Gear To Buy
Recommended Abseil Gear for Purchase by New Abseilers
If you don't already own your gear, you will need to get some as soon as you move beyond beginner level if you want to continue to abseil with the club. We encourage people not to buy other gear until after they have done a couple of abseil practice days and tried a variety of club gear. That way you will make a more informed choice before you spend your money.
We recommend you purchase your gear in the following order:
1. Helmet
2. Harness
3. Prusik loops and Carabiners
4. Descenders
5. More gear - once you have the basics you might become a gear freak and consider buying these items. WARNING - Buying cool abseil gear is addictive. Be very careful as you can only use 1 descender at a time, and most abseil gear does not make a tasteful addition to your home's decor.
Helmet
If you are planning on buying gear you should start with a well fitting, proper abseil helmet. The 2 brands we recommend are Edelrid http://www.edelrid.de/en/Edelrid/Safety/Helmets/ or Petzl http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/helmets. Black Diamond
http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/climb/helmets also make good helmets Pick the one of these that is the most comfortable fit for you. Your helmet should be comfortable, fit well, have holes in it (to let water through when canyoning) and attachment points for a head torch (for caving). It is worth spending the money on a good quality helmet. Your brain is worth it. Construction helmets aren't suitable (the visor inhibits your field of view).
Harness
The sorts of trips you will do with the club are caves, canyons and multi-pitch abseil trips. The harness you buy should be suitable for these purposes. It should be made of robust seat-belt type webbing. Climbing harnesses are not suitable. If you also intend to rock climb (either indoors or out) you will need to have 2 harnesses; a climbing harness and an abseil harness.
When buying a harness you need to consider how the harness will feel with weight in it. A good gear retailer will have a rope you can hang off to get the feel of the harness. Do not buy a harness without weighting it when trying it on as you may find that a harness that feel fine without weighting cuts into you and causes discomfort once on the rope. Don't trust the advice (on any gear-related matter) of anyone who tells you this is not necessary.
Prusik Loops
Buy 2 x 3m lengths of 6mm prusik cord in different colours. You will use one length to tie a leg loop and the other to tie 2 chest loops. Different colours for leg and chest loops are recommended to avoid confusion in an emergency situation. Bring your cord to the next practice day and experiment with the lengths until you are certain you have the optimal size for you prior to cutting the cord shorter. Any surplus cord can be tied into smaller "rescue" loops.
Note: You may be advised to buy 7mm prusik cord by the people serving you when you buy your cord. They may tell you this is for additional "safety" margin. This is not appropriate as you may be prusiking on 9mm ropes, and the 7mm cord will not grip adequately for most people. 6mm cord is strong enough.
Carabiners
In addition to any carabiners (crabs) which form part of your descender or are used to attach your descender, you will need to have at least 3 carabiners attached to your harness. This will give you one for attaching your prusik loop to your harness, or 2 for attaching a safety line, with one remaining for attaching gear (prusik loops, gloves etc) to your harness. It will also provide you with a margin for safety should you accidentally drop a carabiner.
The carabiners you buy should be alloy, "D" carabiners with screw gates. Until you are experienced avoid fancy spring loaded locking systems. Choose a style which feels "right" in your hand. Make sure it is large enough to fit properly around the attachment point on your harness and open easily so that you can get your prusik loop or safety line in with ease.
With the exception of an extra small "accessory" crab to hang your gloves etc off, do not buy non-locking carabiners. These are for use by experienced rock climbers only and have no place in canyoning, caving and other abseil trips.
Descenders
People use the descender that suits them best, and may choose different descenders for different types of trips. Factors to consider when selecting a descender include ease of lock off and how well you can control of the amount of friction. Before buying a descender please trial the many descenders owned by the club and make sure you select one that works well for you.
The club has a policy of only allowing "in-line" descenders to be used on club ropes. Acceptable descenders will:
Descenders that do not meet these criteria are not to be used on club trips due to the potential potential twist and damage issues. Any descender may be used on practice days, however you may be asked to use certain descenders on a designated rope only.
If in doubt about whether your descender can be used on club trips, please check with a member of the committee or email [email protected].
More Gear
Once you have mastered the basic principles of abseiling and self rescue then please feel free to collect whatever gear you like. Some things you may find useful are:
Recommended Abseil Gear for Purchase by New Abseilers
If you don't already own your gear, you will need to get some as soon as you move beyond beginner level if you want to continue to abseil with the club. We encourage people not to buy other gear until after they have done a couple of abseil practice days and tried a variety of club gear. That way you will make a more informed choice before you spend your money.
