Safety Tether
What is a Safety Tether?
Your harness should have a safety tether attached to it. The most basic use for a safety tether is to
allow the user to quickly tie into an anchor point when in a precarious position.
The safety tether is connected to something secure to protect from a
fall if you should slip or be pulled over a drop.
A tether can be
set up to allow the canyoneer to rig rappels, assist others while
protecting themselves from a fall, adding back up to a suspect anchor or
many other uses. While the primary use for a safety tether is to tie off
to something secure, they have other uses as well. Safety tethers
can help with ascending, hanging a pack while rappelling or high
stemming, passing knots and various rescue techniques.
Why is an Adjustable Tether Good?
An adjustable tether is desirable to allow the length
to be set for the given situation. For safety it is best to
have little to no slack in the safety tether when in use. Trying to work on anchor rigging or assist
other canyoneers generally requires some mobility. So it becomes common to leave a
little slack in your safety tether (which should be kept to bare
minimum) to allow a little room for movement.
It is very important to keep slack out of the system
when using safety tethers. This applies to all safety tethers but
is especially important when slings are used since they are very limited
in length adjustment.
Very short falls can produce enough force to cause a sling to fail
or push other gear to its breaking point. If the tether does not
fail, there can be enough force generated to cause severe injury to the
canyoneer. Sure you may live if you fall hard but hanging over a ledge with a broken back does not sound
like a good time to me.
DMM
Climbing did a test on nylon and dyneema slings titled "How
to Break Nylon and Dyneema Slings". After watching the video
you will likely want very little to no slack when using slings (or any
other tether) as fall
protection.
The test is very enlightening and the video gives a
much better understanding of what they are doing. Rather you use slings
or something else as your safety tether, it is a good idea to watch this video.
You may be surprised at what you learn.
One of the notes on the DMM web page notes that forces
above 10kN begin to cause internal injuries. A fall of just 60cm (close
to 2 feet) with an 80kg mass (about 176 pounds) can generate 16.7kN of
force. Think about that for a minute, an average size man dropping
only 2 feet can possibly generate enough force to seriously hurt you (if
the gear doesn't fail first).
If you are an experienced canyoneer, think back and see if
you can remember times when you left 2 feet or more of slack in your
tether while at the top of a drop. It is very easy to leave a lot
of slack so you feel free while in the back of your mind you think
you're ok since its only a fall of a few feet if you slip. Before learning how much force
can be generated from a short fall, I know I have been guilty of this.
Note/Warning:
Tying an overhand knot in the middle of
the sling reduced the breaking strength form the rated 22kN down to about 10 or 12kN. So tying a knot into a sling to
shorten it can reduce its breaking strength to less than what a 2 foot
fall can generate. 2 feet of slack is not very much and is common
for canyoneers to set more than this to allow movement. Taking a 2
foot fall on a sling or any safety tether can generated enough force to
cause internal injuries. But if using a sling with a knot tied in
it, the sling may break letting you fall.
What are the Common types of Tethers?
Purcell Prusik - The Winner!
Purcell Prusik is an adjustable tether option with some other advantages
as well and is a good choice for a safety tether.
The Purcell Prusik also absorbs some of the force when
shock loaded. When the prusik is shock loaded it will slip a few inches
then grab. The slipping helps absorb some of the force. This helps
reduce the force placed on the human body and gear.
The Purcell Prusik is cheap, adjustable in any
increment, can be lengthened under load, can be used as an ascender in a
pinch.
Since the Purcell Prusik can also be lengthened under load
it can be versitile.
A useful situation for this might be to clip into the anchor with the
tether then set up the rappel device. You can then lengthen the
tether until the rap device is weighted and check that you are rigged
correctly before unclipping the tether. Great for helping new
people feel confident.
For information on how to size and tie your own purcell
tether, check out the
How to make a
Purcell Prusik for a Safety Tether page.
Anchor Chains - Safe option to a Daisy
Chain
Anchor Chains are a safer alternative
to the daisy chain. An anchor chain is a series of individual
loops of webbing linked together like a chain. Since they are
individual loops not separated by stitching like a daisy chain, each
loop is rated to full strength and can be used at any time by clipping
into it.
Metolius
makes one of the more popular anchor chains called the
PAS (Personal Anchor System).
