Rope bridge vs. Ventral attachment pt. for SRT

[michaelbird]

Some of the new harnesses for recreational are ventral rings. What are the advantages and disadvantages to the new climber? Do you need to have a rope bridge? Can you limb walk at all without a bridge?

 

[Dan Cobb]

I used a rescue harness with a ventral d-ring for quite some time before getting a TreeMotion with a bridge. My experience may be atypical.

The ventral attachment keeps me upright and makes it difficult to impossible to achieve other orientations. With the bridge it's easy to lean over sideways and invert, a big plus when needing to reach out and grab or prune branches. I have seen top heavy climbers have a tendency to invert with a ventral attachment. One instance was dangerous, as he unintentionally inverted on rappel and began sliding out of his harness. (Sport harness with low attachment point.)

Limb walking with the ventral attachment rotates the harness on my waist, as the attachment point tries to align with the anchor point. It's much less comfortable with the harness getting pulled around on me. Feels like more of a fight compared to a bridge.

Using a bridge took a little getting used to since it's not too difficult to rotate off to the side accidentally when sitting and not in contact with the tree. Even with my saddle adjusted for maximum bias towards staying upright, it's easy to rotate any which way. That may be because I'm small waisted and run out of adjustment range.

 

[Willber]

I agree with Dan, the ventral attachment point (VAP), being fix, unlike the moving of a bridge, cause uneven pressure on the waist. And, therefore does cause some pain when I'm being pulled from my climbing rope and opposing lanyard, when doing pruning or dismantles by "hanging in" from an adjacent tree.

My first harness was an older, used Buckingham Ergovation. I purchased the Petzl Sequoia SRT harness, last November, and have only used it since then. I would say this harness is a little less comfortable than the Buckingham, but it is lighter and has the two features: the bridge Drings and the VAP.

I wanted the SRT version because it has the same features as the Sequoia DRT, but has the option of the VAP, which I used a majority of the time, because it allows me to have a closer attachment, than the bridge offers. Giving me more distance of travel on, when pulling myself up in DRT. Which reduces repetition injury.

The advantages of the VAP is having the option of a closer fixed attachment point.

I would recommend the Petzl Sequoia SRT saddle. It, I believe, is the lightest "arborists" saddle with the closest VAP, on the market today.
Although, I personally found the VAP, to cause me to lean back (forces me to be less upright) more in the harness, than using the bridge, well certainly for the Petzl Sequoia SRT harness.

 

[theatertech87]

Ventral attachment is great for SRS ascent (or really anything that you're using foot ascenders), as it keeps you more vertically oriented (attachment is above your center of gravity). MRS and hip thrusting is generally more comfortable with a rope bridge since your attachment point is closer to the balance point of your center of gravity. Also depending on the harness, the ventral point is also an attachment point for rated fall arrest suspenders (which imho is the most useful feature)

Working in a tree it's much more a matter of preference of a fixed attachment point (think of the ventral point as a less comfortable 4D ring saddles) or one that slides and rotates as you move (rope bridge)

Personally I use my bridge for 95% of the climb, and switch over to the ventral point any time i have to ascend a rope more than 10 feet or so, then switch back to the bridge to continue working.

 

[Lignotuber]

Ventral attachment is great for SRS ascent (or really anything that you're using foot ascenders), as it keeps you more vertically oriented (attachment is above your center of gravity). MRS and hip thrusting is generally more comfortable with a rope bridge since your attachment point is closer to the balance point of your center of gravity. Also depending on the harness, the ventral point is also an attachment point for rated fall arrest suspenders (which imho is the most useful feature)

Working in a tree it's much more a matter of preference of a fixed attachment point (think of the ventral point as a less comfortable 4D ring saddles) or one that slides and rotates as you move (rope bridge)

Personally I use my bridge for 95% of the climb, and switch over to the ventral point any time i have to ascend a rope more than 10 feet or so, then switch back to the bridge to continue working.

I have a question, do you still need a slack tending tether of sorts with a ventral attachment or does it tend pretty well on its own? Thanks

 

[theatertech87]

It tends pretty well on its own (again I have suspenders so there's little noticable slop in the attachment point). The harness I have also has a tending point that I use, just because it does tend slightly better depending on the device and it removes all the sit back from the system

 

[climbstihl]

I have a Petzl Sequoia SRT as well, with rated top with a chest ascender on it. The only time I need the VAP is when using the chest ascender, everything else goes on my bridge. A big reason for that is my adjustable bridge, I can get my system even lower that with the VAP for ascent using the bridge. It is much more comfortable to hang on the bridge, using the VAP would require you to run your legloops pretty tight, more like a sport or rope access harness.

 

[Lignotuber]

I have a Petzl Sequoia SRT as well, with rated top with a chest ascender on it. The only time I need the VAP is when using the chest ascender, everything else goes on my bridge. A big reason for that is my adjustable bridge, I can get my system even lower that with the VAP for ascent using the bridge. It is much more comfortable to hang on the bridge, using the VAP would require you to run your legloops pretty tight, more like a sport or rope access harness.

Did you go with Petzl's adjustable bridge?

 

[climbstihl]

Did you go with Petzl's adjustable bridge?

No, I used a rollnlock with a spare treemotion bridge, in parallel with the factory bridge. I don't like how the petzl adjust sits on the lower D's, even though I rarely need them on the Sequoia, as it's not my tree care harness and I don't use a lanyard on lateral attachment points often.