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blackguardx
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 20, 2010 - 11:35pm PT
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I was at Vedauwoo earlier this week flailing at some offwidths. Looking for something to blame besides my technique, I began cursing the stiff rear gear loops on my Metolius harness. I decided to try some old school magic and fashioned a swami belt with three wraps of one inch webbing tied with a water knot. I made it tight enough so that it couldn't slip past my hips and away I went.
It was great because I could reposition my tie-in knot to the side and I hardly noticed the swami was there. Then I tried some top roping. If I ever fell or tried hanging, it hurt like hell and made me think my ribs were going to break. "Resting" on the rope just tired me out more quickly.
Is there a better way? How tight (or loose) should a swami be? How much more comfortable is two inch webbing? I shudder to think about a hanging belay in one of these.
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WBraun
climber
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:38pm PT
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How tight (or loose) should a swami be?
????????? Is this really happening ?????????????
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Mimi
climber
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:42pm PT
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Hold on WB, it's like that # bolts on El Captin thread. Just look away.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:45pm PT
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here you go
Swami belt instructional video
Russ Walling and the BAWC are to Throbbing Gristle what Wiley E. Coyote is to the Road Runner
(Acme Products item #5200, Wide Fist Stacks, no go)
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:50pm PT
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Loose enough to facilitate breathing, tight enough to jnsure that that, was not the fish that got away.
Garden Gnome accessorizing, optional...
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:50pm PT
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Been there, done that: climbing evolves, join the crowd.
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Mimi
climber
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:51pm PT
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Yep, just lost my pale ale all over the keyboard.
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Jim Wilcox
Boulder climber
Santa Barbara
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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Only 3 wraps of 1" webbing?
ouch :(
edit: Mimi, the O.P, not Russ. Russ is stylin' in his new
2" multi-wrap
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hooblie
climber
from where the anecdotes roam
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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har matey, ye can quit yer cinching when the gnarlies blow
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:54pm PT
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But did you use a hip belay, and then descend using a body rappel, or at least a carabiner brake with a diaper sling?
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Mimi
climber
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:55pm PT
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No, 2" webbing. Very nice and silky looking.
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Acer
Big Wall climber
AZ
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Aug 20, 2010 - 11:57pm PT
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Yes, 3 wraps of 2". Should be red.
Just as tight as pants that stay on without a belt. You shouldn't be able to slip the Swami off.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 21, 2010 - 12:01am PT
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Red tubular, or red flat? And does the colour indicate anything about one's political leanings?
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Acer
Big Wall climber
AZ
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Aug 21, 2010 - 12:12am PT
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Tubular. Has softer edges.
Red? Historical, not political.
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Mimi
climber
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Aug 21, 2010 - 12:19am PT
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Anders, what are you implying? Mussy prolly borrowed that harness. That or he needed a new piece out of the shop to climb with that day and sewed it into one of his products soon after.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Aug 21, 2010 - 12:50am PT
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Three or so wraps of 2" tubular webbing became the standard when we were using swami belts. One trick was to wrap it tightly just on or below the hip bones, not around the waist. (Originally, we put these turns just under our hammer holsters, which served to hold the swami down.) This made for a much more comfortable impact if you fell.
As for hanging, it was never comfortable, which is why handogging had to wait for the invention of the climbing harness. Even with the swami installed on the hips, it would slowly slip up when hanging and eventually strangle the climber; conventional wisdom was that you might last fifteen minutes hanging in a swami, and there were some very unfortunate accidents to suggest there was some truth in that estimate.
Of course, there was a solution to the hanging problem: you had to lean back until almost parallel to the ground, facing up, to keep the pressure on your hips and to keep the swami from slipping up and progressively constricting the rib cage. The extreme version, effective but disorienting, was to purposely turn upside down, which was, however, a good way to loose all the gear on your shoulder sling if you also let your arms hang down.
If it looked like you would be hanging for a while, you would turn upside down, twist a 1" runner into a figure-eight and pull it over your feet to make leg loops. If you passed the runner on the correct side of the rope, it would, when you righted yourself, run down from the swami under the leg loops and then up, thereby immediately engaging and taking your weight off the swami.
We need Steve Grossman to post the original article in Summit Magazine about this by, I think, Chuck Pratt, who called it the "bat hang."
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 21, 2010 - 12:53am PT
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nope, Mussy is sporting a special order product off the WideFetish web site..
check out the WideStore
though that particular product isn't shown...
also, Rik Rieder was recently spotted wearing a green swami... with his own sewn leg loops:
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nature
climber
Whereverland....
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Aug 21, 2010 - 01:50am PT
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if your balls turn blue you got it about right.
or maybe you need to get laid?
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Aug 21, 2010 - 02:03am PT
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Is that belt too tight, Tulouse?
Woah, is some one using a rope at Knob Hill?
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 21, 2010 - 02:17am PT
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I used to take a long-ass piece of webbing and tie two leg loops about 3" apart and wrap the rest around my waist and then tie the gap between the loops with the raps. It seemed bomber at the time and I probably took at least a couple small falls on it.
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