How to best connect a tether to your harness?
Have you ever heard some version of this?
“You should NEVER connect your tether/PAS to your belay loop. Todd Skinner did that, his belay loop broke, and he died. So, you shouldn't do it either.”
or maybe:
“You should ALWAYS run soft goods, like rope and slings, through the tie in points, and clip hard goods, like carabiners, to the belay loop.”
I’ll start off with my opinion on this, right up front: I think, in most cases, it’s fine to attach a tether to your belay loop.
There are a lot of people who feel differently, and if you prefer your tie in points for a tether, that’s great. But know that in most cases, your belay loop is going to work fine as well. There are very few black and white, “Should”, “Always” and “Never”, “Gotta do it this way or else” rules in climbing. This is not one of them.
When ascending a route, it's usually best practice to use the rope and clove hitch yourself to the anchor. But when it's time to rappel, you're probably going to want a tether. Whether you use a designated tether like a PAS or a Petzl Connect, or make one DIY with a double length sling, or you’re an aid climber and have a pair of daisy chains, you need to choose where to connect it to your harness - belay loop or tie in points?
The truth is . . . it depends! There are some cases when attaching your tether directly to your belay loop is not only acceptable, but the recommended practice. There are some other situations where it's probably not such a great idea.
What kind of climbing (rappelling, big walls, via ferrata) are you doing?
What does the manufacturer say?
What’s your tether made of?
What kind of knot or hitch connects the tether to your harness?
These are all nuances in technique that need to be considered, rather than a binary “always” or “never.”
Alpinesavvy tries to offer ideas and information, not advice. So, read on and make up your own mind.
Here are some general guidelines and considerations:
First, and perhaps most important, check your harness regularly and retire it without hesitation if it shows significant wear for any reason.
If you do connect a tether to your belay loop, don’t leave it tied there permanently. Doing this can prevent the loop from rotating and may concentrate wear in a single spot. Remove the tether when you're done for the day, or after your rappel.
If you're girth hitching a designated PAS type tether, the usual manufacturer recommendation is to use both tie in points. (Even then it's a bit of a “soft” recommendation, see below.)
If you're girth hitching a “DIY” tether with a skinny Dyneema sling, it’s probably best to use both tie in points. (Should you use a use a Dyneema sling as a tether at all? See the “expert photo” section below.)
If you're girth hitching a tether (or adjustable daisy for aid climbing) with a wider nylon sling, either the tie in points or the belay loop should be fine.
If you're using a rope style lanyard such as the Petzl Connect Adjust, follow Petzl’s recommendation and girth hitch it to your belay loop.
If you’re doing via ferrata, the standard practice is to girth hitch the lanyards to your belay loop.
If you're big wall / aid climbing, the tie in points are usually better, because that gets your waist a bit closer to the gear you're clipped to. Every inch helps!
And . . . if you're not using a girth hitch and using a double loop bowline tether, it's okay to tie it through your belay loop with any kind of material.
What are some of the pros and cons of attaching a tether to your belay loop?
Pros:
Comfort. Having a weighted tether girth hitched through your tie in points can cause your harness to squish together on some, shall we say, sensitive body parts, ouch! This depends a bit on the design of your harness and ahem, personal anatomy, your mileage may vary. This can be especially true for women with wider hips and a higher waist.
Easier to rig and check. For cold weather climbing with bulky clothing, gloves, etc., it can be easier to properly thread your tether through your belay loop, as well as glance down and be sure it's threaded correctly. (This goes for checking your partner also.) Plus, the comfort factor: with more clothing on, tethering to the belay loop will usually be more comfortable.
More reach. If you have a shorter tether and you’re a taller climber, having it on your belay loop can give you a few extra inches of reach.
Less cluster. This probably applies more to big wall climbing, when the front of your harness can get very busy with two daisies, fifi hook(s), rope tie in, etc. Using your belay loop can spread out these connections a bit. Also for big wall climbing, you’re probably sleeping in your harness as well, so a belay loop connection will typically be more comfortable.
Cons:
Not redundant. You're connected to one point of your harness while you could be connected to two. (This introduces a whole other conversation of all of the other non-redundant components in the climbing system you rely on the time, but let's save that for another discussion.)
Puts extra wear and tear on your belay loop. (This argument may be countered by pointing out that the wear and tear is not eliminated, but instead transferred to your tie in points.)
Let's look at some more specific cases of where to attach your tether.
First, let's check out recommendations from Black Diamond. Their website tells you that girth hitching a daisy chain through both tie in points gives you the “green check” of approval. End of discussion, right?
