The Best Climbing Harness For Women Review

The first question is whether you want a women's specific harness or not. The difference between a women's and men's harness is usually a slightly different- shaped waist belt and different colors. Otherwise, there are generally not huge differences. Since no manufacturers makes all models in both men and women's versions, you will have to decide if you only want a women's harness and therefore smaller selection. Or are you willing to consider a men's harness in certain models and therefore have a bigger selection of harnesses to choose from. For example, the following popular models do not come in women's versions: Petzl Corax, Black Diamond Chaos, Metolius Safe Tech All Around and there are many more.

Comfort
The biggest factor in comfort is width of the padding. Every harness company says they have a special way extract more comfort from less material, but in the end the most comfortable harnesses have the widest and thickest padding. The one exception is when a harness does not fit well. For example, the Black Diamond Chaos we tested did not fit the testers as well as the Black Diamond Aura and many climbers found the Aura more comfortable. We were all blown away by how cool the Arc'teryx R280 is with its almost "padding free" design. When standing around and climbing, it doesn't feel like you have a climbing harness on. However, when hanging around in it for a long time, this harness's cool, slim profile digs into the sides and legs of the testers more than with other harness. Arc'teryx did create a revolutionary cool new harness, but they can't escape the basic equation: more padding equals more comfort. One of the most comfortable waist belts is on the Camp Jade CR and you guessed it: big comfy padding. Two harnesses that stand out for light weight and comfort are the Black Diamond Aura and the Mad Rock Alpha. Both of these are surprisingly comfortable for how light they are, especially the Alpha that costs only $60.

Many of the more expensive harnesses use fairly fancy new padding designs to reduce weight and increase ventilation. Petzl was one of the first to do this with their Frame technology. This system puts the strength of the harness at the edges and allows for great ventilation in the middle of the waist strap and leg loops. But it is the old school, normally fuzzy material on foam that often leads to the most comfy harnesses, an approach demonstrated by Black Diamond Primrose AL.

Gear Loops
Gear loops are not a big factor in harness preference because they all work fine; none is unacceptable. That said, some stand out. Our favorite gear loops are rigid ones like those on the Arc'teryx and Black Diamond. The Arc'teryx R320 is our favorite because the gear loops are easy to clip, hold a ton of draws and are positioned forward. The Black Diamond had awesome gear loops… until they broke. On our Chaos harness we snapped part of the plastic, which made them less perky. Metolius gear loops have a great combo of being easy to clip, super strong and very durable. Overall, we do not like front and rear gear loops that are separated by a space for a special plastic ice screw biner. This is great for alpine climbing, but for rock climbers it means your rear gear loops are further back and harder to clip. Petzl switched in the last few years to non-plastic gear loops. Most gear testers found the forward Petzl gear loop easy enough to clip but the rear loop is not easy because it is flat and has no structure. Petzl says this is so you can wear a pack comfortably, but to us the trade-off is not worth it.

Buckles
We prefer harnesses with self-locking buckles (also called "speed adjust buckles" and "DoubleBack buckles"). While some buckles work smoother than others, they all work good enough. The only women's specific harness that does not have self-locking buckles is the Black Diamond Primrose AL. If you pay another $10 you can get self-locking buckles with the Black Diamond Primrose SA The Primrose does not come in a model that has a self-locking waist with non-adjustable leg loops.

Adjustable Leg loops
None of our reviewers prefers adjustable leg loops. That includes an alpine guide who is supposed to say adjustable leg loops are mandatory in the mountains (read How We Test). We tried to put our bias aside and so adjustable leg loops were not a deal-breaker.

In general, we find that harnesses with fixed leg loops feel more comfortable than those with adjustable leg loops. Harnesses with fixed leg loops usually have some elastic that allows the leg loop to stretch. Adjustable leg loops generally don't have elastic so you have to decide if you want to tighten the loops and have them firmly against your skin or a little looser. There is not the middle ground you get with elastic.

