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Climbing harnesses serve as essential gear, both when you’re climbing at the crag and at your local gym. Unless your specialty is exclusively bouldering, you’ll want to invest in a well-fitting harness. The goal is to find one that you barely notice you’re wearing, but you’ll certainly remember it when it catches you on that slippery crimp hold.
Climbing harnesses come in a variety of materials with features differing depending on what type of climbing you’ll be doing. From beginner routes at the gym to multi-pitch ascents, a harness is your lifeline, ensuring that if you fall, you’ll live to climb that route again.
Below, we’ll go over our top picks for the best climbing harnesses, explain who they’ll fit best, and cover a few FAQs when it comes to shopping for a rock climbing harness.
- Best Overall: Arc’teryx C-Quence
- Best Budget: Black Diamond Momentum
- Best for Men: Petzl Sitta
- Best for Women: Black Diamond Women’s Solution Guide
- Best for Beginners: Black Diamond Solution
- Best for Kids: Petzl Ouistiti
- Best Heavy-Duty: Metolius Safe Tech Waldo
Best Overall
Arc'teryx C-Quence
Pros
- Uses Arc’teryx Warp Strength Technology to evenly distribute weight throughout the harness
- Stainless steel quick hook to easily drop leg loops
- Tie-in points and the belay loop are equipped with wear markers
- Made with breathable materials
Cons
- Can be tough to get sizing right
- Less budget-friendly than most of our picks
Product Specs
- Weight: 370 grams/13.1 ounces (men’s medium); 355 grams/12.5 ounces (women’s medium)
- Designed for: rock, ice, and alpine climbing
- Gear loops: 5
Why It Made The Cut
- The thoughtfully designed Arc’teryx C-Quence remains comfortable to wear all day on long climbs with plenty of room for storage for alpine or ice climbing.
Best Budget
Black Diamond Momentum
Pros
- Pre-threaded waist belt buckle for quick adjustments
- trakFIT leg loops can accommodate thicker layers for cold-weather climbs
- Two color options in both men’s and women’s
- Five size options in women’s; six options in men’s
Cons
- Missing ice clipper slots
- Gear loops are on the small side
Product Specs
- Weight: 302 grams/10.7 ounces (men’s medium); 302 grams/10.7 ounces (women’s medium)
- Designed for: sport, gym, and trad climbing
- Gear loops: 4
Why It Made The Cut
- The universally loved Black Diamond Momentum climbing harness is a great bang-for-your-buck harness to use for gym, sport, or trad climbs.
Best for Men
Petzl Sitta
Pros
- Minimalist design translates to a lightweight harness
- Packs down well
- Flexible and thin leg loops and waist belt use Wireframe Technology
Cons
- More expensive than many harnesses
Product Specs
- Weight: 270 grams/9.7 ounces (medium)
- Designed for: trad, sport, and mountaineering
- Gear loops: 4
Why It Made The Cut
- Impressively lightweight with unique technology and great functionality, the Petzl Sitta is one of the most versatile and well-performing men’s climbing harnesses available.
Best for Women
Black Diamond Women’s Solution Guide
Pros
- Large gear loops
- Comfortable for all-day climbs with a well-padded waist belt
- Excels in durability with Black Diamond’s Super Fabric
Cons
- Stiff to walk around with off the wall
- Not as adjustable as some harnesses
Product Specs
- Weight: 362 grams/13 ounces (medium)
- Designed for: trad and multi-pitch climbing
- Gear loops: 5
Why It Made The Cut
- With a higher rise to fit feminine figures, the Black Diamond Women’s Solution Guide offers excellent durability and comfort on the wall for multi-pitch and trad climbing.
Best for Beginners
Black Diamond Solution
Pros
- Uses Bluesign-certified fabric for a more eco-friendly harness
- Incredibly comfortable, so beginners can focus on the climb
- Waist belt uses Fusion Comfort Technology to cut down on weight
Cons
- Small gear loops
Product Specs
- Weight: 330 grams/11.64 ounces (medium)
- Designed for: gym and sport climbing
- Gear loops: 4
Why It Made The Cut
- The Black Diamond Solution offers the perfect trifecta of a rock climbing harness for beginners: It’s comfortable, incredibly functional, and it’s reasonably priced.
Best for Kids
Petzl Ouistiti
Pros
- Full-body harness best for kids
- Buckles are difficult for child to reach while wearing
- Comfortable, padded straps throughout
Cons
- Only fits kids up to 66 pounds
Product Specs
- Weight: 410 grams/15.4 ounces
- Designed for: top rope
- Gear loops: 2
Why It Made The Cut
- The Ouistiti is a well-designed climbing harness for kids that hits the perfect hybrid of a full-body harness for ultimate safety while being comfortable enough to play around all day.
