hello guys and girls,

i in the market for a new harness. and i have couple of questions:

1. I want more a mountaineering oriented harness, except the adjastable leg loops (for clothes layering) what else should i be looking for?
2.what am i loosing rockclimbing wise when i buy a mountaineering oriented harness , yes of course it will be a bit havier . what else?
3. what models can you sugest? i have been looking at the Petzl's Adjama and the BD's Xenos or Aspect.


thanks alot

Petzl Adjama is a good all around harness. I use mine for rock climbing, alpine climbing and mountaineering. If I were to get a mountaineering specific harness, I would get something lighter such as the BD Couloir or Camp AIR.

Generally, a mountaineering harness doesn't need padding, a simple webbing harness will work. The clothing you wear is padding enough and unless you fall in a crevasse you shouldn't be hanging or even rapelling too much. I find gear loops to be very handy if my pack's hip belt doesn't have them. Fully releasable leg loops are nice for dropping trou or pulling on pants without taking the harness off.

My first harness was a lightweight mountaineering one. I got the lightest they had in the store at the time, and it has no padding. Very uncomfortable if you fall, and unpleasant for serious rappelling too, but in mountaineering you should hardly ever fall, and kind of the routes that I climb usually don't require sustained rappelling.
When I started dabbling a bit with rock climbing, I bought another harness, this time a nicely padded one. Weight hardly matters, but especially on top roping, falling is all part of the game if you want to push it.

So now, depending on what I plan to do, I decide which harness to pack. Since that's mostly alpine stuff, I mostly take the lightweight one.

yes i have checked those lightweight mountaineering harnesses and they look good but i dont think they will be really uncomfortable for rock, ice or belayes in which you need to put your weight on the rope. i think that kind of harness is only good for "walking around" on ridghes or glaciers .

so i started narrowing down the options and i got to this:
Petzl Adjama
Black Diamond Aspect
Black Diamond Xenos

those 3 look almost the same for me in the terms of features , construction, weight .
am i missing something .
does anyone has experience with those.


p.s

The outdoor gear lab website gave the Petzl Adjama a much higher rank then the BD's aspect.

Like I mentioned above, I have the Petzl Adjama and like it quite a bit. I use it for everything; cragging, alpine rock climbing, sport climbing, ice climbing, alpine climbing, mountaineering, aid climbing, walls. It certainly is not perfect for every type of climbing, but it works pretty well as an all around harness.

thanks EB, the adjama is curently in my 'must checkout list' .

2 questions:
1. What makes a good alpine harness ?
i am trying to make a check list so i can eliminate the endless possibilities: this is what i came up with until now:
*comfortable
* ice clipper slots
*not "big wall /aid climbing" harness weight?

2. How important is adjustable leg loops for you in your alpine harness?

For mountaineering you could get a sport climbing harness nice and light but no comfort for light weight and comfort and one hell of a price tag check out the harnesses Arc'teryx, they do sport harness weight with trad harness comfort. And to your questions, in terms of adjusting the leg loops for an all round harness it's pretty important also a alpine harness often dosnt need to be comfortable due to the fact that you wont really be hanging in it much and you will have layers on acting as padding the classic is the BD alpine BOD but the better alternatives (and lighter) are the Petzl Hirundos Harness or Camp Air Harness or you an check out Arc'teryx's harnesses i believe they have an ice climbing harness perfect for for alpine climbing.

im sitting at work and surfing in the summitpost forums (yes this happens sometimes) and 2 questions poped into my mind

1. Is there any normal way to climb ice in a harness that does not have ice clipper slots? because i feel this issue gets neglected on the gear reviews websites. i mean how do you carry your ice screws? i think clipping the screw holder on the gear loops is very uncomfortable.

2. still waiting for your input about alpine climbing in a harness without adjustable lep loops. i have been reading the outdoorgearlab reviews and they believe that alpine climbing does not require adjustable leg loops and i ask my self . hmm is there a point there?

Mammut's new Zephir Altitude is ultralight (lighter than BD Couloir) and still manages to have 4 ice screw slots, adjustable leg loops and prethreaded buckle. Way too light for rock climbing but perfect for glacier and alpine stuff.

I usually carry my screws pre-clipped to the draws that they'll be used with, hanging from gear loops. Screw clipped to the biner that's clipped to the loop. If I think there's good odds I'll need to place a desperate screw, I'll clip one or some ice screws to a biner run through the clipper slots- last thing you need when you're legs are doing the sewing machine is to fumble around with getting the ice screw detached from the draw before you can efficiently screw it in. But I know someone who lost a couple screws when they de-clipped themselves from the ice clippers, so for general alpine purposes, I'm sort of paranoid about using clippers.

Adjuma's a great harness.. compared to some others I've used, the leg loops are just too much of a pain in the ass, for alpine use, for me. I have a shitty condition that makes me need to shit all the time, so I really appreciate the fastex buckles on both the loops, and the loop risers, on my CAMP Blitz harness.

I do sometimes wonder about those fastex buckles, though... they're part of the leg loop. Are they rated? How do they get away with a plastic buckle on a load-bearing part of the harness?

Ben Beckerich wrote: so I really appreciate the fastex buckles on both the loops, and the loop risers, on my CAMP Blitz harness.

I do sometimes wonder about those fastex buckles, though... they're part of the leg loop. Are they rated? How do they get away with a plastic buckle on a load-bearing part of the harness?

This mystified me the first time I saw it, too. I don't own a harness with fastex buckles on the leg loops, but I think the answer is that all such harnesses have the leg loop webbing that continues up to the waist belt on the outer side, like a BD Bod or Alpine Bod, rather than a separate leg loop not sewn to the waist belt. In a fall the weight is borne on a loop of webbing that goes down from the waist belt, around the backs of both thighs, and through the lower tie in point. Like a Swiss Seat, not that I've ever used a Swiss Seat either. IOW, the fastex buckles aren't fall-bearing, they just keep the harness from coming off. That is my rationalization.

I just put the Blitz on and tried to figure it out- and indeed, the leg loops connect to the swammie at the hip as well as join together at the belay loop- so even if the buckles weren't buckled, it would still bear your weight.

But man... you'd lose your balls. Ouch.

Funny... The blitz is essentially a diaper harness. I never noticed.

Big +1 for the CAMP Blitz. I have the BD Couloir for mountaineering and a different one for sport, and like the Blitz for almost everything except sport. It essentially the Couloir, but with actually usable gear loops.

i dont have Camp harnesses here at all.
either BD or Petzl.

so.. went to all of the stores - my choices are narrowed down to:
1. Petzl Adjama.
2. Bd aspect.
3. Petzl Corax.

although the Adjama is supposed to be Petzl's premier Alpine climbing harness it only has 2 caritool slots while the corax and the aspect has 4 each. i dont know if i need 4 slots tough. from the other hand i think the new petzl tech. this Endoframe is supposed to make it more comfortable. also the Adjama is 100g lighter.

help .

also- what should i be loking for in a good alpine climbing harness . and i dont mean one of those lightweight mountaineering ones like the BD alpine BOD . because i plan to climb ice and rock in it as well.
i curently have-not too heave, slots for ice clippers . comfortable - on my check list