Mountain Project Logo

Via Ferrata - DIY

Original Post
wankel7 · · Indiana · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 10

Looking to do some easy routes in the Dolomites. I have seen the pre made ferrata kits but was thinking of just using my existing gear.

Anything wrong with using tubular webbing girth hitched to the harness or accessory cord?

I understand it isn't going to take a shock like the ferrata gear. Just wondering what the experiences are.

20 kN · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,346
wankel7 wrote:Looking to do some easy routes in the Dolomites. I have seen the pre made ferrata kits but was thinking of just using my existing gear. Anything wrong with using tubular webbing girth hitched to the harness or accessory cord? I understand it isn't going to take a shock like the ferrata gear. Just wondering what the experiences are.
Absolutely not. Buy a purpose built via ferrata lanyard. Rock climbing is not via ferrata, and via ferrata is not rock climbing. Different sports, different gear, different UIAA certifications.

Take a fall on a webbing or accessory cord lanyard on a via ferrata route and you likely wont live to tell about it. Fall factors on via ferrata routes can exceed FF5, which is why dynamic rope, webbing, ect wont cut it. The lanyards are like $60 if you get one on sale. Get one with biners, as standard climbing carabiners are not sufficient. You need UIAA class K carabiners, which are special for via ferrara and they can resist being loaded over an edge (unlike standard biners), which is important in via ferrata.
wankel7 · · Indiana · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 10
20 kN wrote: Absolutely not. Buy a purpose built via ferrata lanyard. Rock climbing is not via ferrata, and via ferrata is not rock climbing. Different sports, different gear, different UIAA certifications. Take a fall on a webbing or accessory cord lanyard on a via ferrata route and you likely wont live to tell about it. Fall factors on via ferrata routes can exceed FF5, which is why dynamic rope, webbing, ect wont cut it. The lanyards are like $60 if you get one on sale. Get one with biners, as standard climbing carabiners are not sufficient. You need UIAA class K carabiners, which are special for via ferrara and they can resist being loaded over an edge (unlike standard biners), which is important in via ferrata.
Ok solid advice thank you !
Stagg54 Taggart · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2006 · Points: 10

Wow! You learn something new every day. I knew the lanyards were mandatory. I didn't know the biners were different. Makes sense though.

Bob Dobalina · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 140

I use two runners with biners on each one girth hitched to my harness for our local via ferrata. I've also done it with just one runner on a tied webbing "swammi-style" belt too.
Specialty gear for via ferratas is not at all crucial in my experience.
Falling onto a horizontally draped cable with slack in it is not a static fall.

Benjamin Chapman · · Small Town, USA · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18,818

Bob....did you read what 20kN wrote? Before you go back out and test your homemade rig......maybe you should go take a Physics class first.

Em Cos · · Boulder, CO · Joined Apr 2010 · Points: 5

Can you explain how a fall can exceed FF5? My (possibly mistaken) understanding of fall factors is that it's the ratio of the length of the fall to the length of rope out. In that case, I'm having trouble imagining how any fall could exceed FF2.

Unless you jump off, fall 4 times the length of your tether, then clip into something as you fall past, vertical limit style.

Bob Dobalina · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 140
Benjamin Chapman wrote:Bob....did you read what 20kN wrote? Before you go back out and test your homemade rig......maybe you should go take a Physics class first.
When I helped build the via ferrata that's how we did it. Now years later, it's still how most people do it since static falls are impossible on our route.
Specialty runners (with a bit of cushion built in) as a requirement? I'm calling bullshit.
Benjamin Chapman · · Small Town, USA · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18,818

Bob......check out the video "King Lines" featuring Chris Sharma. While working on "Three Degrees of Separation" Chris starts a dynamic move and forgets to unclip the daisy chain he's resting on and when it comes taught he takes a short fall on the daisy and nearly causes some serious injury to his pelvic region. Check it out. I'm not a physicist, but 20kN knows what he's talking about.

minielle · · Holladay, Utah · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 50

It is quite possible to fall a significant distance on a via ferrata. The new ones (like Via Ferrata Sci Club 18) have bumpers to reduce the shock but it will still be quite a fall. We used ferrata kits and I'm glad we did. There is a lot of clipping and unclipping so the ferrata specific locking biners were perfect. We had a blast!

Sci Club 18 Via Ferrata

Sci Club 18

Bob Dobalina · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 140
Benjamin Chapman wrote:Bob......check out the video "King Lines" featuring Chris Sharma. While working on "Three Degrees of Separation" Chris starts a dynamic move and forgets to unclip the daisy chain he's resting on and when it comes taught he takes a short fall on the daisy and nearly causes some serious injury to his pelvic region. Check it out. I'm not a physicist, but 20kN knows what he's talking about.
There you go again talking about static falls. Static falls are IMPOSSIBLE on a cabled via ferratas.
Have YOU ever done a via ferrata yourself? I've done a few different ones dozens of times. Specialized gear is merely a standard runner with some bungie cord built in and biners that unclip/clip a little easier. Totally not needed.
Manny Rangel · · PAYSON · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 4,788

Last September I watched my friend take at least a ten foot fall on Via Ferrata gear and was fine. She slipped off a wet foot hold and came to a stop with no injury. There was a lot of up and down on this route with potential for greater than ten foot vertical falls.

I'd go with the certified gear in the Dolomites.

brenta · · Boulder, CO · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 75
Em Cos wrote:Can you explain how a fall can exceed FF5?
You clip a metal cable running vertically with your biner. You move up and then you fall. The biner slides along the cable until it catches on one of the supports. You keep falling until the runner goes taut. How far did you fall? Possibly many times the length of the runner. Even with a ferrata kit, I'd try really hard not to fall in the first place.

