UKH

Hey - I'm looking at doing some DWS at the weekend, and noticed that at least one of the routes recommends an abseil start.  I'm comfortable setting up an abseil, and lowering in - but normally when I do this, it's to the ground, still with all my gear on.  How do people tend to do this for DWS? Climb with their harness on? (surely not...) Have some magical setup they can easily get off?  Hang onto the rock and get out of the harness and send it up the abseil rope? (until I get there I'm not sure if the ledge we'll be aiming for will be some tiny thing, or basically the floor and this whole discussion will be moot...)

body abseil ?

In the past I've made a simple harness using a thick tape sling, put it behind your back with the two ends at the front then reach between your legs grab one side and clip it all together with an hms (with your belay on.) Very easy to undo one handed when you reach the start of the route and leave on the ab rope.  

If doing this make sure you have scoped all the get outs if you don't make the top!

Edit: like this https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6280/making-a-make-shift-harne...

Abseiling in using a belay seat can work well, though obviously it's much easier to fall out of than a harness so there's a risk of tooling yourself. Something like this https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professional/Harnesses/PODIUM though you can make a homemade one using a skateboard deck and a bit of cord.

Ah, thanks, this souds like a reasonable possibility, may well try this.  And yes, will find the get out first  

Yeah, just take your harness off and send it back up with the rope. Might be easier to unthread it (can be down one handed) than stepping out.

why wouldn't you climb in your harness? Can salt water harm it? Just wash it when you get home, shirley?

It rather takes the joy (and some would say the point) out of DWS.

Mind you I've done it in a wetsuit so should probably shut up.

Totally off-topic, sorry wObble, but the thread reminds me on an amusing incident in the Dolomites two years ago. I was having a non-climbing day on my own on the Punta Anna Via Ferrata, on the Tofana, not far from Cortina. Lovely views, but nothing too strenuous. I was on the ridge halfway along when I suddenly approached a Japanese guy standing there, with no harness on ... he'd come up on a chairlift, then scrambled up up and up somehow between crags. He had no idea how he was going to get down again... Wait for a helicopter rescue perhaps?

Very fortunately, I had some slings and screwgates in my rucksack, left there from a climbing-day. I gave my new friend my harness and via ferrata kit, made myself a basic sling-harness plus clip-ins, and gave him a via ferrata tutorial. He picked it up immediately, and had no problems with the first few sections. We arrived at the most exposed spot, where the cables go across a vertical wall. He thought that he would have to balance along the wire! .... so I took the lead, showing how to hang on the wire and balance across on small footholds and stemples. Masses of exposure, but he followed me well. Soon after this we were descending to the 'Bus di Tofana', a huge hole in the rockface, where there is a footpath escape from the via ferrata. He took off the gear, said 'You are Superman!' and disappeared down towards safety.

I've used that style of "nappy harness" a fair few times for quick protection when doing a bit of garden tree surgery and other things. 

A 240cm sling works a treat on me - others may find it too loose/tight. It's also bloody uncomfortable for more than a couple of minutes, so use the widest tape sling you can find.

An alternative is the "swami belt" - take a length of tape, wrap it round your waist a few times and tie the ends together, then clip through the whole lot. You can then make separate leg loops from another short sling - I wouldn't attempt an ab without them*. Has the advantage that you can leave the waist bit in place when you climb and then you've got something to clip into in a hurry if you need someone to throw you a rope.

* Abseiling on a waist belt with no leg loops means it "could" ride up around your chest and restrict breathing.

As an aside theres a great section on all the various dws trickery in the mike Robinson dws rockfax guidebook if you can find a copy

A sling harness is the easiest solution, as mentioned use a wide sling not a thin dynamee!

Once at the bottom, unclip part of the sling (so it falls off your body) without removing the belay device off the rope, you can then pull it back up as everything is still attached to the rope.

Assuming you're not doing anything daft like going DWS on your own and abseiling in with a couple of slings wrapped around you crotch to get you out of trouble. What could go wrong!

Old harness and prussic to get off rope if I had too, but preferably a large tidal ledge with several mates there incase I get into trouble with a line they can throw me. 

More importantly knowledge of the area and the route, any underwater features you can't see in the murky water etc etc

Shit I'm getting old!

Definitely not going alone! And (at least for the first route we'll try), it's a crag I've been to before, above water that if I just fell into from the top should be fine (~9m above deep water). We're the sort of boring/sensible group that took a throw rope on our first ever trip...

I was slightly surprised one day, sitting in the cave at Cova del Diablo, when a Slovak climber came down the ab rope someone else had set up, without a harness.

He just wrapped the rope under one foot and over the other, and slid straight down. 

I was going to try it next time I topped out, but standing at the top and picturing a 20m rope burn if I failed to control my descent, I woosed out and jumped instead 😁

I should maybe try nearer the ground some time 🙂

Make sure to try Crab Party if going to Portland 

Crab Party (E4 6a)

Superb 😎

Surely if it's deemed safe to fall into the sea from the top of the climb you could just jump into the sea, swim ashore and do the climb?

Your shoes and hands would be wet, so it'd be a lot harder. Also not necessarily that easy climbing out of the water to the start of the line.

Glad to hear, DWS a Swanage shouldn't be taken lightly, Water is still cold even now

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3961144/Solo-climber-26-died-hypot...

Seas pretty good actually. Warmer than usual, presumably because it was a fairly mild winter and warm spring. Have been out dwsing since early June and haven't had that "I definitely don't want to fall in its so cold" feeling at all.

A more comfortable alternative to a sling is an alpine style harness with a threaded buckle. Leave the final double-back loose and it can be released with one hand, and the leg loops just unclip. Knot in the end of the rope so the harness doesn't then slide off obviously.

And there haven't been so many people in the sea, sucking all the warm out of it