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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 18, 2017 - 07:52am PT
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A ridiculous question I know but still....
Looking at a good photo from El Cap Tower today with climbers in the 2" swami belts reminded me of a scary thought I once had. I only climbed in a swami one time, my first climb as a teenager, my brother took me out and showed me the standard swami and tie in. A little scared of the whole idea my mind reasoned it'd be impossible for the belt to slip up and over the arms but what about the other end?
Of course now I can see it'd be just about impossible, even if you fell completely upside down your torso would bend somewhere and bind the belt sufficiently to catch you, however unpleasant that may be. but still......... anybody ever hear of someone slipping out of a loosely tied swami?
Arne
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Feb 18, 2017 - 08:37am PT
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I started with a bowline on a coil.
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slabbo
Trad climber
colo south
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Feb 18, 2017 - 08:44am PT
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Never fell out in 20+ yrs of a swami..I was sure frightened when I first used a buckle harness though !
If you tie in a bit loose with a swami, you can get a good whack from the knot on your ribs....busted one during a 40' fall once.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2017 - 08:50am PT
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busted one during a 40' fall once.
Ouch!
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Feb 18, 2017 - 09:05am PT
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Anybody tie in with a bowline on a coil?
I started climbing at summer camp. We used a bowline around the waist. Before we could climb, we had to pass a test. They'd take us newbies over to the lake's spillway (Iroquois Showers). The water was maybe 60 degrees.. on a hot day. One at a time, we'd tie in, step under the falls, untie, step out and show what we'd done, step back under and retie. Good times. That was almost 50 years ago. Still remember it well.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 18, 2017 - 10:33am PT
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Who bothered with a bowline on a coil? ;-)
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Feb 18, 2017 - 11:47am PT
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I started out with a bowline and "progressed" to a bowline on a coil.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Feb 18, 2017 - 11:53am PT
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My concern was always that the darn thing would become untied, as slings made from tubular webbing sometimes did, without my noticing.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 18, 2017 - 12:20pm PT
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MH, that happened to Mathis on Cookie Right Side. Got to the top of the crux and looked to clip in and realized the ring bend had come unbent - the tag end of the swami was not followed through any longer.
Shet happins.
There was one near-grounder which I had while tied in with a bowline-on-a-coil on Swan Slab - one of maybe four times tying in that way - on a Perlon rope.
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two-shoes
Trad climber
Auberry, CA
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Feb 18, 2017 - 01:26pm PT
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I've climbed in a bowline on a coil within the last 10 years because I forgot my harness.
Anybody remember about a death of a climber in Yosemite after he fell from an overhang, getting all of their air squeezed out of them? I think this had happened at least once more but I don't know where.
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Feb 18, 2017 - 02:22pm PT
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BITD, anyone who used a swami (or a bowline) had a waist that was smaller than their hips or chest. 😃 Geometry prevented one from falling out.
Nowadays, we've grown all pear-shaped.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Feb 18, 2017 - 02:27pm PT
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I took a hundred foot fall on a swami once. It was a super runout slab climb, so I didn't fall as fast as a vertical fall would.
Didn't bother me at all. We loved those things, You could just sleep in the thing if you wanted to, and we did on walls.
They were simple and comfortable, but not at all comfortable if you were hanging free in space. I read a story about a new climber who suffocated from hanging free in a swami for an hour or so. A long time.
Anyway, they weren't as bad as you might think. Adding leg loops was pretty easy.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Feb 18, 2017 - 02:43pm PT
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Dick Lofthouse was a Brit who moved to Calgary in the 50's and was one of only a handful of guides at the time, half of whom were Brits the others Austrians.
Dick said they used to argue about how to tie in properly as the Brits tied the rope around their waist while the Austrians ties around the chest underneath their armpits.
I guess they didn't fall too often
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slabbo
Trad climber
colo south
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Feb 18, 2017 - 02:48pm PT
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true---I used to be reverse pear..now I wear a Petzel...Damn I wish Fish would make another harness.....
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Feb 18, 2017 - 03:08pm PT
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Did bowline coil and then swami. Saw a lot of suck, sloppy and/or just plain weird swamis bitd when we'd travel. What we used was definitely as good and as solid as any modern harness and we took lots of falls on them.
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wayne burleson
climber
Amherst, MA
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Feb 18, 2017 - 03:19pm PT
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Bowline on a coil, on goldline..
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Feb 18, 2017 - 03:45pm PT
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The biggest advance in climbing, next to "Moki Steps", was moving from 1" tubular to 2" flat webbing in swami belts.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Feb 18, 2017 - 04:41pm PT
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I suppose 2" was an improvement if you were crazy and wore the swami up on your waist as opposed to down on your hips.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Feb 18, 2017 - 04:55pm PT
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Jim,
2 inch swamis were very comfortable. They weren't that bad at all.
No way would you want to sport climb in one. Hanging around in a swami could get a little painful. Harnesses are now so light that they aren't much heavier than swamis anyway.
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| Messages 1 - 19 of total 19 in this topic |
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