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
Well maybe not. Using the bottom tie in point is clearly a no-no, because it might flip you upside down. But the belay loop or the top tie in merits only the orange “caution” notification, not the red skull and crossbones, “Yer Gonna Die”.
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
What else gets the Black Diamond orange caution? Getting your tether wet, icy, or dirty! Sheesh, we all know that happens to your gear all the time and it's hardly the end of the world. So, attaching a tether to your belay loop is in the same category of “it's best to avoid doing this a lot, but if you do, it's not going to be catastrophic.”
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
Let’s consider the following . . .
1 - No warnings from harness manufacturers
The Alpinesavvy web gnomes looked carefully at the technical documentation for harnesses from Black Diamond, Petzl, and Edelrid. None of these manufacturers give a warning against attaching a tether to the belay loop. If doing so is “wrong”, do you think the top harness manufacturers might warn against it in their technical documentation?
2 - Petzl Connect Adjust, Beal Dynaconnexion, CAMP Swing, and Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop
In 2015 Petzl introduced their “Connect”series of lanyards. These are made from dynamic climbing rope, and have a stitched, fixed loop at one end. It's a pretty sweet piece of gear.
Petzl recommends girth hitching it to your belay loop, as shown in this illustration from their website.
image: petzl.com
Let's check out another nice diagram from Petzl.
1. Where do I attach my lanyard?
“From a safety and strength perspective, the lanyard can be attached to the belay loop or to the two tie-in points. But as a matter of comfort, it is preferable to attach your lanyard to the belay loop.”
So, sounds like the final recommendation from Petzl is the belay loop.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Belay-loop-and-tie-in-points--where-do-I-attach-my-lanyard--my-belay-device-and-my-rope-?ActivityName=Multi-pitch-climbing
Beal Dynaconnexion: use the belay loop.
image: https://www.beal-planet.com/en/index.php?controller=attachment&id_attachment=8219
CAMP Swing: use the belay loop.
CAMP swiNG https://www.camp.it/d/us/us/outdoor/product/2166
Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop.
Edelrid Switch - https://avs.edelrid.com/images/attribut/54625_GAL_SWITCH_SPORT_ANSICHT_DINA4_Homepage.pdf
3 - Via Ferrata: use the belay loop
Standard practice in via ferrata is to girth hitch your tether carabiners to your belay loop. Keep in mind that a via ferrata fall can can generate tremendous force on your anchor system, harness and your body, greater than a factor 2.
Here's a diagram from Edelrid. The text accompanying this diagram reads: “Via Ferrata sets or systems with tie-in loops are fastened to the tie-in ring (belay loop) with a choke hitch (girth hitch).”
image: edelrid.de/en/sports/harnesses.htm
Here’s a similar diagram from Petzl. Clearly, Petzl recommends that via ferrata tethers go onto the belay loop.
imae: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Harnesses/CORAX - technical notice PDF download
4 - Many expert climbers prefer attaching a tether to the belay loop.
Dave Searle, IFMGA Guide, via Instagram:
IFMGA Certified Guide Rob Coppolillo, co author of The Mountain Guide Manual:
“I hate girth-hitching through my harness tie-ins . . . And the material saws on itself when weighting/unweighting (that worries me with Dyneema; nylon not as much), whereas a girth to the belay loop tightens once and that's that. Then I remove it at the end of the day.”
Expert British climber Andy Kirkpatrick literally wrote the book on descending/rappelling. (It's called “Down”, highly recommended.) His book has a definite leaning to being extra safety conscious, and he has a clear preference for tethers on the belay loop. Here’s one example from page 230, showing the tether on the belay loop.
IMAGE: “DOWN” By Andy Kirkpatrick
Here's a screen grab from a great tutorial video on making an “A thread” ice rappel anchor, from Steve House. Note the Dyneema sling, girth hitched to his belay loop.
image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=5RKwAyscHFM
Here's a screen grab from the instructional video series “Safety Academy Lab Rock”, produced by Ortovox in partnership with Petzl and the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (in German, “VDBS”). Once again, a Dyneema sling, girth hitched to the belay loop. Do you think some of the top guides in the world and the largest climbing gear companies would promote a technique they thought was dangerous?
image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXK1ekMZO7g
So, there are a few experts who think that putting the tether on your belay loop is fine. I could go on . . .
On the other side, you can find qualified guides who think you should always go through your tie in points, so you can find an opinion to match either side of this question.
