Arborist harnesses are designed to allow an arborist to safely move around and work in a tree. Because tree work involves a lot of three dimensional movement, it must allow an arborist to easily move around a tree while carrying equipment and still provide comfort to the user.

A few key differences between an arborist harness and other types of harnesses include:

Durability: Equipment used in tree work is subject to a lot of abrasion and must be durable enough to withstand this type of abuse. Because heavy equipment such as chainsaws are often hung from an arborist harness, these types of harnesses have more padding on both the waist and legs than other types of harnesses.

Attachement Point: Harnesses used for rope access and rock climbing have a main attachment point at the front waist. These attachment points are fixed on the harness and make it difficult for the wearer to rotate their body. Arborist harnesses use a “floating bridge” design. This bridge, made of specially designed rope, is attached on both sides of the harness. An O-ring slides along this bridge to allow the wearer to turn their body. This O-ring is used as the main attachment point on the harness to connect climbing equipment.

Warning: We do not recommend improvising a “floating bridge” type of attachment to a normal rope access harness. Side attachment points on a rope access harness are not certified for shock loads such as those encountered in arborist work. Since the bridge represents a single point of failure, the rope used for the bridge is also specially designed with advanced materials and includes an indicator to alert the user when it is time to replace the bridge.