus insists I take a mobile up there - though I learnt early on it's not so I can phone down to the kitchen for a coffee...

[wadgebeast]

Climbing club definitely a good idea. You can hire kit from climbing shops, but they tend to be in climbing areas e.g. snowdonia, fort william....

Full body harness will stop you from flipping upside down. Waist harness will be fine, provided, as already mentioned, you tie the straps up properly and get rid of all of the loose ends.

How are you getting down to where you need to be? Or back up? If it's just support you're after, try a double bowline in a decent length of rope. It's just a bowline but on a bight (i.e. doubled up section of rope). If you need to lower yourself down to where you need to be, then you'll need a figure of 8 block so that you can abseil down to it. Which also means you need someone to show you how to use it.....

[Davi]

getting down / getting back up is more a case of stepping over a bit of 8x2 timber - no vertical movement necessary fortunately. I'd really quite fancy going to a climbing club and getting properly trained up just for enjoyment but having only partial feeling in my right hand I doubt I'd be a prime candidate!

[shadowninja]

Ganglandboss said:

• For construction use, only full body harnesses are permitted - could anyone advise if there be an could be an issue with a belt harness?

I guess if you tied in to the wrong part, you could be left dangling upside down with a good risk of falling out of the harness if it wasn't tightened.

[mechsympathy]

shadowninja said:

Ganglandboss said:

• For construction use, only full body harnesses are permitted - could anyone advise if there be an could be an issue with a belt harness?

I guess if you tied in to the wrong part, you could be left dangling upside down with a good risk of falling out of the harness if it wasn't tightened.

H&S vs risk - A chest harness will prevent you inverting but will restrict your movement and in some circumstances make it more likely you'll get tangled in a rope when climbing.