Which harness to buy

We will discuss some of the attributes of a climbing harness that are most important, and walk you through a step by step buying process based upon which type of climbing you intend to do most often. If you want to know which harnesses are the best and the ones that we recommend, check out our Best Climbing Harness Review.

While the advice presented here will likely work just as well for women as it does for men, we also have a Women's Climbing Harness Review. If you are new to climbing and don't have a harness, then you will need to buy one. It's one of the first pieces of equipment a beginner will need to buy, along with shoes and a belay device.

Any sort of roped climbing requires the climber and belayer to both have a climbing harness, so the only type of climbing that one can do without a harness is bouldering.

If you cannot afford a harness immediately, then bouldering in a gym can be a fantastic way to practice climbing, and gain necessary strength, before taking up roped climbing. All climbers need to have their own climbing-specific harness. For those new to the sport, it is important to realize that other forms of safety harnesses, such as those designed for tree climbing or trimming, construction work, or other high angle work or rescue applications, are not suitable for climbing.

In general, harnesses will all have the same basic features: two leg loops, a waist belt with one or two auto-locking buckles, a belay loop that joins the leg loops to the waist belt, and gear loops along the sides of the waist belt for clipping in gear. These features will be found on every climbing harness.

There are several features found on harnesses that are optional, and the different combinations of these various features tend to dictate what a harness will be best used for. These include adjustable buckles on the leg loops, number, and size of gear loops, ice clipper slots that accommodate adding on ice clippers that hold ice screws or tools, wear indicators on the belay loop, or extra buckles on the waistband for added adjustability. Below we discuss which feature sets tend to work the best for each style of climbing, and you can find out what features a harness includes on its individual product page.

Almost anyone who has any interest in climbing has probably seen the old Sylvester Stallone movie Cliffhanger. The opening scene, in particular, is unforgettable and is the stuff of climbers' nightmares : A woman performing some unfathomable Tyrolean traverse thousands of feet above the ground panics as the buckles of her harness inexplicably snap and disintegrate, causing her to fall right out of her harness before Stallone comes to the rescue, holding onto her outstretched arm with one hand before his strength fades and she inevitably slips into the void and falls to her death.

Rest assured newer climbers; this scenario is not going to happen to you! Harnesses, like all climbing gear that is part of your safety system — such as carabiners, belay devices, ropes, slings, bolts, cams, etc. While carabiners and other climbing gear may have a specific force in kiloNewtons kN that the gear has been tested to printed or stamped on them, harnesses instead have a numerical CE standard that they must adhere to, and this is printed on every harness you can buy, usually on a white fabric tag.

It is probably not worth knowing the exact force ratings a harness is rated to, and indeed this is not even easy to find or look up, but suffice to say that as long as you use your harness correctly, it is plenty strong enough to survive the forces put upon it.

There are three important parts of every harness that meet safety standards: the waist buckle, the belay loop, and the tie in points on the waist and leg loops. Waist buckles need to be doubled back as they all are automatically in the designs we have tested and must have at least a three-inch long tail of webbing. The belay loop and the tie in points that the belay loop is looped through are the only strength rated attachment points on a climbing harness.

What this means is that you must tie in or belay through the two tie in points, or the belay loop, and any other part of a harness is NOT strength rated. Tying in through only the leg loops, or through the harness waist belt itself, or into any of the gear or haul loops is not safe! Always be sure your waist buckle is doubled back correctly, and you only tie in and belay through the tie in points or belay loop.

See our cookie policy. Stores Login. Shopping cart. Share this Share. Harness Components. Leg loops These are adjustable on most harnesses for the best possible fit and comfort, as well as to accommodate different clothing layers.

Buckles Buckles will be located on various points of the harness, to allow you to customise the fit according to your size, and your clothing. Gear loops Gear loops are used to attach your rack to; many harnesses have 4 loops, but some more advanced models will have more. Haul loop The haul loop is a small loop on the back of the waist belt, used for trailing a second line.

Belay loop The belay loop is the strongest part of the harness, and as such will have been load tested. Tie-in point Tie-in points are two loops connected to the belay loop, which are used to connect your ropes. Date September 14, Skip to content Skip to navigation. Skip to main content Skip to content navigation Close navigation.

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To help you find the best rock climbing harness for you, here are some things to think about: What type of climbing are you doing? How should a climbing harness fit? Do you need other gear? Shop climbing harnesses. Harnesses for different types of climbing The first thing is to think about is the type of climbing you plan to do, so you can choose a harness with the features you need. Gym and sport climbing.

Trad and multi-pitch climbing Trad climbing and multi-pitch climbing means carrying more gear than on a sport climb or in the gym. Ice climbing. Alpine climbing and mountaineering. Some climbing harnesses have two buckles — one either side of the belay loop for better adjustment. The main advantage of these is that there should be no way that you forget to do them up and they undo or come loose. Most harnesses also have elastic so you can tuck the loop ends in and out of the way.

Older single piece buckles such as the one below on the right require you to tighten the harness first then double back as seen in the top and bottom parts of the image. Most manufacturers do not sell these as there have been fatalities where climbers forget to double back and the harness comes completely undone i.

Leg loops come in two flavors — adjustable or fixed. Fixed loops are one size but normally have a small elastic component where the buckle would be, meaning they should fit snugly to the wearer. Metal buckles allow for adjustment but are a fraction heavier — though some harnesses like the Black Diamond Momentum in the parts diagram have plastic adjustable pieces that make a good in between option.

If you wear the same clothes and climb the same style — i. If you switch styles and might try some ice or alpine where bulkier, warmer pants will be needed, or you might need to switch clothing between pitches like on a multi day big wall adventure — adjustable will be helpful.

Personally I prefer to have adjustable leg loops as I have larger thighs compared to my hip size. I fit a medium harness for my waist perfectly but fixed leg loops in medium are too tight. Test the fit of a harness by clipping in to your belay loop or tying in to your tie-in points, and hanging on your weight for a while. Most good climbing businesses or gym shops will let you do this before buying. Try sitting back to test the waist loop, then sitting forward to try out the leg loops.

Comfort on big falls and long projects is really helpful so take a few minutes and compare different harnesses. Now also try moving around, lifting your leg up, pushing against a wall, and simulating some climbing movements. If you are going to use a lot of heavy trad gear this is an important test. Women tend to have shorter but wider hipbones. This normally means that the waist belt is worn around the waist and above the hip bone.

This means a larger distance between the leg loops and the waist belt for more comfort. Also expect more pink. Trad or traditional climbing is where you take protection like cams and nuts up to slot into the wall for protection instead of fixed bolts and quickdraws. You might need more gear loops and bigger ones to carry the extra equipment needed with trad. You should also think more about comfort as placing gear and setting up anchors takes time. The best climbing harness for gym use is often the best harness for outdoors too.

Four gear loops is the standard and will do you fine for most climbing types. Made of nylon and normally covered in plastic, the molded type tend to push out from the harness for easier clipping and unclipping of quickdraws and other gear. Some loops angle forward so gear is closer to hand.