Abseiling using a 120cm sling

[Paul Embley]

It is current good practice to abseil using a 120cm dyneema or aramid sling attached to your belay loop using a larksfoot knot. This sling is then used to secure yourself to the anchor point when setting up the abseil and also to attach your belay plate. This method was demonstrated at the abseil skills session last year.
At the BMC training course which some of us recently attended we received further information about abseiling using a sling:
(1) When using sports harnesses with very thin belay loops it is not advisable to use an aramid sling attached with a larksfoot knot. This creates an increased theoretical risk of the sling shearing through the belay loop if the sling was loaded in a fall. A dyneema sling is safer and there is also an alternative way to attach an aramid sling which I would be happy to show anyone interested.
(2) It is safe to use an aramid sling larksfooted to normal width belay loops but if you do a lot of abseiling using this method it is good practice to regularly check your belay loop for wear.
(3) If there is any slack in the sling after clipping in to the anchor point it is good practice to gather the slack into a loop and tie it off with an overhand knot. This will reduce the impact if you accidentally step off the stance!
(4) Many harnesses have a small loop attached to the leg loop which is designed to clip in a prusik loop used to back up your abseil. This is safe but it is worth checking the manufacturer’s info for your harness to be sure that the loop is designed for this purpose.
Please get in touch with me if you need any more information. I can highly recommend the Leading Edge video “Abseiling using a prusik” [ https://youtu.be/C9y8q_o8-6 ]. This demonstrates a safe method of abseiling using a 120cm sling.

[Paul Embley]

Apologies, this is the correct link to the video “Abseiling with a prusik” : https://youtu.be/C9y8q_o8-6I

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