Anyone know of a harness for the extremely obese. And does the waist belt go over the belly or under the belly. Does the harness require a chest harness or just the lower portion. I'm looking for good information and please leave the jokes to yourselves. Thank you.

I owned a climbing gym in Austin TX for years. We had all adjustable harness' that came in 3 sizes. The larger size in all the years never failed(and this is Texans). We used all "Headwall" harness' made by Mike Head out of Tucson AZ. I don't know if he still makes them but it's worth a try. And we always routed the waistband under the belly. My experiences anyways.

I am positive that the sport manufacturer's will not have anything. However, fall protection is a huge deal with industry and OSHA; and that has to include the obese. Google "fall protection", one of the best manufacturers is "Sala". These will be full-body harnesses; I do not know if padded versions are available as every company I ever worked for would consider comfort a needless expense for us chattel.

Because of the shape of an obese person's body, you will definitely want to use a full body harness with him/her. Just a waist and leg harness will not be safe on an obese person; it will be very easy for him/her to fall out of it.

--Marc

I would check in with a company like PMI looking into chest/full body for the applications Mike is talking about.

However, with going into this, you need to review the dangers that will be introduced through harness hang syndrome. If just sling-shot top-roping, it's really nothing to lower someone back to the ground. Don't know if you intend more -- you can't let a person freely hang in some of those OSHA approved full body harness for very long.

You may also want to look at the ropes, maybe going with the low-stretch 11mm (what we are calling static lines) is the way to go if you are top-roping. Also, you might think about introducing more friction into the system to control lower-descents better but not overtax the system; & require belay anchors.

Depending on how large the person is you may just have to make one.

I've been a guide for several years now and every so often I get a client who is too large to fit into any commercially made harness.

I'm talking HUGE! What I do that works well is use a chest harness in conjunction with a swami belt. That is, I take 25 feet of one inch or two inch tubular webbing and construct a combination waist belt/leg loops out of this materisl and tie it into the chest harness.

Usually I find that if I have someone who weighs in at 300lbs or more they aren't capable of climbing much more than slab routes or climbs that are more than vertical and this set-up works great for that situation. Good luck finding a commercially made harness.

Same as above... über-obese people should be in a full body harness. PMI and Petzl have industrial safety/military/tree-worker harnesses are uniquely appropriate for large bodies. If you must be cheap, a Misty Mountain Fudge harness will go from super tiny to ultra-gordo in an OSFA design. Then make a chest harness using a long tied runner, crossed behind the back in the same configuation as a sewn chest harness. Clip it together in the front with a locker.
Mal

I like Malcolm Daly's idea of the Misty Mountain Fudge Harness with a home made chest harness. A follow up question would be..... do you run the rope through both the Fudge harness AND the chest harness OR carabiner the chest harness to the Fudge harness with a sling and just tie into the Fudge?? or what.

You would want the fulcrum point to be higher than the midsection, or you run the danger of flipping into an inverted position. In other words, the chest area should take the majority of tension, the swami/leg section functions to help balance the person upright. But Mark makes sense about circulation issues, especially with the legs.
Deaths have occurred in construction with extended harness hanging (and partial excavation burial/lower legs) where the blood pressure spikes from pinching off half of the circulatory system.

Robertson makes institutional harness that are one size fits most. Then they make a size up which fits everyone else. I have a 34" waist, and, when I put it on, there was about 4 feet of tail, so it should fit the person inquestion.

Ditto the chest harness being important, but easily made with a piece of webbing.

Evan

chest harness is a good idea, as the guy will probably be top heavy, Im also a guide, and occationaly i run into this issue, nuthin like trying to yank a quarter inch of tail through the waste loop of a harness, then trying to double it back, its an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved, one thing to watch out for, if you have 1` webbing, and you make a swami for a large person, it will be the most uncomfortable thing that person has ever worn. a swami isnt comfortable for me to lower with and im a buck fifty. if your gona make a swami for a guy that big, I suggest seat belt material. they make roofers harnesses, and rigging harnesses for real big guys, the kind they sell at home depot, with all the metal buckles. I cant for the life of me imagine why an extremely obese person would need one though, my sister is really really big and she wont even use an escalator, shell walk twice as far for the elevator...
hope that helped a little.

Probably don't want to be using 9.1mm ropes and ultralight biners. Probably want to think more like a big wall climber with the rest of your gear and anchors. Fat ropes, oval biners, couple extra pieces in the belay, etc.

At the gym I work at we have adjustable harnesses that kinda look like seatbelts. I believe ABC was the company to make them. I'm not too positive if they still do though.