One thing that stood out with leg loops was how cleanly the extra webbing tucked away. For example, the CAMP Jade CR tucked away very nicely. We preferred self-locking buckles for the legs which most harnesses came with (or you could pay extra to get).

Leg Loop Elastic Release
This is one area where harnesses really differ. Women who want to quickly release the elastic will find a big difference between harnesses. The Petzl harnesses have our favorite hook-style leg release that attaches to the waist. It is easy to undo and only a little fussy to re-attach. Petzl has the lowest profile single hook system of all we tested except for the Arc'teryx. However, we couldn't get the Arc'teryx to release while we were wearing it – either a design flaw or a bad harness batch. The [[CAMP Jade CR] had an easy-to-release and low profile hook. Because The CAMP latch attaches at the leg loops, you can see where you are reattaching the elastic (as opposed to waist attachments where you have to feel for the attachment point). That said, with leg attachments you have elastic that dangles in the "wipe zone," so you have to manage that by holding it to the side (awkward) or tucking the elastic into the harness (best option). On the less expensive Primrose Black Diamond harnesses it is easy to release the plastic buckles. But on the more expensive Black Diamond harnesses like the Aura, they use a system that is low profile but not easy to quickly get on and off.

Weight and size
Although climbers are obsessed with all things light, harnesses are one area where we testers restrained ourselves. Even the heaviest harness doesn't feel that heavy. And generally the lightest harnesses are not that comfortable. However, if you are into alpine climbing and count every once, it might be worth going with either the Camp Air, which folds into the palm of your hand and weighs a mere 8.4 ounces, or the Petzl Hirundos. But neither of these come in womens models.

More important than weight was fit and feel. For example, the Arc'teryx R280 is not the lightest harness, but it feels the lightest because of its fit and and design. Most of our gear testers, after putting on the R280, said, "Wow, it doesn't feel like I'm wearing a harness at all." It is one of the easiest harnesses to compact and put in a laptop bag, which makes it convenient for taking to the gym if you bike and need to save space. The Black Diamond Aura/Ozone and the Mad Rock Alpha also feel extremely light yet are still comfortable.

Safety Features
Many of the harnesses have extra safety features worth noting. The Metolius Safe Tech (no surprise) has a number of features designed to "idiot proof" against clipping into the wrong spot. This is nice, but the Safe Tech is missing one of the biggest safety features a harness can have: a self-locking buckle on the waist that makes it really hard to forget to double back your harness. The Camp Jade CR has a number of safety features, including a belay loop that makes it nearly impossible to cross-load the biner. It also has a "wear alert" on its tie-in points that shows red when you have worn through the first layer of material and it is time to replace the harness. This feature is also on the Wild Country harness. Petzl has taken its great safety illustrations to the next level – they now print them on the harness. Specifically, the belay loop had an illustration of how to properly tie in (very cool).

The Bottom Line
BEST HARNESS - EDITORS' CHOICE
The Arc'teryx R280 pulled ahead because it was comfortable, light, and looked great. The thin construction mad this harnesses sleek and sometime we forgot we had it on. We also gave the Petzl Selena an editors choice award because it looks great, scored highly, and was very easy to release the leg loops. It was also half the price of the Arc'teryx. R280.


BEST HARNESS - BEST BUY
Just as the Black Diamond Momentum took Best Buy in the Men's category, the Black Diamond Primrose AL takes best buy for women's harnesses. For $50 you get a great harness with tons of features. Unfortunately, this harness does not come in a model with fixed leg loops (only adjustable leg loops available). If you want fixed leg loops, check out the Petzl Selena which costs another $16 but scored higher.

THE BEST HARNESS FOR EACH APPLICATION
If we had the option to buy a harness for every application, here is what what we would get:

Best Sport Climbing and Gym Harness: Arcteryx R280
Best Trad Climbing harness: Petzl Selena, CAMP Jade CR
Best Alpine Harness: Petzl Luna