Hammock Safety?

[Pict]

A few weeks ago camping with my son I had a catastrophic hammock failure at 4 AM. Fortunately due to the available trees I was only about 1.5 feet off the ground when the planet rose up and smote me. The hammock (Hennessy Expedition Asym) didn't fail but the limb (actually a fork in the trunk) I had tied off to did after holding secure from 8 PM until nearly dawn.

In this case the head end let loose and I landed on flat ground covered with grass, no injuries. In all it was a best case scenario for having a hammock let go. The offending tree and broken limb are at the far end of the photo. For the second night I had to use the other fork which put me all of 3 inches off the ground when in the hammock. There was nowhere else to go out there that would allow us to camp together. I had to make it work.

I couldn't prevent my mind form reproducing a similar fall in many places I have hung up for the night. In one patch of jungle covered slope I regularly use my head is a good six feet off the ground while I have to crouch down to get in through the bottom vent of the Hennessy.

This was home Saturday night and due to the location I had to hang the hammock about as high as I could and still get in it. This was the first change in venue since my rude awakening and I will admit to spending an inordinate amount of time controlling my imagination of a five foot fall to the rocks below.

Has anyone here ever rigged up a secondary suspension system as a fall back when forced to use a location with "kenetic potential"?
I'd be interested in your thoughts and experiences.

Mac

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Hi pict,

I'm happy to say I have always been lucky enough to have the choice of several trees when out for the night and the furthest me and my mates have had to pitch apart is about 20 feet.

I'm not Sure how much a secondary system would help in your situation as it would need to be anchored to something solid, especially to deal with the shock of one side of the hammock giving way, in which case I would just attach the hammock to that in the first place.

I can seem to find it but there was a thread on here a while back about setting up a hammock with one tree and a pole system on the other side (a bit like using walking poles to set up a basha) which may well suit the circumstances you describe.

I did make the fatal mistake of attaching the ends of two hammocks to the same 6" tree once due to limited conditions and spent the night going from almost touching the ground to the hammock being fully tight each time one of us moved!

Hamster

 

[Teepee]

Glad your OK Mac!

Stories like this are good reminder of what can happen when our super comfy beds succumb to gravity.

I'm on my 7 or 8th fall now, but none from failure. Two have been 6ft drops but they were into snow

An Alder I was tied to in storm, went really wobbly after one of the main roots snapped and I think about that night often. One of the neighbouring trees blew down that night, I'd have been in trouble if mine had gone.

As far as site selection goes, I always like to hang over soft ground and do my best to avoid anything under me that would impale or cause major damage. A 6ft drop onto flat ground would hurt, let alone hitting a rock or stump
I also don't like hanging off anything under 5 or 6" diameter and will look at lashing to neighbouring supports to reduce the lateral forces, I'll do this with non-stretch cord like dyneema and webbing. I've only had to do this once though.

I have to say I'm a lot more careful now I'm using a single layer hammock, there'll be no warning if it starts to rip

 

[Pict]

I was fortunate at Saturday's location that I had two actual trees. Usually in such close proximity to the rock outcroppings it can be difficult to find two a reasonable distance apart. I've considered using rock climbing wedges. I'm not a rock climber so forgive any lack of correct vocabulary, they look like assorted size keystones on cable loops. Rock climbers trust their lives to them and I don't doubt they would hold a hammock. One serious advantage of a hammock here is that it gets me off of very nasty ground, unless it fails and gets me into it in a big way.

 

[PDA1]

Looking at your photographs, it looks to me as if your suspension cords are tied out fairly close to horizontal. This places enormous strain on the cords, and the anchoring tree limbs. You need 25-30 deg from horizontal to get strain on EACH cord down to body weight. at 10 deg strain is nearly three x body weight, and at 5 deg, 5x body weight. In addition, the trees in the top picture look very spindly to me. I wouldn't use them

 

[The Cumbrian]

If you're often in the vicinity of crags and outcrops, then a small assortment of Rocks and/or Hexes on rope or tape could be very useful. The ones that aren't being used could also be used to extend any suspension lines. As an alternative, do some research on the way that climbers used to protect cracks before the invention of man made chock stones; they used to put a sling around a suitably sized pebble or stone and wedge that in the crack. I've used the technique when I've ran out of the correct size Rock or Hex, or when I've been ice climbing with ice screws and found somewhere to place some protection on rock.

Cheers, Michael.

 

[tinderbox]

Has anyone here ever rigged up a secondary suspension system as a fall back when forced to use a location with "kenetic potential"?
I'd be interested in your thoughts and experiences.

Mac

Not as good an idea as you might think. If one fails the second will be shock loaded, although it can spread the load between the two attachment points. When setting up belays climbers look for three points of protection, and "equalise" the strain between the three. That way if one fails the load is then spread between the other two, but the are not shock loaded. If you have one good placement it's a bad idea to add a marginal second one. Once you have two solid placement a marginal third is worth having. If all you have are marginal placements take as many as you can get so that load is spread among them.

 

[Harvestman]

Don't pitch above anything that you would be worried about landing on.

Like you, all my hammock failures have been the tree, not the hammock kit. This just means I have learned to be more careful what I attach to.

 

[Pict]

Most places I go here I have my options for where to hang up and can usually find trees that inspire confidence. I live in a transitional zone between tropical forest and open desert-like country and even in the open country prefer my hammock to sleeping on the ground. If you have options with the trees they usually come with a steep grade. If you have nice ground you don't have many options with the trees. If you need flat ground for a tent, good luck with that.

The shock loading is a consideration. I'm mostly concerned that I often have to set up with my head end much farther off the ground than my feet due to the slope, far enough that a fall would be bad no matter what was down there.

 

[Native Nathan]

Don't pitch above anything that you would be worried about landing on.

Thats the way I play It

 

[Imagedude]

If I was forced by some uberpowerful alien invasion force to reside in a hammock I would secure the aforementioned sailor bed using a multi-point self equalising 'belay' technique. I'm sure many other people with a background in climbing would also feel more secure when using multiple anchor points. Perhaps I'll experiment with self equalising hammock suspension at the Moot, if I get a spare moment.