Harness gear loops...

[sweatinoutliquor]

So, I have a Marmot harness that has those rigid plastic gear loops on it that make clipping easy. I was skeptical at first, but after using them for a while, I realized that yup, they are pretty handy. Yesterday, I was messing around in the back yard and accidentally stepped on one of the loops of an aider that I had clipped onto the plastic loop, and it snapped instantly, with only a very little amount of force applied (seemed like it broke easier than a pencil). This immediatly dumped the 4 other items that were also clipped into the same loop. Has anyone else out there found that these loops are super easy to break? I would have been pretty bummed if I was actually on a climb and I dumped four or five peices of gear, especially if it included necessary gear (such as one of my aiders) on a long climb. Also would be sweet to get hit with that stuff at the belay. I guess I am going to duct tape the loop up, but I think I may find it harder to justify putting those supercheap cams or ice screws on something that can break so easily! Any thoughts on this?

[Dr_Crash]

Petzl says their plastic loops only support 5 kg of weight. So yes, they'll break easily.

 

drC

[kurthicks]

get one of those metolius idiot harnesses. supposedly those loops are full strength.

[Dr_Crash]

Or move to the moon: more mass allowed per plastic loop.

 

drC

[Dru]

gear sling

[bigwallpete]

Dru not even a gear sling always works.

It seems you want things that have a full strength application always.

On Zorros Last Ride in Squish my body took a 30ft fall snagging a hook on the ledge which I guess created enough force to break the BD Zodiac gear sling causing 30 biners and 3X#0 tcu to the deck from 600ft or so.

Now I only use a full strength gear sling

My two cents

[J_Kirby]

Is it better to take a static fall onto a snagged (full strength) gear sling . . . or snap a loop, lose a few pieces, and fall on the rope instead?

 

I'm sticking with my Metolius gear sling.