One of the things that every Air Cav trooper carried with him was a Swiss seat. I carried one of these on my LBE (load bearing equipment) for two or three years,
After the post yesterday, I started thinking about Swiss seats, and wondering if I still remembered how to tie one. Sure enough, I found a piece of rope and hitched up a Swiss seat pronto. It would take a thousand words to tell you how to do it, but through the magic of YouTube, we don't need a thousand words.
Yep, that's how we did it back in the early '70s. You can spend a lot of money for a rappelling harness or you can get a piece of rope and make your own. As for me, I'll go with the Swiss seat every time.
Major D, the tutorial is great but that initial shot of the video link looks pretty grim; having my junk as a hitchpost is a turnoff, I'm just sayin'.. lol
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a firefighter in the '70s, it was common to carry a length of 1" tubular webbing in a bunker gear pocket. Tied in a loop with a water knot, it had many uses, including as a rescue drag, keeping in contact with another firefighter in a smoke-filled building, hose drag, and others. A lot of us learned to fashion a Swiss seat in case it was necessary to rappel out of the upper stories of a building. I still carry the webbing when I'm hunting as it makes a good harness to drag a critter out of the nadgery.
ReplyDeleteI've used a Swiss seat for ropes courses and other high work as much as I have a harness, but I'm quite rusty on how to tie one. I need to review this closely.
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