Here’s another interesting thing in the above photos - most of the guides are using a skinny dyneema sling as a tether. Some people prefer not to do this, but these experts obviously think it’s fine. I don’t want to get into a long conversation here about knots in Dyneema, but you can learn more in this article.
5 - Black Diamond says . . .
Black Diamond did some pull/drop testing on various flavors of tether.
Using the Black Diamond Link (a series of sewn spectra loops, like a Metolius PAS) they girth hitched it to the belay loop of a harness on a test dummy. With a static pull, the belay loop broke at 21.9 kN. Clearly, attaching to the belay loop is plenty strong enough in any climbing situation.
However . . . even after that test, BD recommends the harness tie-in points, citing the Todd Skinner case: if you keep a sling pretty much permanently on your belay loop, it limits the rotation of the loop, and can concentrate wear in one spot. (To this one could respond, fine, then don't keep a tether permanently on your belay loop, problem solved.)
6 - More Black Diamond: belay loop testing
Black Diamond did some strength testing of belay loops. Here’s the article, it's a good read.
Black Diamond heavily abused belay loops in various ways - cutting them most of the way through with a knife, cutting and abrading the bar tacks with a file, etc. In just about every case, the loop still held multiple thousands of pounds. (Even when cut through 90%, it still held over 700 pounds, see photo below.)
“Belay loops are burly—really burly. To have one fail at body weight loads, or even small shock loads which could happen during rappelling is possible, but the belay loop would have to be SO worn through that it seems very unlikely.”
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/qc-lab-strength-of-worn-belay-loops.html
7 - Belay loops on harnesses that are extremely well used still test very strong.
Rock and Ice magazine tested lots of heavily used harnesses. Here's a copy/paste from the blog of IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap. (Yes, heavy use lowers the belay loop strength, but not by any significant amount.)
“The number of days and falls a harness had suffered also lowered belay-loop strength. Harnesses with 250 or fewer days of use had an average belay-loop strength of 5,732 pounds, compared to 4,629 pounds for those used 451 days or more.”
8 - How about a bowline instead of a girth hitch?
Who says you have to use a girth hitch? Here's an example of a sling tied through the belay loop with a double loop bowline. This makes an open loop rather than a cinched-down hitch, making it friendlier to your belay loop. Here's the entire article on this clever technique.
A few words on Todd Skinner’s accident . . .
American climber Todd Skinner tragically died while rappelling in Yosemite in 2006. He apparently was rappelling fast on static ropes. The bottom of the rope was tied to the lower anchor (the “J loop”). Todd rapped into the bottom of the loop at speed, and when he hit the bottom of the loop, this large static force caused his belay loop, on his extremely old and worn out harness, to break. (Source: Andy Kirkpatrick, “Higher Education”, page 182, and private Instagram message to me from Will Gadd.)
Many people think Todd’s belay loop broke simply under his body weight while on a standard rappel. Apparently, that's not true.
Todd had tethers pretty much permanently girth hitched to the loop (standard for some big wall climbers), which apparently contributed to the excessive wear and tear on his harness.
He was also doing a lot of jumaring on the tethers, which, because of the bouncing back-and-forth bodyweight, puts thousands of load cycles onto the material. This is much different than the typical use of single load body weight at a rappel anchor, like how most climbers would use a tether. If you’re not big wall climbing or ascending a rope, your harness should never see this type of repetitive wear.
Before this tragic death, many climbers didn't give much thought where they attached their tether. Afterwards, everyone seemed to shift to using tie in points.
But . . . was this sudden change in “best practice” perhaps a bit of an overreaction? This accident, while widely publicized, has happened (to my knowledge) a grand total of once in the entire history of climbing.
Think of the outlier of Todd's accident this way - If you had a friend who chose to drive on ancient, bald tires, had a blowout and got into a car crash, would you stop driving? No. Instead, it would probably be a good reminder to follow standard safety practice - check and maintain your tires regularly and replace as needed.
Your belay loop is burly, rated to a minimum of about 15 kN; most test to about 20 kN. Like all the rest of your equipment, inspect your harness and belay loop regularly. If in good shape, I feel that using it to connect your rappel tether is fine. Manufacturers generally suggest about a 10 year lifespan for any harness, regardless of the amount of use. Many modern harnesses have “wear indicators”, that give a visual clue when it's time to retire your gear. Here's a nice article from Petzl showing you exactly how to inspect your harness.
If you choose to use your tie points for your tether, that's fine. But know that using your belay loop for a tether attachment is also acceptable, and in some cases, actually recommended.
There are only a handful of mandatory rules in climbing, “MUST to do it this way or else”. My opinion, this is not one of them.