I have always been intrigued by riggers belts, and have seen numerous people wear them. I always put them in the "looks neat but not really a necessity" category for me. However I was recently reading a survival story where one of the difficulties the person had when being rescued was getting the rescue harness on that had been dropped to him. I immediately thought that the riggers belt may have been useful in that type of situation.

So for those of you in the know about climbing and rigging gear, are these belts useful as a means of last resort, and if so, are any of the various ones out there (Brigade alone has three different ones) better than the others?

Yes they can be used! It would not be comfortable but as a last resort who cares! I like my Wilderness brand enough to have several of their products. The Wilderness

The Wilderness sure gets great reviews. The only other one close is the Tactical Tailor. What other products of theirs do you have? I hate to waste shipping on one item. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I've got a wilderness belt also, wouldn't use it when I'm climbing, but as a just in case and as a belt it's perfect.

Their Frequent Flyer Belt and their Safepacker Holster. The FF is not as strong as the Instructors Belt but it breezes right through TSA’s BS.

The real use of rigger's belts is to clip in with a short lanyard to avoid falls, not to catch falls or rappel. Taking a fall onto such a belt is pretty much not a real option. Rappelling down a steep but not vertical face, like a road embankment, is doable but not comfortable.

I use a Wilderness 5-stitch 1.5" model as a CCW belt because it provides great support for the gear.

Good call on the Wilderness belt SheepDog, mine came today. It seems appreciably better than ones that I've seen others wearing. Word of advise, buy it big as they suggest on the web site. I have a 34" waist and bought a size 39 and it's just right.