We recommend you purchase your gear in the following order:
1. Helmet
2. Harness
3. Prusik loops and Carabiners
4. Descenders
5. More gear - once you have the basics you might become a gear freak and consider buying these items. WARNING - Buying cool abseil gear is addictive. Be very careful as you can only use 1 descender at a time, and most abseil gear does not make a tasteful addition to your home's decor.
Helmet
If you are planning on buying gear you should start with a well fitting, proper abseil helmet. The 2 brands we recommend are Edelrid http://www.edelrid.de/en/Edelrid/Safety/Helmets/ or Petzl http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/helmets. Black Diamond
http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/climb/helmets also make good helmets Pick the one of these that is the most comfortable fit for you. Your helmet should be comfortable, fit well, have holes in it (to let water through when canyoning) and attachment points for a head torch (for caving). It is worth spending the money on a good quality helmet. Your brain is worth it. Construction helmets aren't suitable (the visor inhibits your field of view).
Harness
The sorts of trips you will do with the club are caves, canyons and multi-pitch abseil trips. The harness you buy should be suitable for these purposes. It should be made of robust seat-belt type webbing. Climbing harnesses are not suitable. If you also intend to rock climb (either indoors or out) you will need to have 2 harnesses; a climbing harness and an abseil harness.
When buying a harness you need to consider how the harness will feel with weight in it. A good gear retailer will have a rope you can hang off to get the feel of the harness. Do not buy a harness without weighting it when trying it on as you may find that a harness that feel fine without weighting cuts into you and causes discomfort once on the rope. Don't trust the advice (on any gear-related matter) of anyone who tells you this is not necessary.
Prusik Loops
Buy 2 x 3m lengths of 6mm prusik cord in different colours. You will use one length to tie a leg loop and the other to tie 2 chest loops. Different colours for leg and chest loops are recommended to avoid confusion in an emergency situation. Bring your cord to the next practice day and experiment with the lengths until you are certain you have the optimal size for you prior to cutting the cord shorter. Any surplus cord can be tied into smaller "rescue" loops.
Note: You may be advised to buy 7mm prusik cord by the people serving you when you buy your cord. They may tell you this is for additional "safety" margin. This is not appropriate as you may be prusiking on 9mm ropes, and the 7mm cord will not grip adequately for most people. 6mm cord is strong enough.
Carabiners
In addition to any carabiners (crabs) which form part of your descender or are used to attach your descender, you will need to have at least 3 carabiners attached to your harness. This will give you one for attaching your prusik loop to your harness, or 2 for attaching a safety line, with one remaining for attaching gear (prusik loops, gloves etc) to your harness. It will also provide you with a margin for safety should you accidentally drop a carabiner.
The carabiners you buy should be alloy, "D" carabiners with screw gates. Until you are experienced avoid fancy spring loaded locking systems. Choose a style which feels "right" in your hand. Make sure it is large enough to fit properly around the attachment point on your harness and open easily so that you can get your prusik loop or safety line in with ease.
With the exception of an extra small "accessory" crab to hang your gloves etc off, do not buy non-locking carabiners. These are for use by experienced rock climbers only and have no place in canyoning, caving and other abseil trips.
Descenders
People use the descender that suits them best, and may choose different descenders for different types of trips. Factors to consider when selecting a descender include ease of lock off and how well you can control of the amount of friction. Before buying a descender please trial the many descenders owned by the club and make sure you select one that works well for you.
The club has a policy of only allowing "in-line" descenders to be used on club ropes. Acceptable descenders will:
- Allow the ropes to reeve "in-line"
- Not twist the rope
- Allow the rope to feed smoothly
- Not have to be removed from the harness in order to attach to the rope
- Provide sufficient metal to be a good heat sink
- Be easy to lock off
Descenders that do not meet these criteria are not to be used on club trips due to the potential potential twist and damage issues. Any descender may be used on practice days, however you may be asked to use certain descenders on a designated rope only.
If in doubt about whether your descender can be used on club trips, please check with a member of the committee or email [email protected].
More Gear
Once you have mastered the basic principles of abseiling and self rescue then please feel free to collect whatever gear you like. Some things you may find useful are:
- Rescue pulley
- Climbers Knife
- Mechanical acenders (especially if you like caving)
- Chest harness for use with your mechanical ascenders