How to Make a Homemade Climbing Harness
The climbing harness is a critical piece of your rock climbing gear and must be able to support the extreme forces during a rock-climbing fall, whether you're taking that fall as climber or belayer. A homemade climbing harness should be made out of 1-inch wide climbing webbing that is intended to withstand extreme conditions. Under no circumstances should you use seat belts, bungees, or any other webbing that may look similar to climbing webbing but not be intended to survive the forces involved in a climbing accident.
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Instructions
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Tie two loops in the middle of the piece of webbing, using an overhand knot on a bight to create each loop. The loops are to support your legs and each should be a little larger around than your thigh.
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2
Step into the leg loops. Pull them up to your hip joint with the knots and extra webbing in front of you.
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3
Pass each piece of extra webbing down through the opposite leg loop. In other words the left-hand strand of extra webbing will go across the front of your hips and down through the right leg loop, while the right-hand strand of extra webbing goes down through the left leg loop.
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4
Wrap the two ends of webbing around the back of your body in opposite directions at waist level. They should cross in the back, then come around to the front of your waist and cross again. Keep wrapping the webbing around your waist, forming a belt, until it's secure and tight with at least 8 inches of free webbing left on each strand.
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5
Tie the two loose ends of webbing into a water knot at your waistline to secure the harness.
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Tips & Warnings
The leg loops and waist loop or belt of your harness should all be tight enough that while you can slip your hand between the webbing and your body, you can't rotate that hand. If there's enough laxity in your harness to let you rotate your hand, you should adjust the knots on your leg loops or re-wrap and re-tie your waist belt tighter. Water knots tend to roll or creep untied as they are weighted and then unweighted, so leave plenty of extra webbing in the tails of your water knot and check it frequently to make sure it is still tight and in the proper place.
Rock climbing is a dangerous sport and should only be pursued under expert supervision until you know what you're doing. It's critically important that you use only climbing webbing intended to bear the forces involved in rock climbing falls.
