Keeping gear sling out of the way

I know I've seen it somewhere on MP before (but maybe it was somewhere else online) but for those of you that use a gear sling, what are some ways you rig the sling so it stays on your side and doesn't drop in front of you with gravity every time you bend forward? For years I've racked everything directly on my harness but I'm thinking about giving the ol' gear sling a try again, but my biggest pet peave is the gear not staying on my side. Thoughts?

Since you're on the fence about using it I would say really the easiest way to keep the gear sling from getting in the way is to just rack the gear on your harness. Perhaps upgrade to a 6 gear loop harness for more space?  Gear slings are really only helpful IMO for big gear in wide cracks/chimneys, long layback cracks, or possibly for swapping leads/tagging gear when simul-ing.   You could try a double gear sling which positions the gear on each side but would likely be way overkill unless you are aid climbing and have a ton of gear. 

I know it is rather old school...but, when, and only when, you need that much gear, try a chest harness.

This one is easy for the old-schoolers--  Don't use these newfangled specialized slings.  Make a loop out of one-inch tubular and tie it with a water knot.  Rack the gear with the knot middle of you chest.  When you want to keep the gear out of the way, just pull the knot around to your hip and it will keep everything back there.

Go get a Metolius gear sling.

Load it with your small cams and nuts, so to evenly distributing the weight and it will not slide around.

This will leave more room on your harness and better distribute the entire weight of your rack.

Here's a simple one: 

Imagine your green C4 is racked as the most-forward piece on the sling (meaning, it's closest to your chest, while the other gear is behind it towards your side/back), rotate the carabiner on the cam and clip it to one of your gear loops on the side---the gear is then all trapped behind it and it can't swing forward into your business when you're on lower-angle/slabby terrain. 

#mtnguidemanual

hope this helps, dude! keep slaying! 

Stop climbing slabs and get on the vertical walls. Problem solved!

coppolillo wrote:

Here's a simple one: 

Imagine your green C4 is racked as the most-forward piece on the sling (meaning, it's closest to your chest, while the other gear is behind it towards your side/back), rotate the carabiner on the cam and clip it to one of your gear loops on the side---the gear is then all trapped behind it and it can't swing forward into your business when you're on lower-angle/slabby terrain. 

#mtnguidemanual

hope this helps, dude! keep slaying! 

Brilliant! I can't believe I never thought of this.

coppolillo wrote:

Here's a simple one: 

Imagine your green C4 is racked as the most-forward piece on the sling (meaning, it's closest to your chest, while the other gear is behind it towards your side/back), rotate the carabiner on the cam and clip it to one of your gear loops on the side---the gear is then all trapped behind it and it can't swing forward into your business when you're on lower-angle/slabby terrain. 

#mtnguidemanual

hope this helps, dude! keep slaying! 

are you 3 feet tall?  :)  i think i would have to use a quickdraw to do this.

Not mentioned: make sure the sling fits tight to your body. This helps cam's stay in reach on overhangs, as well as help's limit slipping. Seems like lots of people tend to wear their sling too loose. 

The gear sing I made, with a fleece pad, basically stays where I put it. I also prefer slings with gear loops. This doesn't really apply as much to an open sling (as far as shifting).

Here's what I do. It's a little complex but it works well.

1. Usually there's one piece that's the root of the problem. Often it's a large piece that dangles low, like a #3 or 4.

2. Identify that piece.

3. Unclip it from the gear sling.

4. Clip it to your harness.

5. Identify the next piece that's dangling too low.

6. Unclip it from the gear sling.

7. Clip it to your harness.

8. Repeat this process for the rest of the pieces on the gear sling.

9. Place the now-empty gear sling in a bin in your garage/basement/closet. IMPORTANT: Turn out the light when you're done.

10. Now the gear will not get in your way!

ALTERNATE METHOD:

Only climb squeeze chimneys and offwidths. The pressure from the rock against your sternum will keep the sling from rotating.

Dammit, Slim, thanks a lot. I just looked in the mirror and I just realized I'm a goddam dwarf. Sonofabitch! 

This is what I get for posting...the come-to-Jesus moment when you realize you're a white Gary Coleman. Motherfucker. 

Hope you're satisfied. 

I like to use a black diamond zodiac gear double gear sling.  I bought it originally for big wall climbing but It is so light and comfortable and the gear never hangs in front of you.  Now I use it free climbing all the time. It is faster to swap leads on a long mutlipitch climb if both leaders use the gear sling for pro instead of racking it on their harness.  It's slower to hand over one cam at a time than handing over the whole rack.  I often put a couple larger cams on my harness just to lighten the load over the shoulders. 

A petite woman with a lower center of gravity,  might prefer most of the weight on the harness in order to not be top-heavy.   For a person with a larger upper body, carrying the weight on the shoulders doesn't affect the balance quite as much.  Guys have to be careful of putting too much weight on their harness or else the harness will start riding too low on the hips which can cause the climber to flip upside down in a fall. Women who have a defined hip shelf do not have this problem, so they can load up the harness and it doesn't slide off.  So it all depends....

I've been looking at the 'backpack' style gear slings lately both to address the issue you raise, but also because I heard about an accident where the leader fell, the gear sling got caught on something and around their neck and wound up hanging them to death. The belayer didn't know for some time because the climber was around a corner and the sling was holding their weight, so they didn't even know the climber had fallen. I can't seem to locate the accident details online right now, but I believe it was in one of the AAC accident reports.

Only putting draws on the gear sling when climbing less steep ground helps. Otherwise dump the sling as others had said - if you need more space on the harness, clip one cam to the next of the same size and carry some of the draws in bunches.

Ed Schaefer wrote:

I've been looking at the 'backpack' style gear slings lately both to address the issue you raise, but also because I heard about an accident where the leader fell, the gear sling got caught on something and around their neck and wound up hanging them to death. The belayer didn't know for some time because the climber was around a corner and the sling was holding their weight, so they didn't even know the climber had fallen. I can't seem to locate the accident details online right now, but I believe it was in one of the AAC accident reports.

IIRC, that accident was not because of just a gear sling. It was a gear sling over one sholder with some 60cm slings over the opposite shoulder and the "crossing" that caused the problem. Going from memory, though. I can't find the specifics, either.

Edit: Found link https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/107091936/racking-on-shoulder-sling?page=2#ForumMessage-107093781

coppolillo wrote:

Dammit, Slim, thanks a lot. I just looked in the mirror and I just realized I'm a goddam dwarf. Sonofabitch! 

This is what I get for posting...the come-to-Jesus moment when you realize you're a white Gary Coleman. Motherfucker. 

Hope you're satisfied. 

ha ha, i feel bad now.