TRADITIONAL MOUNTAINEERING ™
www.TraditionalMountaineering.org ™ and also www.AlpineMountaineering.org ™

™

FREE BASIC TO ADVANCED ALPINE MOUNTAIN CLIMBING INSTRUCTION™
Home | Information | Photos | Calendar | News | Seminars | Experiences | Questions | Updates | Books | Conditions | Links | Search

  Search this site!
Read more:

What is the best climbing harness for traditional alpine mountaineering?

The best traditional alpine mountaineering climbing harness differs from the trad rock climbing or bolted route sport climbing harness in several ways.

The alpine harness is usually carried in the backpack to the "advanced base camp" or bivy, often miles into the wilderness and often carried in the summit pack until needed for the technical snow, rock or ice sections of the climb to the top.  Light weight and small bulk for stowing in the pack are needed.  Simplicity and foolproof safety features are required.

The alpine harness is sometimes carried just a little too long by the confident mountaineer who must then put it on in somewhat dicey conditions a bit ahead or behind companions.

The sport climbing harness can be as cushy and complex as desired, as it is often only carried or worn for the short walk from the rig to the wall. The sport harness is usually put on in a convenient social situation with others present for the experienced companions check of each other for mistakes.  (No kidding, I once observed a well equipped but nervous SAR newbie trying to don a chest harness, confusing it with her sit harness.)  Sport harnesses can be very fancy and expensive.

Experience tells us to do a "hands on" check of the swami buckle system and fit. Dig under your companions gore tex, pull on the harness to see if it is tight enough and visually and manually check to see that the harness swami belt is woven back through the steel buckle (see the BD  instructions)

The latest Black Diamond Alpine Bod™ Seat Harness

I recommend the Black Diamond Alpine Bod™ Seat Harness, It retails for about $34 and weighs about 12.2 oz.  See the photos. You may have to ask for this harness by exact name and manufacturer because the more expensive sport climbing harnesses will be featured by the store and sales people.  Black Diamond (BD) also makes a padded model, the "Bod Harness" which sells for more and is heavier and bulkier than the Alpine Bod.

There is a huge improvement in the latest model Black Diamond Alpine Bod Harness. (This feature was pointed out by one of the participants at our last Winter Mountaineering Class at the ECO. I rushed right out a purchased the new model harness.)

The very important feature: you first fasten the swami belt correctly and tie in and then hook up the leg loops!  No more balancing on one foot to put your crampons through the leg loops, or sitting on the hard snow, only to slide on your butt silently away! Experience tells us too, that this simple and light new harness is great for "zoned out" Adventure Racers. See our photos of the X-Adventure Raid Race in Bend, Oregon, where almost every racer needed our help in putting on their harness!

Be sure to size the Alpine Bod Harness for your bod and the season.   The Alpine Bod comes in sizes xs, s, m, l and xl. The belt must tighten above your hip bones so that you can not squirt out of the harness if you are stopped hard, up-side down.   (Read the BD instructions!) 

The Alpine Bod Harness does not have a belay loop so you will have to have room next to the buckle for your big locker and your medium locker which capture both the swami belt and the sit part of the harness.  (Read the BD instructions!) 

The buckle on your harness can come undone if you do not weave the belt back through the buckle.  Highly skilled climbers notoriously have died when they failed to weave the belt back through the buckle.  Black Diamond harnesses have special buckles with tabs to enable you to spread the buckle apart as you weave the belt back through.  Be sure at least two inches of belt extends beyond the buckle after reweaving.  (Read the BD instructions!)

The leg loops must be reasonably snug as they are designed to distribute the force of a fall to your pelvis and to keep the (swami) belt from riding up and compromising your breathing. Sitting in even the most padded harness for long is not an option - your circulation is compromised; you are more prone to become hypothermia.  (Read the BD instructions!) 

I received an email question from Australia asking how long a person could hang in a harness without suffering physical problems. I recalled for him an accident on Mt. Hood when a rope of climbers began to fall on The Cleaver. They were held by the female guide by a single heroic ice axe arrest. Many hands rescued the rope of climbers, but one man had died from hypothermia while hanging with circulation impaired for a long time in his harness. A Spelunker friend emailed me information about hanging for hours on rappel in a harness in caving and included a list of Cave Harness models sold by Petzl. (If the reader is interested in this subject, send me an email and I will get you in touch.)

I do not think the lack of padding is a problem for this harness in general winter mountaineering due to the normal padding by winter clothing. If summer "rock climbing" ascents are done, the more padded BD Alpine harness might be better. Most general mountaineering does not involve the possibility of hanging for a long time, in the harness.

The Alpine Bod now uses quick release plastic fasteners instead of buckles on the small straps that hold the leg loops in the right place under your butt. This enables you to put on the harness while standing in skis or drop your drawers for a rest.  The quick release plastic buckles do not appear to compromise the feasibility of using a light locking biner through the wide leg loop for connecting a Franz Bachmann friction knot to the tail of the rappel rope to control the runaway speed of a rappel even with wet, skinny single ropes. (Quality Control at Black Diamond emphasizes attaching the locking carabiner to the 2 inch wide strap that goes under your butt and not on the one inch strap with the plastic buckle.) Note: always extend your rappel device on a 24" runner girth hitched on your harness to the locking carabiner.

The Alpine Bod Harness now comes with gear loops.  If you have an older model, you can add some by threading accessory cord through the loops provided.
(Read the original BD instructions.)

I use a very light weight "stuff sack" to hold my Alpine Bod Harness, racked with the gear I will need for a particular summit.  Size the bag large enough so that your tech gear is not a hard lump in your summit pack, but rather a shapeless mass that will conform to the other stuff you are carrying.  A harness and minimum gear can weigh bulky pounds; consider going Light and Fast - Fit and Experienced, with just the rope and some simple traditional mountaineering techniques.

Copyright© 2000-2007 by Robert Speik. All Rights Reserved.

Warning
The brief notes above are only meant to point you in the right direction. Read the manufacturers instructions. Do your own research and learn to use your gear with an experienced person, practicing techniques on belay at the local crag with friends before lugging it up the hill to attempt a technical peak. --Webmeister.

The climbing harness was introduced by the Chouinard Catalog of 1972.
Hans Mariacher in 1978 after his FA of Hatschi Bratschi (5.9, 750m) did not have a harness.

See the 1972 Chouinard Catalog!