Girth hitching slings to your belay loop?

Someone pointed out to me that they dident like my PAS girth hitched to my belay loop. I started girth hitching my belay loop after I ate through a bigwall harness in only a few months girth hitching through the tie-in points. I mentioned that girth hitching a sling through the tie in points can greatly accelerate wear on the tie-in point, and in my case it accelerated it so much that my harness was toast in a matter of months.

Anyway, with some 250 climbing days per year, I have never noticed abnormal wear on my belay loop on any of my harnesses that have girth hitched slings attached to them, even after three years of using the harnesses. So my question is, has anyone noticed a dangerous level of wear caused by girth hitching a belay loop with a sling?

I do it all the time for clipping in direct and have absolutely no signs of abnormal wear

Todd Skinner died in the 2000's on the leaning tower because the girth hitched sling on his belay loop held it in place and did not let it wear evenly against the tie in points. It wore through and he fell to his death while rappelling.

It's the method i've been using for well over 10 years and in those 10 years i've used this method on every harness i've ever had... whether sport or trad, or big walls. Never had any problems or excessive wear. I just keep a good eye on my gear and check it frequently. In fact, my Camp Warden harness has 2 points specifically designed for this method. You can't please everyone all the time. I don't even bother trying. I've noticed that a lot of people that have "issues" with tried and true techniques, and with armchair quarterbacking in general are usually the type of people who log a whopping 10 climbing days per year.

20 kN wrote: So my question is, has anyone noticed a dangerous level of wear caused by girth hitching a belay loop with a sling?

No. But that is because I check my harness and when it starts to look a bit rough bin it. This is just common sense - never let you harness get to the point where it doesn't look like the strongest link in the chain.

If you are male and not wearing many clothes than girth hitching to the tie in points seems fine. But it you are high waisted (female) or wearing lots of clothes on the legs (big mountain) or sleeping in the harness (long route) then girth hitching to the belay loop can be much more comfortable. Some find it always more comfortable.

PAS, LOL

I've done it for years, after switching from using the tie-in points. I don't think there is any realistic problem with the practice. The Todd Skinner tragedy understandably launched a wave of anxiety about such things, but the only real message from that was that harnesses should be replaced well before they get super tatty.

If you're keeping 2 separate connections to the anchor, you could girth hitch one to the belay loop and another one through the tie-in points. I see people do it and I've done it myself. I don't see anything really wrong with doing it either way. People argue putting one through the belay loop and one through the tie-in points make it more redundant. You're not going to please anyone no matter what you do.

I tie mine to the upper tie in point only. I find that when you tie in to the belay loop only it gets pulled tight and then you have a problem clipping the Belay biner to the loop.
When its tied to the top loop you dont get the sawing action.

blackdiamondequipment.com/e…

Some food for thought