Rock Wall Climbing Harnesses 101

If you're new to this thrilling adventure called rock wall climbing, you're probably looking for the right gear. One of the most important things every climber needs is a harness. It's essential for your movements and safety, therefore, it should fit you perfectly and allow you to move without any problems. Before you start checking rock wall climbing harnesses, here's what you need to know about its most important features.

What You'll Use The Harness For?

This is the first question to ask yourself when seeking a climbing harness. If you're in need of a harness to cover many bases of the sport (trad, sport, winter, indoors) then you will have to be a bit more compromising. But if you're going to use the harness for one discipline, you can be much more specific.

If you think that you'll use the harness for climbing during fair-weather, but might try to use it in winter as well (if the situation allows), and get a bulky harness, that's fully adjustable, then sorry to break it to you - but you're compromising. Get the exact thing you need for the exact thing you want to do.

Source: vdiff.com

Things to Consider

Fit and Construction

Your harness should feel comfortable and must fit well. The waist belt should rest above the hips and the leg loops must be secure but comfortable. Your rock wall climbing harness will fit correctly if you can get your middle finger between the leg loop and your leg. Also, it should be easy to walk around in and feel no rubbing, discomfort or other big restrictions. Be sure the buckles don’t dig into your flash when you are sitting down. A poorly fitting harness feels uncomfortable and can also be potentially dangerous. When sitting in the harness you should be upright and not leaning forward. If it fits right around 75% of the load will be taken through the leg loops and 25% through the waist belt.

Source: rockclimbeveryday.com

Waist Belt

All harnesses have a similar design - a leg loop system (which is often detachable) attached to an adjustable waist belt. The waist belt construction ranges from a simple “Alpine style” webbing and individual double-back buckle. Both are often used as group/hire harnesses because of their simplicity and durability. They can also be a heftily well-padded arrangement with two “auto-locking” buckles. If you are going to be using (and loading), the harness regularly then you'll need a padded harness. The best comfort levels are often achieved by matching or contouring the padding to the load-bearing webbing or tape. This avoids the unpleasant digging-in, which is the case in some cheaper brands.

Source: billjackson's.com

Leg Loops

Leg loops are the second most important feature of a harness. These should fit well without making you feel uncomfortable during your walking, sitting, squatting and climbing.  Even though it's a common belief, you don't have to get a fully adjustable harness (adjustable waist belt and leg loops). And even though this may feel appropriate, most of the time it's an unnecessary encumbrance. Simply be specific on what you'll need the harness for. Most modern fixed leg loop harnesses include an elasticised cinch or hybrid buckle to help take in marginal slack and give that extra room for manoeuvre. They also adapt to a pair of shorts in the summer or base-layer bottoms with thicker pants in winter.

Source: sendedition.com

The Rise

The rise is nothing but the distance between the waist belt and the belt loops. This is a crucial feature of harnesses that dictates the position in which you'll b held in the loaded harness. If the rise is too long you'll be pushed forward in the harness; if it's too short you'll lean back. In both cases, you will be overloading either the waist belt (if it's too long) or leg loops (if it's too short).

Women’s harnesses often have a longer rise and larger leg loops compared to the waist belt; slender women with a shorter rise may easily get standard men's/unisex harnesses (and they often will fit them better). Let's not forget the elasticated rear double strap, which connects the leg loops to the waist belt and the back of the harness. Non-load-beard helps the harness hold its shape and fit the body when it's unloaded. Some of these are removable at one end, which is a great trait if you need to go to the toilet with the harness on.

Source: trueclimbinggear.com

Adjustment

The adjustment used to be a debatable thing, because of the fact that most harnesses utilised a standard double-back buckle to adjust all points on the waist belt and leg loops. Recently the “auto-locking” buckles are doing the job; they're used by most bigger manufacturers. Both types of the buckle are entirely safety and CE complaint, but the advantage of the new “auto-locking” style is that it's impossible to forget to thread it completely, and it’s an obvious benefit for climbing in colder climes where fiddling with buckles is a real challenge. Another thing to remember with it comes to auto-locking buckles, is to be sure the loose end is always tucked into the elasticated loops provided. This will control loosening when the harness is not loaded.