New 2026 climbing gear

UKC First look 

YouTube link above to new 2026 climbing gear. 

Seemingly very little innovation, sans the ohmega.
I do think its cool Troll is making its way back to market.

Thats pretty cool.

BD solution getting updated to real size gear loops (ie arc size) is a win. And solution guide coming back is also a win. 

No new nomics?

Mr Rogerswrote:

Seemingly very little innovation, sans the ohmega.
I do think its cool Troll is making its way back to market.

Trol Whillans was my very first climbing harness.  

Linnaeuswrote:

BD solution getting updated to real size gear loops (ie arc size) is a win. And solution guide coming back is also a win. 

If the regular solution has a 5th gear loop now then how is the new guide going to be different? Just the plastic coating on the harness?

Matthew Bellwrote:

If the regular solution has a 5th gear loop now then how is the new guide going to be different? Just the plastic coating on the harness?

Seems like the Solution Guide will have adjustable leg loops unfortunately. Not sure what else is different about it vs. the Solution.

jordandwrote:

Seems like the Solution Guide will have adjustable leg loops unfortunately. Not sure what else is different about it vs. the Solution.

Where did  you see that info reported? 

Glad to see the non-adj. leg loops abandoned; adj.leg loops will make it a desirable harness in my opinion. 

Do current BD harnesses have fitting issues with respect to the buckle's design grossly offsetting the gear loop positioning for individuals of certain waist sizes (i.e. cinching the buckle to accommodate certain waist sizes results in potentially grossly asymmetrical gear loop orientation ... a potentially dire disadvantage for a leader?

Mr Rogerswrote:

Seemingly very little innovation, sans the ohmega.
I do think its cool Troll is making its way back to market.

It doesn't mention it in the vid but the new friends slings have a service life of 14 years now, that's pretty innovative. 

It's a shame about the leg buckles on the solution guide, I'd rather avoid the buckles as the webbing abraides much faster when climbing wide, which was kinda the whole point of the original guide. 

Looks like I'll be getting an original solution to supplement my current guide though the big gear loops seem nebulus to me. I can easily carry a triple rack+extra micros+nuts+14 draws+other big wall shit on a current gen guide. The 4th rack has to go onto a chest harness but i can live with that. 

Lovegasoline Lovewrote:

... Glad to see the non-adj. leg loops abandoned; adj.leg loops will make it a desirable harness in my opinion. 

Do current BD harnesses have fitting issues with respect to the buckle's design grossly offsetting the gear loop positioning for individuals of certain waist sizes (i.e. cinching the buckle to accommodate certain waist sizes results in potentially grossly asymmetrical gear loop orientation ... a potentially dire disadvantage for a leader?

Fixed length leg loops are many climbers preference for all styles of climbing (sport, trad, alpine, ice) and was one of the nicer aspects of the old Solution Guide. 

Any harness with a single buckle will have issues are certain waist sizes with asymmetric position of gear loops. Specifically, the gear loops will be "perfectly" centered only for one specific waist size and then imperfectly centered for all other waist sizes. Sometimes within a certain manufacturer the mens and women's sizes are offset from each other and is a work around for this. 

Seb - I'm impressed you find the current gear loops adequate to fit that much gear. After using Arc harnesses for years the BD gear loops are annoyingly small. Fine for sport, annoying if still adequate for trad/multipitch.

Linnaeuswrote:

Any harness with a single buckle will have issues are certain waist sizes with asymmetric position of gear loops. Specifically, the gear loops will be "perfectly" centered only for one specific waist size and then imperfectly centered for all other waist sizes. Sometimes within a certain manufacturer the mens and women's sizes are offset from each other and is a work around for this. 

The Edelrid Sendero II (MP review thread) among others uses webbing that slides within the padded belt. This is a fabulous feature as it allows you to perfectly center the belay loop and gear loops no matter where you fall in the size range while only requiring a single buckle.

jordandwrote:

Seems like the Solution Guide will have adjustable leg loops unfortunately. Not sure what else is different about it vs. the Solution.

I can't find anything, anywhere to support this claim.

Kyle MacKrellwrote:

I can't find anything, anywhere to support this claim.

I could have sworn the UKC video above mentioned it, but I rewatched it and they don't say anything about adjustable leg loops. So either I hallucinated that part or they edited the video to remove that claim.

that guy named sebwrote:

It doesn't mention it in the vid but the new friends slings have a service life of 14 years now, that's pretty innovative. 