If you like using a daisy chain for canyoneering, a
much safer alternative is an anchor chain. Of course you still
want to keep as much slack out of the system as possible when clipped
in. Even short falls can create large harmful forces on gear
or the body.
Anchor chains are rated to full strength at any point
and can be adjusted in preset increments. An undesirable aspect is the
clutter of webbing rings attached to the harness while not in use.
These can catch on trees, logs, rocks and many other things as you make
your way down canyon and should be kept in mind while wearing one
(especially in water).
Slings - Not Recommended
Slings are one of the basic
options. Simply girth hitch a sling to your harness and you have a
safety tether. Adjusting the length of a sling
is simple but can only be done in large increments. To adjust length you
need to use a different size sling or twist the sling to achieve a
half sized double loop. In some cases this works well but in other
cases it is easy to leave too much slack in the system, possibly setting
the canyoneer up for a painful or deadly fall. Care needs to be
taken when using slings by keeping the slack to a bare minimum
(preferably less than a foot of slack).
Since it is difficult to get small increments of
adjustment from slings they are not recommended as a safety tether but
can be used if caution is exercised.
Slings are very useful for other tasks but not recommended for a safety
tether.
Also of note, spectra slings are lighter,
more abrasion resistant and more UV resistant. While the Nylon
slings are bulkier they have more stretch allowing them to dissipate
some of the shock like a dynamic rope. Both Dynema and Nylon have
different advantages. It is a good idea to be aware of them as you
make decisions.
Petzl Spelergyca
The Petzl Spelergyca is another option for
a safety tether. The
Petzl Spelergyca is actually two tethers of unequal length 32cm and
58cm (12 inches and 23 inches). There are a lot of uses for these
due to the two unequal length tethers. The same thing can be
accomplished with a 1 foot and a 2 foot sling or any other type of
tether.
The Spelergyca is adjustable by selecting one of the
tethers. They are adjustable but you have just two lengths to
choose from.
Some people have suggested tying knots in these to shorten them further.
Keep in mind that doing so can significantly reduce the strength of the
tether just as a sling strength is reduced from knots.
Daisy Chains - Do Not Use!
Daisy Chains should not be used for
Canyoneering. Daisy chains can prove deadly if used improperly and
its easy to do.
It is desirable to have an adjustable length tether but
daisy chains are not designed for use as a direct tie to an anchor,
which is one of the primary uses of a safety tether while canyoneering.
There are safer ways to achieve an adjustable safety tether.
Daisy chains were designed primarily for aid climbing
where the rope is "in" the system. A daisy chain is not intended
to be used as a tie in to an anchor unless the rope is part of the
system. Climbing ropes are dynamic and stretch in order to absorb
some of the shock when a fall occurs. The shock absorbing
qualities take some of the force off of other gear in the system like
the daisy chain. Check out this page from
Black Diamond about
Daisy Chain Dangers.
The daisy chain is strongest from end loop to end loop.
The individual loops along the daisy chain are only rated for body
weight and only in a static situation where the loop will not be shock
loaded. Since the common use in canyoneering would be to clip into
an anchor while you work on the rigging, there will be some slack left
in the daisy to allow mobility. If the canyoneer falls while
anchored in, the slack will allow a short fall and the safety tether
will be shock loaded. Daisy chains are not designed to hold up
under these conditions.
Warning:
If you currently use a daisy chain as your safety tether, it is likely
that you have a carabiner in the end loop clipped into the anchor point.
When you need a shorter length, you simply clip one of the intermediate loops
into the end carabiner now having two loops in
the carabiner at the anchor. This is a potentially deadly
situation! Do not do this. If you take a fall, the
intermediate loop is likely to fail since it is not rated for a shock
load. When it does fail you will likely be clipped to nothing!
It is possible that being clipped to two loops can result in just being
clipped around the tack of stitching in the daisy chain. This is
extremely difficult to explain in written form. Take a look at the
Daisy Chain Dangers page again and scroll down a little over half
way down to the video showing what can happen. Watch the video. This is pretty
scary since it would be so easy for this to happen. If you still insist on using a daisy chain, do not shorten it by just clipping
in an intermediate loop to the same carabiner. Use a second
carabiner on the loop and clip it to the first carabiner.
Bottom line...... Do Not Use A Daisy Chain
for Canyoneering.