Matt,

I just need a good, reliable, no-nonsense climbing belt.

When I'm hanging steps using only my safety harness, I'm stuck unhooking to go over a limb with no safety backup, and sometimes no steps yet installed to hold onto. At 20-25 feet, that makes me a little nervous.

Like you said, using both a standard fall-restraint harness AND a climbing belt, I can always be tethered to the tree by at least ONE of the two devices, even when disconnecting to go over a limb. Also, as you know, the fall-restraint harnesses aren't designed for climbing, so they're a little on the long side, and not very comfortable to hang from. In addition, the belts can be a pain to unhook/rehook, looping them through the buckles, etc. Some of the climbing belts use carabiner hooks, which would be a WHOLE lot easier to use.

The problem is, a lot of the climbing belts on ebay look like antiques, and some others look pretty complicated. I don't know about trusting my life to them. I'm just looking for a reasonable model that's safe and easy to use.