Chest Harness v.s. Neck Lanyard
If you’ve spent any time looking at different top rope solo systems, you’ve probably noticed two common ways of keeping the progress-capture device oriented correctly: a chest harness or a neck lanyard.
Both can work. But they’re designed around slightly different priorities.
The Chest Harness: rigid and versatile
A chest harness holds the device firmly in front of you. That rigidity is useful when you want the device to stay in a consistent position as the rope feeds through it. This is critical for lead rope soloing when you need a GriGri held firmly in place to autofeed smoothly.
It also happens to work for top rope soloing at a slow reduction in performance. If you're at the crag and mixing some lead rope soloing and top rope soloing, then you could just wear a chest harness the whole time while you swap systems.
Derek Averill using the Avant Chest Harness to LRS and TRS
The tradeoff is comfort - A chest harness is more restrictive, especially when making complex free-climbing moves on either side of a heavy static rope. And you’ll need to make your own DIY connector between the harness and the TRS device.
The Neck Lanyard: built for stretch & comfort
A neck lanyard takes the opposite approach - flexibility.
Instead of holding the device rigidly in one place, it is made from stretchy materials so you can move more freely. Top rope solo devices only need a fraction of the upward holding force compared to LRS devices overcoming rope weight while leading.
There is also "flexibility" in easy adjustment. The universal sizing allows length adjustments with a simple push-button slider. This means you can have one minimal lanyard for your fix and follow kit, which can be swapped between whichever partner is following.
Jordan Cannon's Top Rope Solo setup with the Avant Neck Lanyard
Since the rope stays fixed when top rope soloing, you’re constantly moving side to side relative to it. And, these TRS fixed lines are often heavy. A flexible lanyard allows to do all sorts of climbing movement around that rope, without the devices tugging too hard on your neck or chest.
It’s a small distinction, but it makes a noticeable difference in comfort.
So which should you use?
If you’re building a dedicated TRS system, we highly recommend the flexibility of a neck lanyard.
If you want one system that can serve multiple purposes, a chest harness is the more versatile choice. You give up some comfort and freedom of movement, but you can use it across different rope-solo applications.
There isn’t necessarily a right answer. It depends on what you’re trying to optimize for.
