[Towertalk] RE: Double protection - climbing

[sparks@apk.net]

If you fall several feet while hooked to a positioning lanyard, you will almost 
certainly be seriously injured or killed.  If that lanyard is hooked to only 
one hip, as in the scenario described by below by Pete, the latter possibility 
is greatly increased. Positioning lanyards are for fall PREVENTION not fall 
arrest.  The arresting forces on a lanyard without a shock-absorbing element 
are huge -- thousands of pounds for a 200lb person in 6 foot fall -- and if you 
are not killed immediately, you will likely suffocate waiting for rescue as you 
dangle from one side of your waist with your diaphragm compressed. It will also 
be much more difficult for rescuers to get you positioned for descent from that 
position.

In the absence of a fixed fall-arrest system (like a lifeline or lad-safe), 
Pete's technique is exactly correct for 100% tie-off, EXCEPT that both lanyards 
used while double-hooking up the tower should be shock-absorbing, AND they 
should be hooked to the middle of the back.  "Y-lanyards" are available just 
for this purpose -- they have two tails off the center hook.  You can also use 
two individual shock-absorbing lanyards both hooked to the back D-ring. 

73 - Jeff, WB2RUZ

> Message: 7
> Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 07:05:04 -0500
> To: dick.green@valley.net, "Chuck Lewis" <clewis@knology.net>,
>    "Mark Beckwith" <mark@concertart.com>, towertalk@contesting.com
> From: Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com>
> Subject: RE: [Towertalk] Double protection - climbing
> 
> I find it easy to envision problems climbing with the positioning
> lanyard 
> around the tower, because it's too easy to imagine sliding down to the
> next 
> guy station, which could be quite a distance below.  At least you don't 
> fall away from the tower, so presumably you can grab something.
> 
> When I climb, I use a fall-arrest lanyard on the back D-ring and my 
> positioning lanyard hooked to one of the hip D-rings.  Going up I hook
> one 
> on a rung as far above me as I can reach, while looking at it to be 
> sure.  Then I unhook the other one (which by this time is between my
> feet) 
> and just let it hang while I continue clmbing till the first lanyard is 
> between my feet, and repeat the cycle.
> 
> I figure that if I were to fall while climbing, I'm gonna get bruised 
> whether the current fall-arrest protection is in the middle of my back
> or 
> on one hip, but it sure beats getting dead.