Via ferrata safety equipment explained: helmet, harness and lanyard
Every climber on Via Ferrata Piva wears a helmet, a sit harness, a via ferrata set and a pair of gloves. They’re included in the price, and your guide fits them at the bridge before the start. Each piece is made to a European standard, and the set protects you only if you use it the right way at every anchor on the cable.
The helmet
A climbing helmet protects your head from stones knocked loose by people above you and from hitting the rock if you slip or swing on the cable. On the wall at Piva the group climbs one above the other, so for 80 m everyone below has someone overhead. Climbing helmets are made to EN 12492, the European standard for mountaineering helmets. Ours are vented climbing helmets in bright colours, adjusted to fit your head with a chin strap.
The harness
The harness is a sit harness with a waist belt, two leg loops and a belay loop at the front, made to EN 12277, the standard for mountaineering harnesses. Your via ferrata set is tied to the belay loop, so in a fall the load goes through the waist belt and the leg loops together. The booking form asks for each climber’s height and weight so your guide can bring the right sizes. Before the start the buckles, the knot that joins the set to the harness and the helmet strap are all checked, which the Alpine clubs call the partner check.
The via ferrata set
The set is what connects you to the cable. It’s a Y-shaped lanyard made to EN 958, the European standard for energy-absorbing systems on via ferratas. Two elastic arms stretch while you climb and pull back in when you don’t need the length; on our sets they’re blue, in a coiled elastic sheath. Each arm ends in a carabiner, and the arms join at the energy absorber, which is tied to your harness with a girth hitch.
The energy absorber
The absorber is a strip of webbing folded and stitched into a small pouch. In a fall the stitches tear one after another, the webbing pays out, and you stop over a longer distance with less force on your body and on the anchors. According to the German Alpine Club, the absorber must not start to tear below 1.3 kN, roughly the force of 130 kg hanging still, so it stays closed while you simply lean back on the cable. In the test described by the maker Edelrid, a set has to catch a 5 m drop with no more than 3.5 kN on a 40 kg weight, and stop a 120 kg weight within 2.2 m with no more than 6 kN.
This is why a via ferrata set can’t be replaced by a sling or a piece of rope. A fall onto a sling clipped to a cable can reach a fall factor of 5, according to the British Mountaineering Council, while in ordinary rope climbing the highest possible is 2. Gear without an absorber can break under that load.
The weight range: 40 to 120 kg
EN 958 sets are made for climbers from 40 kg to 120 kg, and the 2017 version of the standard tests them with weights of 40, 80 and 120 kg. The two ends are measured differently: the 40 kg is your own weight without equipment, and the 120 kg includes your harness, helmet and anything you carry. Outside that range the set hasn’t been tested to catch you. The upper end is where our limit of 120 kg per climber comes from.
The carabiners
Via ferrata carabiners are large, with a wide gate that opens easily around the cable, and they lock themselves when the gate closes. Ours are grey aluminium with an orange lever on the body. You squeeze the lever in your hand to open the gate, and it locks again when you let go, which works with one hand and with gloves on.
Gloves
You hold the steel cable and the iron rungs for most of the climb, and gloves protect your hands from the wire and the metal. The ones we provide are black half-finger gloves, which leave your fingertips free for the carabiner levers.
Moving along the cable
The cable is bolted to the rock with a bracket every few metres, and a clipped carabiner can’t slide past a bracket. What you do at each bracket is the main rule of via ferrata climbing.
Keep both carabiners clipped to the cable as you move along it. When you reach a bracket, unclip one carabiner, clip it back onto the cable beyond the bracket and check that the gate has locked. Only then move the second one. The two carabiners are never off the cable at the same time, so if one is in your hand, the other is on the steel. Edelrid notes that the change at a bracket is when a fall would be longest, so take your time over it and finish one carabiner before you touch the other.
You may read older advice that only one arm should be clipped to the cable. That applied to old V-shaped lanyards, where clipping both arms could stop the absorber from working. On a modern Y-shaped set like ours, both arms belong on the cable.
The second rule is about other people. Only one person climbs on each stretch of cable between two brackets, so that a fall can’t knock the next climber off or load one stretch with two people. On the traverse and the wall at Piva the group moves one behind the other, one person to each stretch. If you need a rest, stop on a ledge, a grate or the steel bench on the wall, with both carabiners still on the cable.
After a fall
According to the German Alpine Club, a set whose absorber has torn open in a fall has to be replaced. A fall can still hurt, because the rock and the rungs are close by, which is why the clipping rule is about keeping any fall short.
Weather
The Alpine clubs advise against starting a via ferrata when thunderstorms are likely, because lightning is dangerous on a steel cable, and rain, wet rock and cold make a slip more likely. We don’t climb in thunderstorms. If the forecast for your date is bad, we move your climb to another day, and you can cancel for free up to 24 hours before your climb.
Is via ferrata safe? covers how the cable, the kit and the guide work together on the climb. If you’ve never been on a via ferrata, what is a via ferrata? starts at the beginning.