[TowerTalk] Best climbing harnesses

[Pete Smith]

At 01:01 AM 10/25/2007, Dick Green WC1M wrote:
>The double-lever activation snap requires you to press a release on the back
>of the hook in order to activate the latch. Otherwise, the latch remains
>locked. It prevents the latch from opening unintentionally (e.g., when you
>brush against something.) It can be a little tricky to learn how to use it,
>but you'll get it with practice. I wouldn't use any other type of hook.


This is maybe a fine point, but I have run into two kinds of double-action 
hooks - in fact, my positioning lanyard has one type, while my fall-arrest 
lanyard has the other.  The difference - on the positioning lanyard, the 
placement of the safety latch is such that you have to work pretty hard to 
hold the latch while opening the hook with the same hand.  On the 
fall-arrest, the placement is natural for thumb and fingers, requiring much 
less hand strength.  As I recall I bought the latter before the former - is 
there some problem with the easier version that prompted OSHA to mandate a 
change?

73, Pete N4ZR