Best Heavy-Duty
Metolius Safe Tech Waldo
Pros
- Four sizes available
- Plenty of gear loops
- Ideal for big-wall climbs or route-setters
- Fleece-lined for comfort and to reduce any chafing
Cons
- Heavy
- Isn’t the best for breathability
Product Specs
- Weight: 794 grams/28 ounces (medium)
- Designed for: big wall or multi-day climbs; route-setters
- Gear loops: 6 (medium and large); 5 (small)
Why It Made The Cut
- With plenty of room for gear, the Metolius Safe Tech Waldo matches comfort with versatility on long trad climbs, and it comes in a wide range of sizes.
Things to consider before buying a climbing harness
It’s possible to buy a cheap climbing harness (in price, not in quality), but others come with a hefty price tag. Before investing in a rock climbing harness, we recommend taking the following elements into account to make sure you’re getting the best gear for your money.
Type of climbing
Climbing harnesses are designed with different types of climbing in mind. Each type of climbing has its own ideal functionality of a harness. For example, a lightweight harness could be best for sport climbing at the gym, while a trad harness is necessary for multi-pitch routes where you’ll be hauling tons of gear.
The first step in deciding which harness is right for you is deciding which type of climbing you’ll be using it for. Do you need something with plenty of gear loops, or is padding for long days on the wall the number one priority? These questions will help narrow down what’ll work best.
Climbing gear budget
When it comes to buying climbing gear, your harness could be one of the cheaper items on your shopping list. Considering it could save your life, it seems well worth the investment. Our top budget pick comes in at under $70, but some harnesses can cost upward of $200. If budget is a consideration, you should be able to find a suitable harness for under $100. If you’re a beginner and the cost of getting started with climbing seems daunting, consider buying your ideal harness and a lightly used pair of climbing shoes to help even out costs (climbing shoes are notorious for inducing sticker shock).
Return policy
On paper, you may have found what you hope to be the best rock climbing harness, but this is pretty comparable to buying a pair of pants. Sure, you get the sizing right, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel great once you try it on. It’s difficult to decide how comfortable (or uncomfortable) a rock climbing harness will feel until you actually climb with it on. Because of this, it could be worthwhile to invest in a harness that comes with a decent return or exchange policy should you decide it’s not the perfect fit.
FAQs about climbing harnesses
Q: Can you rock climb without a harness?
A: Yes, you can climb without a harness. If you’ve seen the award-winning documentary Free Solo with legendary climber Alex Honnold, your palms dripped with sweat as he climbed a massive wall without a harness or rope. But most of us feel a heck of a lot more comfortable climbing with a harness. Should you lose grip of a hold or experience a foot slip, a rock climbing harness is there to catch your fall. It’s also possible to rock climb without a harness if you’re bouldering. Rather than scaling big walls, bouldering is climbing on shorter routes that usually don’t go higher than 15 feet.
Q: Is there a difference between men’s and women’s climbing harnesses?
A: Yep, men’s and women’s climbing harnesses are different. The primary difference is in the rise of the harness, and the distance between the leg loops and the waist belt. Rock climbing harnesses designed for feminine figures have a longer rise when compared to men’s. It’s also common for women’s harnesses to have smaller leg loops, but that’s not always the case, especially if they’re adjustable.
Q: How should a climbing harness fit?
A: The fit of your rock climbing harness is incredibly important to how comfortable you’ll feel while wearing it and also plays into its functionality. An ill-fitting harness could be dangerous and lead to injury if you were to fall. Experts say a rock climbing harness should feel snug but not pinch anywhere. The typical rule of thumb is that you should be able to fit two fingers or less between the harness and your body in both the waistband area and the leg loops. The exception to this rule is if the leg loops have elastic material so the stretch might allow for more room.
Final thoughts
Arc’teryx steals the show with the C-Quence climbing harness which comes in both a men’s and women’s version. Thoughtful design elements like breathable material and a quick hook in the back add to the comfort and convenience.
Methodology
To decide on the best rock climbing harnesses, we looked into 15 brands that make climbing gear. Most of those manufacturers make several climbing harnesses which made for an initial list of 38 harnesses. We then excluded new-to-the-market harnesses since we can’t get a holistic view quite yet of how the harness will hold up over time.
We took into account the purpose of each harness (sport climbing, trad, ice, etc.) and weighed features of each. Since harnesses are often designed for gender, and kids have different requirements, we opted to include a top pick for each.
We also did a price comparison to make sure one wasn’t charging an arm and a leg for standard ho-hum materials. If the price was above average, we made sure the product reflected above-average construction, material, or function. Overall, we narrowed down the list to find the climbing harnesses that offered the best features matched with being comfortable to wear.