My experience with vie ferrate is outdated. Back in the day, if you were safety conscious, you'd have a runner tied to your harness and one carabiner. And that biner would often say tucked in a pocket of your corduroy knickers (de rigueur at the time).

I understand, though, that the trend has been toward more and more exposed and physically demanding itineraries where a ferrata kit would be the right thing to have. There is no doubt that it provides a wider safety margin than other setups.
Bob Dobalina · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 140
John Wilder wrote: unless the cable is perfectly horizontal.

Yes. This is the case with every VF I have ever done.
Benjamin Chapman · · Small Town, USA · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18,818

Bob.....20kN, Manuel, John, minielle ........listen to them. Not every via Ferrara is horizontal. They have been on via Ferrara and the danger of falling on your gear is real. When your gear breaks don't call bullsh*t, call 911.

Jim Titt · · Germany · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 490
Bob Dobalina wrote: There you go again talking about static falls. Static falls are IMPOSSIBLE on a cabled via ferratas. Have YOU ever done a via ferrata yourself? I've done a few different ones dozens of times. Specialized gear is merely a standard runner with some bungie cord built in and biners that unclip/clip a little easier. Totally not needed.
Hmmm. The proposed standard for via ferrata allows for vertical seperation of the cable anchors to be 4m but there are plenty of older ones out in the Dolomites where a screw-up means you drop 10m straight onto a solid anchor. Either way I wouldn´t consider telling anyone to follow your advice.
The via ferrata´s over here actually go from the bottom of the mountain to the top, that´s why they are there. This is the sort of thing you might meet:-

Via ferrata
Optimistic · · New Paltz · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 450

Via ferrata rigs use an energy limiter (seems like mostly screamer type format on the ones I'm googling up right now). When we did it in Switzerland the ones we rented had a buckle that was designed to slip when fallen on, slowly paying out webbing to make a dynamic fall.

Either way you slice it, it's NOT the same gear!

Very simple solution (unless you're planning on doing it a ton, which would be understandable because it's really fun) just rent, I'm sure you'll find plenty of shops that will do it.

I'm not sure what kinda via ferrata Mr Dobalina is talking about (maybe he means Tyrolean traverse?), but on the ones we did, falls in the 10-15' range were a possibility. Taking that as a static load would likely be fatal, or leaving you with injuries that might make you wish it HAD been fatal.

trese · · Salzburg/Innsbruck/Munich · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 125
John Wilder wrote: Most Via Ferratas are not horizontal adventures, they are, by design, a way to ascend a cliff face as evidenced by all the pictures on this thread.
Of course you never ever want to fall but if it happens you want to have a Via Ferrata kit with a screamer that takes out some of your fall's energy as you don't want your back to do that job - a simple sling and a biner are a very, very bad idea. Also take along a short sling and a biner if you want to rest as the Via Ferrata kit arms are usually quite long and you can't hang in them comfortably.
Optimistic · · New Paltz · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 450
Jim Titt wrote: Hmmm. The proposed standard for via ferrata allows for vertical seperation of the cable anchors to be 4m but there are plenty of older ones out in the Dolomites where a screw-up means you drop 10m straight onto a solid anchor. Either way I wouldn´t consider telling anyone to follow your advice. The via ferrata´s over here actually go from the bottom of the mountain to the top, that´s why they are there. This is the sort of thing you might meet:-
Jim, where is the VF in your picture? Looks awesome!
Jim Titt · · Germany · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 490

That´s the Seeben klettersteig in Austria. Not my sport as it happens but I´ve been on a few in the Dolomites as they are often part of the descent from routes. I´ve done a couple of the hard sport via ferrata´s as well, I used to sell the anchors and steps to build them.

20 kN · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,346
Em Cos wrote:Can you explain how a fall can exceed FF5? My (possibly mistaken) understanding of fall factors is that it's the ratio of the length of the fall to the length of rope out. In that case, I'm having trouble imagining how any fall could exceed FF2. Unless you jump off, fall 4 times the length of your tether, then clip into something as you fall past, vertical limit style.
It's impossible to exceed FF2 when the anchor is fixed (e.g. it doesent move). Even if you climbed the full 60m of your rope and fell, you wouldent fall more than 120m before the rope catches, thus FF2. However, in via ferrata, the anchor essentially "moves" (figuratively). With via ferrata, you clip into a steel cable that runs the length of the route, terminated every 15' or so if done right, and you climb the rock or rungs. However, if you fall you are going to slide down the cable, picking up speed in the process, some distance before the lanyard catches.

Let's do the math. FF= fall distance/ rope out. Our lanyard is 3' long. So if we fell only 3' on it, the FF would be 1. But as I said before there can be as much as 15' between cable terminations, so worse case you climb 3' above a cable termination to the point that the lanyard is shortroping you, and then you fall. You would fall the 15' length of the cable + the 3' you were above the cable + 3' below the anchor at the end of the 15' span, thus giving you a fall distance of 21'. However, the lanyard is only 3' long, so 21/3 = FF7. Considering most via ferrata lanyards are really only rated for around FF5, even with a via ferrata lanyard you could get seriously fucked up in this extreme but very possible scenario. Without a via ferrata lanyard, there is almost no chance you would live unless the route was on low angle slab.

Look at the cable on the right side of this photo. It illustrates how it's possible to fall a great distance on a short lanyard:

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Climbing Gear Discussion
Post a Reply to "Via Ferrata - DIY"

Log In to Reply

Join the Community

Create your FREE account today!
Already have an account? Login to close this notice.

Get Started.