Black Diamond Solution Review

This harness performs well in the most important testing metrics around comfort and mobility. When you need to be comfortable hanging, making acrobatic moves, falling, and belaying your partner at the sport crag, this harness excels. If you need more versatility for other types of climbing, the Solution is less attractive.

Performance Comparison

Hanging Comfort

The Solution is among the most comfortable harnesses on the market for extended bouts of hanging. While rappelling, taking a climber's weight while belaying, or hang-dogging, this harness spreads the user's weight equally between the waist belt and the leg loops. The wide, supportive construction of these components prevents pressure points and provides a comfortable hanging experience. Sport climbing involves a lot of hanging, either working out the moves on a difficult route or holding your partner's weight while belaying them on their project.

The super wide leg loops found on the Solution do a better job of preventing loss of circulation than any of the others we tested. BD's “Fusion Comfort Construction” employs three bands of very thin webbing spread out evenly across the width of the waist belt and leg loops, efficiently dispersing the pressure generated by hanging or belaying in the harness. While it pairs a thin layer of EVA foam with some breathable mesh to complete the setup, this foam layer is nowhere near as bulky as that found on other high-performance harnesses. The result is a harness that is comfortable to wear when hanging and also provides great mobility.

Standing Comfort and Mobility

When it comes to climbing, standing around, or walking around the crag, this harness is very comfortable to wear. The leg loops and waist belt are contoured to fit the body's curves, eliminating areas where the harness flaps off of the body. These loops hug the skin, and the connecting straps don't limit the range of motion. The fit almost never catches your attention, which is a good thing. When loaded up with quickdraws, the waist belt doesn't sag, and the low-profile design is comfortable to wear when wearing a pack. While climbing at your limit, mobility is key, and this harness won't hold you back when you are pushing the grades.

The riser bungees are slightly tight when raising our legs as high as we can, although this never affected us while climbing. Similarly, with its fixed leg loops, the stretchy elastic provides a slightly snugger fit around our upper legs than we would have if we had the option of adjusting the leg loops ourselves. These issues are minor and don't prevent us from recommending this harness for acrobatic sport climbing and gym climbing.

Features

The Solution is a minimally featured harness to maintain a simple setup for sport and gym climbing. It has fewer features than nearly any other harness, but we think they all perform excellently. Its single auto-locking buckle on the waist works fabulously, and we also like its heavily reinforced tie-in point, which is usually the first place to wear out on a sport climbing harness. We also like how easy it is to clip quickdraws to the rigid plastic gear loops.

If we have any complaints, it would be that the four gear loops are all relatively small. Each gear loop holds about eight full-size carabiners, meaning you can bring 16 quickdraws up a climb using just the front gear loops on each side. The rear gear loops hold about six carabiners each, which is plenty for carrying some extra draws up those long, rope-stretching pitches or a personal anchor lanyard for cleaning routes with ring anchors. However, the gear loops don't have enough room for a full trad rack and slings for harder trad climbing. It also lacks ice clipper slots for winter climbing, and its haul loop is not as large or easy to clip as most others.

Versatility

While this harness excels at sport and gym climbing, it lacks the versatility necessary to be an all-around workhorse. This is due to the small gear loops and lack of ice clipper slots. If the gear loops were larger, this harness would be suitable for trad and multi-pitch climbing, but as it stands, this harness remains an excellent sport climbing and gym-specific harness that advanced users will appreciate. If you are looking for one harness that can do it all, look elsewhere.

The Solution's fixed leg loops and small, unrated haul loop further limit the versatility of this harness, meaning it isn't useful for big wall climbing or climbing in cold weather where the user might wear thick layers on the lower body. This harness is best purchased by someone who spends 90% or more of their time at the sport crag or in the gym. It can be called into service for a bit of trad cragging or ice climbing, but it's not an optimal choice for those disciplines.

Adjustability

The Solution offers a wide range of adjustability in the waist belt but does not have adjustable leg loops. It does, however, feature elastic leg loops, which help the harness fit a variety of thigh sizes. These leg loops seem to work for most users, ensuring a comfortable fit for most body types. Still, other users may prefer the increased adjustability of other harnesses with leg loop buckles.

Since this harness is designed specifically for sport climbing and gym climbing, users probably won't be wearing bulky clothing, hardshell pants, or multiple layers underneath this piece of gear. This means that the slight decrease in adjustability due to elastic leg loops isn't as much of a problem, and we never found ourselves wishing for more length adjustment.

Should You Buy the Black Diamond Solution?

We love this harness for sport and gym climbing, and if you only climb in these disciplines, this is the best harness for you. This is a great choice if you climb all disciplines but want a niche harness for your sport climbing days. It is relatively inexpensive, making it easier to justify purchasing a sport climbing-specific harness, and we think dedicated sport climbers pushing the grades might even feel a performance enhancement while climbing in this harness, compared to a heavier and bulkier all-around harness. But, if you are looking for one harness for all climbing disciplines, you should look elsewhere.

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