Out of all the pieces of climbing equipment (climbing shoes, helmets, carabiners, etc.), climbers arguably spend the most time wearing a climbing harness. Standing around at the crag, hanging at a belay, plus all the time on the wall actually climbing adds up. The last thing a climber wants is an uncomfortable harness that distracts from the experience of climbing.

Here, we hope to provide you with a comprehensive climbing harness guide to help you find the best climbing harness—one that you forget you’re wearing and has all the features you need to succeed in whatever your climbing pursuit may be.

For this article to be of use, it’s helpful to know what type of climbing you’ll be doing, so that you can select a harness that is best suited for your discipline of choice.

But first, let’s discuss the basic structure of a harness.

WAIST BELT

This goes around your waist (surprise, surprise). Some harnesses have tons of padding and a wide waist belt, while others are super minimalist with more of an emphasis on keeping the overall weight down. This part of the harness is meant to rest on the top of your hip bones.

LEG LOOPS

Some are adjustable, some are not. If you are looking for a versatile harness for both winter and warm weather climbing, we’d suggest going with a harness with fully adjustable leg loops.

BELAY LOOP

Some of our lightweight, high-performance harnesses have our patented Infinity Belay Loop, which eliminates carabiner shift when belaying or hangdogging. Others, like the Long Haul Harness, have two belay loops, while others still, like the Couloir, have a simple, lightweight loop that is used for rappelling.

GEAR LOOPS

Are you carrying a triple rack or a single dog draw? Having an excess of gear loops on your sport climbing harness is overkill, while cramming a rack of cams onto a harness without enough gear loops isn’t ideal either. The type of climbing you’re getting into will dictate the number, size, and material construction of gear loops on your new harness.

HAUL LOOP

Need to clip a tagline to your harness? Not sure what that means? Some types of climbing, like sport climbing or climbing in the gym, don’t require a haul loop (usually). If you’re climbing big walls or multi-pitch routes, you’ll probably want a harness with a haul loop, or at least a fifth gear loop in the back so you can clip a tagline or a haul line to your harness.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLIMBING STYLES

SPORT CLIMBING

If you’re mostly focused on sport climbing, you’ll probably want a harness that is lightweight and comfortable. Long belays, full days at the crag, and time spent working your project all require a harness that ideally you forget you have on. The Black Diamond Zone is your best bet for day-in-day-out sport climbing. If you’re looking for something even more lightweight, the Black Diamond AirNet Harness is ultralight and highly breathable, which is great for gym climbing or redpoint burns.

THE ALL-AROUNDER

Maybe you are on the hunt for a harness that can do it all on rock. Meet the Black Diamond Solution Harness. This is your do-it-all harness. Featuring four large loops, a fifth low-profile loop, and comfortable Contour Edge waist and leg loops, this harness is equally at home cragging in Indian Creek, sessioning the sport crag in the Southeast, or climbing long routes in Red Rocks. The Solution is even up for alpine missions on occasion.

ALPINE CLIMBING

Built for the four-season climber who wants a harness that provides both versatility and comfort on steep ice or rock, the Black Diamond Recco Vision AirNet Harness is the ticket. Blending the lightweight construction of our airNET with adjustable leg loops, four ice clipper slots, five gear loops, and a RECCO® Reflector is an alpine and ice climbing machine.

BIG WALL

The Black Diamond Long Haul Harness is our big wall-specific climbing harness. Though it’s a bit bulkier than most of our other harnesses, this thing is seriously comfortable. If you’re going to be on a wall for multiple days, this is the ticket to avoid getting battered by your harness. It also has tons of space for gear with five molded gear loops, plus a fully rated haul loop as an extra safety feature.

CONCLUSION

Picking a harness is a key decision for a climber; it’s the foundation for almost all climbing disciplines. Whether you want to spend your days projecting sport climbs, clipping bolts and single pitch climbing, or want to place your own gear with multi-pitch trad climbing, or summit high peaks that demand technical skill, picking the right harness is vital.

We offer more tips for climbing, like what to wear climbing, and how to build your first trad rack.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Jackson is a writer and editor based in the Sierra Nevada. She loves granite and being in the mountains, and has spent most of her adult life obsessed with rock climbing in all of its forms.