Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Best Harness for ICE
|
The day has come....The quesiton is posed....what is the best harness for ice climbing? |
|
Blue Ice Choucas Pro is my current favorite: Light weight. Clipper loops and gear loops Leg loops can be put on without removing skis/crampons. Comfortable enough. |
|
I like the Choucas but the Addax is better. Weights basically nothing and is pretty comfortable |
|
I really don't like the ice clipper slots up front on harnesses. I have had screws poke me in my leg, damage my pants and even come unclipped from the ice screw clipper when my leg pushed them up. So I pretty much refuse to use clippers in front of the gear loops on a harness. The old red BD Ice Harness had 6 slots so I could still have 4 ice clippers and not use the front 2. Unfortunately they discontinued it a couple years back. I would also be curious to hear other people's opinions as I might have to switch soon when my current one wears out. |
|
I really like the Camp Alpine Flash. It’s compact and very comfortable. Has good clipper slots, adjustable legs and 5 gear loops. |
|
Blue Ice Choucas Pro is my favorite. Comfortable, good gear loops and ice clippers sits well in the ice clipper slots. |
|
I’ve also had good luck with the camp alpine flash, I used little cord loops between the gear loops so that I could secure some clippers between the gear loops on either side and that setup is pretty much ideal. |
|
Been really happy with my Arcteryx AR-395A, I quite like the clipper locations, and it's low-profile enough that I'm comfortable hiking with it on with a pack. |
|
Interestingly I have tried all the harnesses mentioned so far in this thread. The AR395 was my first ice harness, I tried all the other options and got another AR395. I know some folks really like the alpine flash, and I wanted to but I am 6'3 and 170 and that thing felt like I had hay bale twine around me. |
|
Another Choucas Pro fan. I have bought some Camp Dyons to be more compatable with the small cord gear loops. Ice clipper slots seem to be well located for me on my Medium. Even though the front slot is inside the gear loop. Seems to not be as big a deal as I expected. |
|
A couple more ice harness thoughts: - The BD Technician is the closest thing IMO to a perfect do-everything harness other than the Arc'teryx AR395 (I personally found it to be more comfortable too, especially in the leg loops). It has large-ish gear loops (same size as the Solution Guide/old Chaos, although I do wish they stuck out a bit further), 4 total ice clipper slots (2 in front, 2 in the middle), rear gear loop, haul loop, and adjustable legs (I prefer fixed leg loops but whatever). Weighs the average for a fully featured harness: 376g (less than the AR395) - The Mammut Sender also looks like a very nice harness, especially for ice climbing. 4 ice clipper slots, 2 large molded front gear loops, 2 flexible rear gear loops (would work well when wearing a pack) haul loop, fixed legs, and a very popping orange color that will look nice in photos against blue ice lol. Lightweight for a fully featured harness: 320g - The Edelrid Helios also has 4 ice clipper slots, don't know much about it though. - The CAMP Alpine Flash looks like it would tick the checkboxes for ice climbing, but I don't like the half circle gear loops (gear gets all bunched up), and I could see how it could be a bit uncomfortable. - BD Zone is similar to the regular Solution harness (just a hair thinner and lighter - 307g, but nearly as comfortable), but significantly more versatile with a rear gear/haul loop and 1 ice clipper slot on either side (in the middle of the gear loops). It would work well for an ice harness if you only climb with 2 ice clippers, or you could add additional ice clippers with a universal ice clipper. - As mentioned, the Arc'teryx AR395 and C-Quence both have good ice climbing capabilities, with large gear loops etc. 4 ice clipper slots. Personally I found the C-quence to have its gear loops positioned too far back for rock climbing, but that might actually put the front ice clipper slot in the perfect position, and the rear slot still accessible. Both models are rather expensive and hard to find though, and nearly always out of stock. 