Harness broke during fall

Took a 30-40ft clean whipper today and when I started to pull myself up the rope again noticed the harness had almost completely ripped through at the back. I think what still held it in place was the (unrated) gear loop. Fortunately nothing happened, but quite scary. The harness was maybe 5 years old with a total of 250-300 days of use. No damage visible beforehand where it broke.

I wonder how this can happen as I have never heard of anything like that before. The harness was an ultralight BD Vision.

Edit: As a result of this incident, BD has issued a recall of this harness. While the exact cause is still unknown they think it’s a unique combination of factors that led to it, such as heavy use and UV exposure in combination with the materials used and the construction of the harness.

That's how Tod Skinner died. Check your gear yall

5 years old should be well within the harness’ expected life, if stored properly. Did you ever leave it outside for extended periods of time, or could it have come into contact with corrosive chemicals?

If not, I would write BD - they’ll want to examine the method of failure, at least.

Dylan Willis wrote:

That's how Tod Skinner died. Check your gear yall

Skinner’s broke at the belay loop/tie-in, and even before failing appeared extremely worn. OP said their harness did not appear worn, and their harness broke in a different spot. I would hesitate to compare these incidents.

Holy moly! That’s horrifying. Do you work around industrial solvents, acids, or wear your harness in ozone, ultraviolet or radiation rich environments?! Following. 

It hasn’t been in contact with any corrosive chemicals and I did not leave it in the sun unnecessarily.

Anecdotally, I’ve found those super light harnesses to just not hold up as well to heavy use (I.e. projecting a route, or behind abraded on rock) 

Seems like they’re more well suited to long routes with long approaches where falling a lot isn’t expected to happen. 

I had a lower tie-in loop break during a fall on a mammut harness after maybe only  60 days of climbing on it. Freaky 

If you want gaurenteed beef and durability. Get a Metolious or Yates harness 

I’d definitely want to look at that if I was the manufacturer, take lots of photos before you send it in. It definitely looks like it ripped along a sewed seam, which means there all not strong enough (I don’t think there’s enough body’s to back that up) or yours was a manufacturing defect and would probably warrant a recall(and maybe a big ol bd gift card). It’s interesting that the gear loop was strong enough to hold you, maybe this is a failure mode they were concerned about so they over engineered the gear loops? 

Joe Senderson wrote:

It’s interesting that the gear loop was strong enough to hold you, maybe this is a failure mode they were concerned about so they over engineered the gear loops? 

My guess is the breaking of the waist belt already absorbed most of the force kind of like a screamer and the gear loop did maybe the remaining 1kn or so. I doubt it’s by design.

Yikes! If the gear loop had also failed, do you think the leg loops would have saved you?  
Scary stuff…glad you made it. 

Contact Black Diamond, I'd really hope that they would want to do testing on this harness. 

Better get a Misty.  

No bueno. 

Definitely take lots of pictures, and then send that in to BD.  They will absolutely want to see that. 

Could you post more pictures of the rip? It was my (potentially wrong) understanding that harnesses have webbing in them and are effective just padding around that. I can’t see the load bearing portion of the harnesses (intact or town) and would be quite curious to see it.

scary stuff

Garrett Hopkins wrote:

Anecdotally, I’ve found those super light harnesses to just not hold up as well to heavy use (I.e. projecting a route, or behind abraded on rock) 

Seems like they’re more well suited to long routes with long approaches where falling a lot isn’t expected to happen. 

I had a lower tie-in loop break during a fall on a mammut harness after maybe only  60 days of climbing on it. Freaky 

If you want gaurenteed beef and durability. Get a Metolious or Yates harness 

What Mammut harness was that? Do you have pictures? Details?

Maybe it's naïve, but one of the things that makes such a ridiculous sport as climbing plausible is that the equipment works: the flimsy-looking harnesses hold our weight. In fact, they should be designed so that your pelvis shatters before the harness breaks. That's the point of rating them to 15kn or whatever the standard is.

 In my opinion, harnesses should not just break. Ever. Durability should be measured by how much abuse it takes to visibly wear out the harness. And a harness that's not visibly worn should never fail under normal climbing scenarios (which a 40-ft whipper absolutely is). If a harness has a failure mode where it can break without visible damage or abrasion, that's a potentially fatal design defect. 

 If I owned a BD Vision or the Mammut you're referring to, I would put it in the trash right now.

If I were BD or Mammut (or their legal team), I would issue a recall this morning.

Glad you both are ok; that's terrifying.

Garrett Hopkins wrote:

I had a lower tie-in loop break during a fall on a mammut harness after maybe only  60 days of climbing on it. Freaky 

Unless I’m misunderstanding the part of the harness you’re talking about- these are only meant to keep the rope centered. My DMM one is just a thin piece of webbing that comes untied all the time. 

Climb On wrote:

Unless I’m misunderstanding the part of the harness you’re talking about- these are only meant to keep the rope centered. My DMM one is just a thin piece of webbing that comes untied all the time. 

What? I think he’s referring to the lower hard point, no? The loop the belay loop passes through- top and bottom. If that’s coming untied or broken it’s a big deal. 

5 years, 300 days, ultralight. Not surprised.

Don't the ultralight C4s have a 5-year lifespan? Because of the dynema inside?

Climbing Weasel wrote:

What? I think he’s referring to the lower hard point, no? The loop the belay loop passes through- top and bottom. If that’s coming untied or broken it’s a big deal. 

If the top of it is broken that’s a big deal. If the bottom of comes undone it’s not. Your rope is still through both hard points. I’ll find a photo later to try to illustrate my point. 

Igor Chained wrote:

5 years, 300 days, ultralight. Not surprised.

Don't the ultralight C4s have a 5-year lifespan? Because of the dynema inside?

UL C4s have a ten year lifespan. It's in the product warnings: blackdiamond-cms.zaneray.co…

There's a statement that the BD Vision harness also has a 10-year lifespan from the manufacture date: blackdiamond-cms.zaneray.co…

Climb On wrote:

Unless I’m misunderstanding the part of the harness you’re talking about- these are only meant to keep the rope centered. My DMM one is just a thin piece of webbing that comes untied all the time. 

It was the lower hard point. not the "keeper". It was a structural part of the harness. Really wild. Clearly Mammut isn't designing things for my American 200 pound lard ass