Harnesses

A climbing harness will last a you a number of years under normal conditions and a can be an almost invisible companion or a constant reminder of a hasty decision. Spending some time finding the right one to save hundreds of hours of potential discomfort.

Where do you start?
All harnesses have to pass international safety standards, and most are suitable for most types of climbing so unless you have a specific use in mind your first consideration should be fit. A well fitting harness will support your weight around the thighs and lower back without causing pain in any particular place. It will also hold your body in a seated position, at rest and during a fall, with leg loops and waist belt sharing the load. Due to everyone's unique anatomy a thickly padded harness is not necessarily the most comfortable, and can often inhibit movement.

If the harness does not fit and too much weight is being supported by either legs or torso, you will feel like you are either lying down or standing up.

Gender
In recent years many more gender specific harnesses have become available with some manufacturers producing almost every model in men’s and women’s versions. The main differences between a men’s fit or unisex harness and a women’s one are the ratio between the size of the waist belt and the leg loops and the rise (the vertical distance between the waist belt and the leg loops when the harness is being worn). Although most women will tend to find women’s fit harnesses more comfortable, no two people are alike and you should never rule out a harness because of its supposed gender suitability.

An insufficient rise is often indicated by a belay loop which is under tension while the wearer is standing.

Which buckles?
Although buckles might not be an obvious place to start narrowing down your selection, consider how many times you will use them over the lifetime of the harness before making a snap decision. Broadly speaking there are two buckle systems, and climbers disagree on which is better.

• Traditionally all climbing harnesses were secured by threading a length of tape through a large alloy buckle three times. Threadback buckles offer more security but take longer to use, require a sequence of precise actions to ensure safety and can be difficult to work with in adverse conditions.
• However over the last couple of decades the market has moved towards sliding buckles. In practise the newer system works very much like the buckles found on rucksack straps: pull the strap to tighten, lift the buckle and gently feed the strap to loosen. Sliding buckles are very quick and intuitive to use regardless of conditions or numb fingers, but need to be kept an eye on as they can need re-tightening over the course of a day. Brands have their own name for their sliding buckles: Speed Adjust, Ziplock, Slide Lock, DoubleBack, etc but they all work on the same principle.

Every manufacturer has guidelines on how much spare tape should be coming out of the buckle when you are wearing it (typically between six and ten centimetres). If there is any less the harness is not safe and a larger size or a different model is required.

Leg loops – Fixed or Free?
Some harnesses have adjustable leg loops, others are a fixed size (usually with some elastic for something of a compromise). Leg loops are similar to the waist belt in that having them too loose or too tight can both cause discomfort (although there is a greater margin of error).

• Generally adjustable leg loops are more useful. If your body does not conform to the dimensions that the designers had in mind, fixed leg loops are often simply the wrong size. If however you find fixed legs loops which fit you perfectly and you are only ever going to climb indoors or in good weather, then saving a few grams and having two less buckles to worry about may actually be very appealing.
• Adjustable legs allow for extra layers for climbing in cold weather, or other factors you might not have considered (severe dehydration can reduce the size of your thighs). Being able to completely undo leg loops is especially useful to winter climbers, for whom getting large boots through a fabric loop is tricky at best.

If you can easily slip four fingers between harness and leg then the size is about right.

What features do I need?
Most modern harnesses come with a good set of standard features: four gear loops for carrying a trad rack, adjustable leg loops and elastic retainers which can be easily undone for calls of nature. Beyond that extra features will be down to personal preference, or for those who know that they will be doing a lot of one particular climbing discipline.

What features do I want?
All manufacturers design systems to make gear easier to access, but they are all different. Some use gear loops which are rigid and stick out to the sides of the harness, some make them just off horizontal so that gear slides forwards and some harnesses feature up to seven gear loops. This sort of decision is down to personal preference and experience, but specialist needs are less flexible.

Winter climbers should consider whether a harness can accept ice screw racking devices such as the Grivel Espresso. Big wall climbers may be interested in full strength haul loops, and dedicated sport climbers may be interested in having two instead of the standard four gear loops to save weight. In short if you don’t know what it is, it is very unlikely that you need it.

Specialist designs
There are certain environments which demand specialist features and design which make harnesses unsuitable for everyday use. All excel in their specific use, and can be substantially cheaper, but make a poor choice for everyday climbing.

• Alpine harnesses are typically very light and easy to put on and remove, but unanatomical in design and a poor choice for taking leader falls at the crag. Some do not have a belay loop at all, and require a special karabiner or a knotted loop of rope for the purpose. Models include the classic Black Diamond Bod range and the Camp XLH 95, which at only 95g does not offer much in the way of padding.
• Often similar to alpine harnesses are centre harnesses such as the DMM Centre Alpine, so called because they are designed for maximum practicality and safety in an instructed session. They are often bulky, very uncomfortable and can lack a separate belay loop and gear loops.
• Full body harnesses, although not often seen in the climbing environment, are essential for those who do not have defined hips for a harness to catch on. This can be applicable to young children, large adults or pregnant women. Special care must be taken with children to ensure that the shoulder straps can not be ‘shrugged off’ while climbing.

Making your choice
Manufacturers vary in their estimation of the safe working lifetime of a harness, from as little as three years to a potential ten. If you are buying your first harness it is difficult to anticipate where climbing will take you in five years time, you may have become an aid climber or you may have become a boulderer.

For most people an all-around harness with a separate belay loop, four gear loops, adjustable leg loops with retainers which can be undone will see them through almost everything.

Buying online
By following the Size Guides, available for every harness on the website, you can pick the right size from the comfort of your own home. Simply measure your waist (above your hips and below your ribs) and your legs (just above midway up your thighs) and find the size that corresponds to the figures. Make sure that your measurements are not at the extremes of sizes of any size, or you may find that your harness is not safe for used over lots of warm clothing. Do not be tempted to compromise by wilfully buying a harness for which your legs or waist are too large or small, there are many models out there and one will fit.

Ideally every customer would come down to the Rock Room in our Hathersage branch to try on, and be suspended in, a range of models, but we do regularly sell harnesses over the internet to satisfied customers.

When to retire a harness?
The parts of the harness which come into contact with the rope are where the most wear is found. Check your tie-in points and belay loop regularly for excessive ‘furring’. If your harness features a wear indicator, retire it when it has worn through. While harness failures are virtually unheard of, the relatively small cost of buying a new model every few years easily outweighs the risk. Where possible keep your harness away from sunlight, heat, acids and alkaline substances. For further information see the BMC Retiring textile equipment article.