3 Additional thoughts in general on harnesses/ice climbing harnesses - Once you get rid of the 4 ice clipper slots requirement, lots of harnesses open up as possibilities: CAMP Impulse CR, Petzl Sitta, etc. For that matter, any harness can become an ice climbing harness with the addition of a universal attaching screw racking carabiner like: Petzl Caritool Evo, Camp Hub, Edelrid SM-Clip, DMM Vault, Grivel Carryabiner etc. Interestingly, in Petzl's new revamp of some of their popular harnesses they seem to have ditched the ice clipper slots (except on the Sitta), and are promoting them as "Compatible with the Petzl Caritool Evo". If you are just getting into ice climbing, or ice climb infrequently, buying a couple of those is the cheapest way to convert a harness into an "Ice climbing harness", although I do say I prefer the security and stability that sewn ice clipper slots generally provide compared to the universal attachment ice clippers. - On ice clipper slots on front of the gear loops: These slots are often criticized as positioning the screw too far forward and prone to stabbing your thigh. Depending on how the harness fits and where the gear loops are positioned, this can be somewhat true. However, I find that ice clippers positioned behind the gear loops in the back of the harness are prohibitively hard to get to, esp when wearing big layers, so I'm not sure where you would position a second ice clipper slot on each side. Generally, I find that on steeper ice the front clipper slots work well for me, but on lower angle ice when I'm leaning forward more they do tend to position screws in the way a bit. Steep ice is when I need to carry more screws anyway, so it kinda works out to where I use the front and middle clippers when carrying more screws, and only the middle clippers when carrying less screws. - On ultralight harnesses like the Blue Ice Choucas Pro: I have and love this harness for glacier travel, ski mountaineering, and some very easy alpine climbing. It would certainly work for ice climbing especially when wearing layer to provide a bit more padding, and because you generally (hopefully) aren't whipping. However, if I was getting a harness to climb long and involved pitches of alpine/ice, I would prefer a beefier, more typical climbing harness for the comfort and support (especially if you are racking a lot of rock and ice pro). But in the same vein as the Blue Ice Choucas Pro, the Edelrid Prism Guide also looks sweet and virtually identical. The BD Vision harness is also somewhat in this category as an ultra light weight yet still fully featured harness (although I believe it is double the weight of the Choucas Pro/Edelrid Prism Guide). |
|
The camp impulse cr4 is a good ice harness. It has 2 clipper loops maybe more I’d have to get it out to look. The Beal eclipse is a good harness, with clipper slots. It has a double buckle front so easy to center. |
Tim N wrote: I have both the Mammut Sender and the Blue Ice Choucas Pro. The downside to the Sender is that two of the four ice clippers slots are bad with a round pice of material that makes the ice clippers sit poorly in them. Both harnesses are comfy and Choucas Pro in haning belays is not a problem for me. I can also tradclimb with a double rack on the Choucas Pro without thinking about the gear loops. |
|
Has anyone tried the Blue Ice Cuesta ADJ? Looks like it has adjustable leg loops, 4 ice screw clipper slots, and is reasonably light (310g) It's about time I put my old BD Xenos harness to rest |
|
Blue ice has a harness called the halo coming out next spring for ice and alpine |
Eliot Hack wrote: https://9cprofessional.com/products/halo-climbing-harness |
|
How is the petzl sitta for ice? |
akafaultline wrote: As long as you don’t have hanging belays or use DMM Vault ice clippers, the Sitta works pretty well. I wouldn’t buy it specifically for ice climbing, but you can make it work. The loops that hold the ice clippers in place seem to be relatively fragile compared to other harnesses. If you plan on loading up your ice clippers with heavy loads (e.g., ice tools or 4+ screws, I would use something that attaches around the waist belt, and is not held in place solely by the ice clipper loop. |
|
Don't buy any Petzl harness for any purpose. The gear loops break. This has been discussed on other threads. |
Paul Morrison wrote: I must have missed those threads-I’ve loaded my Petzl harnesses and ice clippers to the max-never had any problems. |
Paul Morrison wrote: Oh shit, I just bought a Petzl Sitta for ice an alpine stuff. Are they really that bad? Is it just the gear loops? |
