In this post on The Rope Access Channel we take our first look in the GEAR series. We are starting of with the rope access harness and you will learn how to properly use a rope access harness. Let’s get into the differences between a fall arrest harness, a positioning harness and a rope access harness.

First of, keeping your rope access harness in good condition is critical for both safety and ease of use. Regular inspection, preventive maintenance, and periodic replacement are all important steps to ensuring that your harness will continue to protect you against the hazards of rope access work.

Different types of harnesses

There are countless different kinds of harnesses. Since we are talking about professional and industrial rope access work here we will only cover the harnesses used most in our industry. Those can be narrowed down to basically 3 different models:

-A fall arrest harnass
-A work positioning harnassand of course 
-A rope access harness

These are all very broad denominators and they will do for now.

Fall Arrest Harness

A fall arrest harness is a basic harness. Nothing fancy. Usually only two connection points and no padding whatsoever. The typical use of this most commonly used harness is in cherrypickers and with work restrain systems.

Positioning Harness

Next up is a work positioning harness. It has a little more padding, is way more convenient and the main thing is, it has two additional rings on the side that can be used to position off. Some of models also have a center ring to position off and could be used for rope access activities but they do miss one essential component to be a proper rope access harness.

The Rope Access Harness

The rope access harness has all the features of a positioning harness with the addition of an integrated chest ascender. That makes ascending the rope a lot easier.
The use of the chest ascender and how to ascend a rope we will discuss in different video. 

How to put on the rope access harness

If you want to learn how to put the rope access harness on properly, the best thing to do is to check out the video on Youtube

Next time!

Next time we will get into back up devices.

See you there and STAY CONNECTED

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This video and post are sponsored by: Industrieel Klimmen
Your one stop shop for all things rope access.

Check out the Youtube description in the video for a SWEET discount.