Yosemite Valley is the perfect testing ground for big wall climbing harnesses. Whether you're getting your feet wet on the South Face of Washington Column or pushing the Nose-in-a-day, our testing team reviewed four of the top big wall harnesses and determined the positives and negatives within each design. We determined 5 key testing metrics to effectively evaluate the offerings of each individual harness. These metrics include how the harness performed when it came to overall comfort, free climbing, comfort sleeping, gear loops, and included features. We personally climbed in each harness and handed off a few to our climbing buddies to get a better perspective for a wide range of body shapes and sizes. If you're curious how we specifically tested for each metric, read on below.
Comfort
In order to evaluate the overall comfort of each harness, we tried them on with and without gear to determine whether or not the harness dug into our hips as well as whether or not the fit was true to size. A properly sized harness is super important as the fit often changes when the harness is fully loaded with a triple rack of camalots, iron, jumars, etc. We can speak to this from personal experience as we climbed Virginia on El Capitan with a harness that fit just fine on the ground but hung off our waist while on route. While leading the rivet ladder on the headwall of Tangerine Trip, we could fit a #5 camalot in between our waist and the harness which made the pitch feel even more sporty. We'll emphasize it again, fit is important not only for comfort but also for safety. If you can, try on your potential harness in the store and see if there is an option to either hang in the harness or add weight so that you can properly evaluate the harness before you make your purchase.
After appropriately sizing each harness, we then took out our tape measure to take measurements of the overall adjustability of each harness. The two buckle harnesses offer more adjustability and are especially helpful for those body types that have uneven measurements such as a smaller waist and larger legs and vice versa. The single buckle harnesses often feature less adjustability in both the waist and legs. We also measured the widest part of both the waist and leg loops as the wider these measurements, the more comfort is offered due to a greater weight distribution. This is especially important while hanging in your harness.
Free Climbing
If you're only planning on free climbing a few pitches on your next big wall, this metric doesn't really apply. However, for those are pushing the Nose-in-a-day or the South Face of the Column, this metric is more valuable. For those climbers who are trying to go fast and light or free climb an entire route on El Capitan, wearing a traditional sport climbing harness may be the preferred choice to limit overall weight and bulk when climbing at your absolute limit.
Keep in mind that free climbing on big walls is often considered at least one grade harder due to the amount of extra gear that is required in addition to the exposure. For this metric, we evaluated the overall feel and bulk of the harness design, whether or not we felt limited while free climbing and finally if the harness supplied a slim or bulky profile in addition to the weight. Just like most other pieces of climbing gear, the weight of the latest big wall harnesses is trending down, some in this review weigh just over one pound.
Comfort Sleeping
For this metric, we took the general comfort of the harness into consideration and noted the harnesses that also allowed for a good night's sleep. We noted the harnesses with adjustable or better yet, removable leg loops offered the greatest comfort on our portaledge and natural bivies on route. We also evaluated whether or not the harness felt rigid or flexible as well as whether or not the gear loops dug into our hips or laid flat against our body and the ledge for increased comfort.
That being said, Chris prefers to take the harness off completely when sleeping and use a two-inch swami belt (or thinner), so it all comes down to your sleeping style. With this in mind, we asked ourselves whether or not we'd prefer to sleep in the harness that we're testing or take it off entirely and choose the swami option. Our testers were stoked to test each harness during an actual big wall ascent to determine whether or not they could achieve a good night's sleep over multiple days on the wall. We compared each harness side by side and awarded the most comfortable harness with the highest marks.
Gear Loops
Gear loops are such an important part of big wall climbing as a gear loop failure could be the end of your big wall ascent. We evaluated gear loops based on the number of loops offered by each harness, whether or not they were single or double tier, and finally we measured the size of each loop. Our testers concluded that stackable gear loops allow for more gear to hang on the harness, though it also can feel a bit cluttered and difficult to access the gear on the bottom tier. This may come down to personal preference as we also know big wall climbers who prefer to wear a chest harness which also helps to distribute the weight of the gear over the shoulders instead of your waist taking on the entirety of the load.
We also took into consideration whether or not the gear loops were constructed from a molded, hard plastic or if they were fabric. Unfortunately, we've had several friends who were stopped in their tracks during their Nose-in-a-day attempt due to a fabric gear loop failure where all the cams on the loop took a 1,000 foot plunge to the base of El Capitan. It is difficult for us to comprehend why a brand would include fabric gear loops on a big wall harness as all the mandatory wide climbing and chimneys significantly impact the fabric and could cause the loop to fail.
Finally, we evaluated the location of the gear loops and determined whether or not they allowed for easy access to the gear stored on the loop. The harnesses that featured molded gear loops typically offered better durability and easy access to the gear on the loop.
Features
For this metric, we took note of the harnesses that supplied to most feature-rich design. We noted the harnesses that offered ice clips for enhanced versatility, harnesses that offered two belay loops (better yet if they were different colors so that we could more easily identify the loop we needed to adjust), and finally the harnesses that offered a full strength, rated haul loop. We also took note of the harnesses that still feature a hammer holster, however, most modern harnesses are not including this feature. The most feature-rich harnesses received the highest marks in the metric.
Conclusion
Even after countless hours spent evaluating each harness, our testers are hopeful their experience provides some insight into selecting the best harness for your specific needs during your upcoming big wall adventure.