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.
Structure of a climbing 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. Others, like the Long Haul harness, have two belay loops, while others still, like the Couloir, have a simple, lightweight loop that is mostly 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 tag line to your harness? Not sure what that means? Some types of climbing, like sport climbing or climbing in the gym don’t really require a haul loop. 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 that you can clip a tag line or a haul line to your harness.
Different Harnesses for Different Climbing Styles
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 Solution is your best bet for day-in-day-out sport climbing use. If you’re looking for something even more lightweight, the Black Diamond AirNet harness is ultralight and highly breathable, which is great for the gym climbing, or redpoint burns.
The All-Arounder
Maybe you are on the hunt for a harness that can do it all. Meet the Black Diamond Zone harness. This is your do it all harness. It’s equally at home cragging in Indian Creek, sessioning the sport crag in the Southeast, or climbing long routes in Red Rocks. The Zone is even up for alpine missions, with five gear loops and two ice clipper slots.
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 Technician harness is the ticket. Adjustable leg loops, four ice clipper slots, five gear loops, and a haul loop provide all the features needed for most mountain outings.
Big Wall Climbing
The Black Diamond Long Haul harness is the latest version of 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.
Make Sense?
Finding the right harness can take some time and some trial and error. If you can, come into one of our stores to try on a few different models so that you can understand the differences in climbing harness fit and comfort for your own body. Plus, if you climb consistently, and branch out into different styles, you’ll want to try out different models and find the one that suits each climbing style best.
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