- Hey guys!
I'm Miranda with REI and today we're going
to talk about how to put on and
check the fit of a climbing harness.
(upbeat music)
- So, the first thing that you wanna' do
when you take your harness out of the bag
is just make sure that there are no twists
in the harness before you put it on.
On this harness, you see that you have the waist belt,
which goes around your waist,
and then the leg loops,
which obviously,
go around your legs.
What we're looking for is that there are
no twists in any of the elastic
or any of the front part of the harness.
The easiest way to do this is just
to hold it in front of you,
so that the belay loop is facing away from you.
And, make sure there are no twists in the
elastic on the back of the leg loops.
This looks pretty good.
Before you step into the harness make sure
all the buckles are loosened up.
It just makes it easier to put it on.
On this harness there's only one double back buckle,
but sometimes they'll have up to four.
So, two on the waist belt,
and then, two on the leg loops as well.
There are two main ways that people will put on harnesses.
One is just to set it on the ground
and then step into it and pull it up.
The other is just to put it on like pants,
which is what I generally do.
You just step into it the same way that you would
the legs on your pants.
One and two leg loops.
We want the waist belt on the harness
to be over your hip bones.
This is just so that,
in case you were to flip upside down,
you're not gonna' fall out of the harness.
Once I have the leg loops up
and the waist belt on the harness up over my hip bones,
I'm gonna' go ahead and tighten it down.
I'm just grabbing this strap that
comes from one side of the padding
and then pulling it in the opposite direction.
And then, adjust the leg loops.
There we go.
So, now that I have the harness on,
we're gonna' talk about fit.
The most important thing for fit of a harness
is ensuring that the waist belt fits you.
A good way to check this is by grabbing on to the
gear loops and pulling down,
making sure it doesn't go over your hip bones.
Or, you can take a flat hand and insert it
under the waist belt of the harness,
make a fist, and make sure you can't pull it out.
Ideally, when you have the right harness,
the padding on the harness will
be touching or slightly overlapping.
If it's totally maxed out,
you don't get a ton of adjustability,
and it's probably a good idea to try a larger harness.
If the harness is so loose that you have a
significant amount of webbing
showing with no padding,
it can uncomfortable as that webbing
can cut into you while you're climbing.
Like this.
So again,
once it's tightened down and it's the right size,
that padding will ideally be touching
or overlapping like I have it here.
Once the waist belt is on,
we can go ahead and check the fit on the leg loops.
These leg loops are slide adjusters,
but some leg loops will have a buckle,
just like I have up here on my harness.
Some leg loops will be just be fixed leg loops,
meaning that there's no adjustment to them,
but this one, again, has the slide buckles.
I can slide these to tighten it,
and slide them back to loosen it up.
As long as the leg loops fit,
they don't need to be super tight.
They should be snug, but not uncomfortable.
I like to climb with my leg loops a little bit looser,
but, again, that's just up to personal preference.
As far as sizes of harnesses go,
you can get a general idea of what size you need
by checking different brands,
and looking at their size charts,
measuring your body,
and, then, choosing the size that corresponds.
Again, all harnesses are going to fit differently,
so it's a good idea to be prepared to try on
multiple different harnesses.
Now that I have this harness on,
we want to go ahead and do our safety checks.
So, I mentioned this buckle up here before.
Ensuring that the webbing is doubled back.
What that means is that we wanna' make sure
that the webbing runs through both of these metal loops
and comes back in on it itself,
so you have metal showing on the side with the strap.
If you forget to go through the
bottom piece of metal on the buckle here,
the harness can come undone when
you weight it or you sit in it.
Now that we have this closed,
we're just gonna' take a look at it,
ensure that we have that piece of webbing showing here,
and tell ourselves it's closed.
Now, this harness only has one buckle that's double back,
but some will have up to four or more.
Two on the leg loops, and, sometimes,
two on the waist belt of the harness.
You'll wanna' check this before you start climbing,
and also have your partner check their harness
before they start climbing.
You can do this just by taking a look at it,
ensuring that you have that webbing showing,
and tapping it and saying "closed".
These are both closed, because they're adjustable
at the buckle with the slide,
and I'm ready to climb.
Like backpacks, most climbing harnesses
are going to feel comfortable
until you climb in them.
So, it's a good idea to hang in it for a little while
until you purchase it to make sure that it fits you right.
Most REIs will have the ability to do this for you,
so come on down and talk to the experts.
We'll see you at the crag.
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