Sports such as mountaineering and rock climbing require a large number of types of equipment, including belay systems, carabiners, helmets, lowering and lifting devices, block rollers, self-belaying mustaches. To perform work at height, you will need additional equipment, which has differences in use and methods of its application. These are safety systems (they are more massive and designed for long-term positioning of the worker at height), steel carabiners (with large breaking loads), blocks for lifting loads with large radii of moving parts (to reduce the load), and so on.

Let's consider in more detail the main types of equipment:

Insurance systems can be divided into three categories:

  • lower gazebos;
  • upper (chest) straps;
  • complete insurance systems.

Lower safety systems are the most diverse and massive category of gazebos, and have the widest range of applications. They are used in rock climbing, mountaineering, speleology.

According to the scope of application, they are divided into two types: sports and industrial. Sports gazebos - they are relatively light in weight, do not hinder movements when climbing, are universal and comfortable, can be quickly put on and removed by the athlete. The main task is to insure the athlete when working at height, distribute the load on the lower part of the body, protect against falling in the event of a crash, descent from a height or hanging for a short time.

In turn, they are also divided into many types, depending on the field of application, and each has its own characteristics. There are gazebos for rock climbing, mountaineering, mountain tourism, speleology, rope parks, ski touring, multi-sports, etc.

Universal systems have adjustment buckles on the belt and on the leg straps, for reliable fixation of the athlete. Lighter models have adjustment only on the belt, and the size should be selected more carefully.

The belt has a loop for trigger and belay devices, and side unloading loops for hanging additional equipment.

Upper bindings

- used in combination with the lower system as auxiliary. For difficult wall climbs, upper harnesses with additional loops are used for suspending braces, friends, bookmarks and other equipment. They are widely used in speleology and mountain tourism for vertical positioning. Also, a chest harness is often used in Rope Jumping (jumping from a height with a rope or rubber band).

Complete insurance systems

There are several types of comprehensive insurance systems.

Systems for industrial mountaineering have become the most widespread. In such systems, workers spend a long time working at height, so the systems have wide, soft shoulder and leg straps, as well as a belt. These systems have several securing points (on the sides, front and back) for more convenient positioning of the worker when performing complex work at height. The belt and upper straps have reinforced loops for hanging additional equipment and heavy tools.

Industrial systems have a lot of weight and are quite bulky when folded, so they are not used for sports mountaineering, rock climbing, or tourism.

Full safety systems are also used by the military, police and rescuers for operations at high altitudes.

Children's full safety systems - designed for children of preschool age to exclude the child from accidentally falling out of the system. Such systems most often do not have wide and soft straps or a belt, as the child spends a short time in them. They are used in children's, rope amusement parks or on climbing walls during training.

Complete safety systems for rope parks - have a small weight, are maximally simplified, do not have wide belts and straps. Designed for teenage children or adults. They can also be used in mountain tourism.

Carabiners - used for fastening the safety system, self-belaying and safety loops, lowering and lifting devices, fastening equipment and tools, and many other things.

There are many types of carabiners, which differ in shape, material from which they are made, type of coupling, method of closing the coupling, purpose and places of application. Let's consider the main types of carbines.

Steel carabiners are used mainly for industrial mountaineering, high-altitude work. They are distinguished by high strength and durability. They are coupled and non-coupled. Coupled can be with a threaded clutch or automatic (two-stroke or three-stroke). The disadvantage of such carabiners is their heavy weight compared to their duralumin counterparts, so they are not used where the light weight of equipment is important.

Carabiners made of duralumin alloys are not inferior in strength to steel carabiners, but have less weight, which makes them more attractive for climbing or mountaineering. But they are less durable compared to steel carabiners.

Plastic carabiners (service) - are intended only for hanging auxiliary equipment and are never used for belaying a person.

Trigger devices.

In rock climbing and alpinism, both the simplest friction trigger devices such as a figure eight or glass, and more sophisticated self-locking ones such as stopper-desanter, gri-gri are used.

The descent device is used for descent from a height, hovering and positioning, for insurance. Duralumin in combination with a softer dynamic rope is suitable for rock climbing and mountaineering. A more expensive version of the trigger devices are self-locking devices and stoppers.

The advantage of such devices is that when the handle is released, the device locks itself on the rope and there is no involuntary descent or slipping.

Clamps for rope climbing

Climbing on the rope is carried out with the help of special clamps. Ascent is possible when properly used in a different combination of such devices as a jumar, a crawler or a self-locking lowering device. Various rope climbing methods and techniques require basic knowledge of working with equipment and regular training.

Helmets

Everyone knows about the need to wear helmets when climbing or performing work at height, but not everyone follows this simple rule.

A helmet can save a life or help avoid big trouble. In the mountains, stone, ice or snow can fall on you, you can fall off a rock or a slope, and if you are not wearing a helmet, you can get serious head injuries.

When performing work at height, a helmet is a necessary element of equipment for a height worker. A tool from a partner or a bucket may accidentally fall on your head. If the rope breaks or the belay is broken, most likely you will fly with the pendulum and may hit any protruding structures on the wall. Without a helmet on your head - this can have unpleasant consequences.

Among the huge variety of helmets on the sports and construction market of Ukraine, it is easy to choose the appropriate one in terms of design, size, color, and price.

Self insurance

It is used for connecting the safety system to clamps, safety rails or a guide on the crossing, positioning the worker at a height during construction and installation work.

Self-insurance can be made in the form of a mustache from a sling or rope. The length of the mustache depends on the specifics of the tasks performed. When climbing a rope, it is recommended to use mustaches of different lengths, but make sure that they are not too long. Otherwise, you can hang on the clamp, and then you can't reach it.

For construction work, belays with shock absorbers or self-locking devices are used.

For the Via Ferata, special self-belays with shock absorbers are used to soften the fall in case of failure.

Depending on the types of activity or when performing complex work at height, you may need a variety of equipment and competent advice. Our managers will help you understand the equipment.

The wholesale company SMG offers a large selection of gear from Black Diamond, Singing Rock and Tendon brands.