It's a shame about the leg buckles on the solution guide, I'd rather avoid the buckles as the webbing abraides much faster when climbing wide, which was kinda the whole point of the original guide. 

Looks like I'll be getting an original solution to supplement my current guide though the big gear loops seem nebulus to me. I can easily carry a triple rack+extra micros+nuts+14 draws+other big wall shit on a current gen guide. The 4th rack has to go onto a chest harness but i can live with that. 

Fair 'nuff indeed.
I'm curious about this. What makes its service life  longer than any other sling.... testing has shown over and over the 10yr span on soft goods is a rule of thumb, but not really based on solid evidence, but more of what I'll call a liabilty date.

I cant find out much about what would make the new sling have a better shelf life other than because they say so. You have any links to share?
Kinda like when BD responded around the service life of the UL cams....they said they needed to put an expiration date, but they dont really know what actual service life is. And thus it became like all the rest, 10 years.

jordandwrote:

I could have sworn the UKC video above mentioned it, but I rewatched it and they don't say anything about adjustable leg loops. So either I hallucinated that part or they edited the video to remove that claim.

I remember this part in the video too. It said the new solution guide was more like a redesigned Technician harness, with the latter being phased out, and having adjustable leg loops. But now I don't see it. Mass hysteria.

Mr Rogerswrote:

Fair 'nuff indeed.
I'm curious about this. What makes its service life longer than any other sling.... testing has shown over and over the 10yr span on soft goods is a rule of thumb, but not really based on solid evidence, but more of what I'll call a liabilty date.

I cant find out much about what would make the new sling have a better shelf life other than because they say so. You have any links to share?
Kinda like when BD responded around the service life of the UL cams....they said they needed to put an expiration date, but they dont really know what actual service life is. And thus it became like all the rest, 10 years.

Looks like the cord has a sheath and core, making it less susceptible to UV ray and other types of damage. My best guess. I'm hoping my older cams' slings can eventually be replaced with this type of cord.

James Cwrote:

I remember this part in the video too. It said the new solution guide was more like a redesigned Technician harness, with the latter being phased out, and having adjustable leg loops. But now I don't see it. Mass hysteria.

It was a guy in another thread on here who said it was replacing the technician. 

Here: mountainproject.com/forum/t…

Mr Rogerswrote:

I'm curious about this. What makes its service life longer than any other sling.... testing has shown over and over the 10yr span on soft goods is a rule of thumb, but not really based on solid evidence, but more of what I'll call a liabilty date.

Which is it?  Testing proof? Or no solid evidence? 

I'm not aware of ANY testing that supports a 10 year "lifetime", as opposed to, say, 6 or 8 or 12 or 15 years.  On the contrary, there have been loads of random samples of gear that tested out "super good enough" well beyond 10 years. 

Two things come to mind why the stated "lifetime" doesn't really matter. 1) we know that it exists solely to give the companies legal cover. 2) Huge portions of the climbing community ignore it, and rely instead on their own level of comfort when it comes to retiring gear.

Gunkiemikewrote:

Which is it?  Testing proof? Or no solid evidence? 

I'm not aware of ANY testing that supports a 10 year "lifetime", as opposed to, say, 6 or 8 or 12 or 15 years.  On the contrary, there have been loads of random samples of gear that tested out "super good enough" well beyond 10 years.

I think you misinterpreted my stament.
This exactly what I'm saying. I used rule of thumb, meaning its comletely general number for idiot humans that dont know how to inspect gear, to throw it out so the company has less chance of getting sued. I agree its a very arbitrary number.
We are on the same page. A 5 year sling sitting in the sun is way less trustworthy than 15 year old sling in cool dark bin, thus the nonsense aorund service life of soft goods that some folks take as gospel.

Two things come to mind why the stated "lifetime" doesn't really matter. 1) we know that it exists solely to give the company's legal cover. 2) Huge portions of the climbing community ignore it, and rely instead on their own level of comfort when it comes to retiring gear.

Agreed. Thats why I'm curious about whats so special about this cordage that they chose to extend the service life interval from industry common 10 years on soft goods and buck the trend of basically all major MFGs to come to this....and if its nothing special will it set off industry wide adjustment of soft good sevice lives.

All new Wild Country soft goods say 14 years since manufacture (still 10 years since first use). I don't think there's anything special about the cams.