Review Results

Comfort

Harnesses are meant for wearing for long periods of time, so one of the big tests is how it feels when hanging for extended periods. Testers spent considerable time climbing in and hanging in each harness as well as spending a set amount of time hanging from an indoor wall to try to accurately guage each harness’ comfort level. While many harnesses have various claims as to how their new or unique construction helps distribute weight the best, it was the traditional nylon and padding construction of the Metolius All-Around that won. Coming in a close second were two harnesses that use some of that more unique construction and look similar; the Beal Rebel and Arc’terxy AR-395A.

Adjustability

Harnesses come off and on, sometimes several times in a day, and their ability to be adjusted with ease and in a smooth fashion can be a big draw for many climbers. Most harnesses today use so-called speed buckles that don’t require the traditional rethreading of the nylon to double back the harness. Those buckles aren’t all created equal and the Petzl Sitta’s DoubleBack HD buckle drew the highest acclaim among testers for its smooth operation and sleek construction. Other harness buckles fared well but lacked the same smooth and easy adjustment of the Sitta’s.

Gear Loops

Gear loops come in a variety of forms with different materials, shapes and features but they all serve the same function of providing access to gear. During several field days with these harnesses, testers experienced various degrees of ease or difficulty accessing gear and making use of the gear loops. The large, contoured gear loops found on the Singing Rock Penta were popular because they protruded from the harness and made clipping and unclipping gear as easy as any gear loop tested. Tying with the Onyx were the gear loops on the Petzl Sitta, which were smaller than the Onyx’s but provided similar easy access and feature a nifty movable gear organizer that allows the most OCD climber the ability to dial their setup.

Features

Today’s harnesses offer a number of features that can appeal to climbers, whether it’s something that makes them unique, do something really well or serve across a wide platform. One feature of interest to testers was ice clipper attachment points and many harnesses include these in some form or number. The Metolius All-Around lacks those attachment points but offers great security by having all of the points on the harness built to high strength, including 9kN rated gear loops. The C.A.M.P. Air offers a unique slot on the belay loop to keep the carabiner from moving and becoming cross loaded during use. For the Arc’teryx AR-395A, testers appreciated the wide number of features that made it a suitable harness for a wide range of uses as well as being both durable and compact. Sharing the award for best features with the AR-395A was the Petzl Sitta, whose unique construction makes for a compact and breathable harness. The Sitta’s waist belt and leg loops eskew the traditional nylon and instead use strands of Spectra, making it one of the lightest harnesses on the market.

Versatility

While some climbers may end up with a number of harnesses in their arsenal, one for sport, one for long routes and one for ice, many climbers may opt for a quiver of one harness. Testers gauged the features and function of each harness to rate its versatility or its ability to be used across a wide range of climbing genres. The Arc’teryx AR-395A won this category as the most well rounded harness tested. Good comfort, easily adjustable buckles on both the leg loops and waist belt, five gear loops that worked well but can be converted to a slim profile and ice clipper attachment points helped the AR-395A draw favor with testers. Close behind were the Mammut Zephir Alpine and C.A.M.P. Air. Both demonstrated that a harness can work great for certain endeavors like ice and alpine climbing but can have the functionality in terms of comfort and effective gear loops that can give a harness greater versatility.

Weight

The trend in the climbing world has been to make gear lighter and lighter and harnesses are no different. One advantage to a lighter harness, in addition to weight savings, is that many of those ounce shaving efforts also make harnesses more compact and packable. Plus, who doesn’t mind saving a few ounces off their load? The Mammut Zephir Alpine was the lightest harness tested, check in at 8.8 ounces. It was followed close behind by the Petzl Sitta at 9 1/2 ounces. A number of harnesses were in the 12 to 14 ounce range while the Metolius All-Around was the heaviest at 19 ounces.

Review Conclusion

Our test results came after dozens of days of field testing on desert towers, limestone sport climbs, long alpine routes, and freezing through cold belay sessions while ice climbing plus hours in the garage hanging in harnesses, trying out buckles and clipping and unclipping gear. After arduous testing, much debate and averaging out opinions; the Petzl Sitta came out on top, followed closely by the Arc’teryx AR-395A. Both offer well thought out and useful features. Testers loved the versatility found in the Mammut Zephir Alpine and C.A.M.P. Air. Popular with the sport climbing crowd were the Beal Rebel and Singing Rock Onyx. Finally, the safety conscious features on the Metolius All-Around make it a fine harness and it was the most comfortable harness to boot.

Test Methods

For testing, we put these harnesses on dozens of climbers with varying experience levels and interests. Taking their feedback we were able to come to some consensus about how each harness performed. We spent a lot of time taking harnesses off and on and talking about buckles and their ease or difficulty of use as well as how smooth they worked. We also looked for signs of slippage, which can be a cause of concern even though all of the nylon straps tested had some sort of backup in the form of a sewn