Video: Pick the Right Rock Climbing Harnesses

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Learn what types of harnesses are best for rock climbing and how to choose the right rock climbing harness in this free instructional outdoors video.

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Video Transcript

So, now we're going to go over some basics of the harness and how to put it on. This is your basic sit harness. It's made out of nylon like most of the ropes used in rock climbing. It's got some basic parts here. It's got the leg loops which go around your legs, the waist belt which is going to go around your base, your waist. Some other points to be aware of is the belay loop. This is kind of a power point. This is your attachment to everything you're going to be attached to. Then, it's got these gear loops which we use for attaching any gear that you're going to use later on when you're climbing. Now, the way this is designed is so that when you fall the rope is going to get you here and the leg loops are going to catch your legs so that the fall is as comfortable as it can be. They used to use just things called swami belts which is basically tying the rope around your waist. You can imagine if you fell and it was only tied around your waist how uncomfortable and even dangerous that could be. Now we're going to put on the harness. So, you can see it naturally falls into, you can imagine how that's going to go on, the leg loops and the waist belt. So you're pretty much going to hold it out. Step one leg through. It's kind of like putting on underwear. You just pull it up. Make sure every thing's comfortable. Then, you're going to want to tighten this waist belt as tight as it comfortably can be. And on this design, these clasps right here make the process of double backing irrelevant. What you would do on an old fashioned harness is when it was through this, you would actually take your nylon loop and put it back through so that it looks like that. And that's when it was safe. But, on most modern harnesses they've got these auto double backers. So it, just the belt goes through once, comes through and it's automatically fastened. It's not going to go anywhere. You want to tighten up over the hips. So, if you were going to go upside down, you're not going to come out of it. The same thing with the leg loops. The tighter those are the more comfortable it's going to be to hang in your harness. Which is important if you fall off or if you want to repel down.

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Pick the Right Rock Climbing Harnesses

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