When climbing its important to know all your safety checks along with how each piece of gear you are using operates and understanding the systems in place. This will allow you to climb safely and securely with little worries about your gear.
Ensure Harness Is Secured Correctly
The first thing you want to do after getting into your harness is to check that it’s secured correctly and do the “hip check”.
The Hip Check is where you try to pull your harness over your hips to ensure you cant fall out in the event you go upside down during a fall. Your harness should be tight enough so it’s impossible for it to slip over your hips.
Once you have performed the hip check and double checked all your clasps and harness buckles then you are good to climbing.
Yearly Harness Safety Checks
While most climbing gear is way over-engineered in order to provide maximum safety it’s usually user error that causes the gear to fail such as poor maintenance or storage. Once a year or more depending on how often you climb it’s best to do a full checkup on your climbing harness. If you are unsure what you should be looking for then Petzl offers a complete guide on how to inspect your harness.
