Best harness for multi pitch / big wall climbing

Hey everyone, I had a question. I'm looking at buying a harness for big wall multi pitch trad and sport. I've been looking around and wanted to know people's take on which big wall harness is the best. I was looking at this BD Long Haul Harness and wanted to know if it's any good or I should be looking at other options?. Any input helps. Thank you for your time. 

I tried the Ocun Webee big wall over two days on The Prow, and the perforated rubber “padding” was rock hard and left welts on my skin. Terrible harness, 0/10. Literally anything would be better, except maybe one of those glacier dental floss harnesses. 

Sean Cardenaswrote:

Hey everyone, I had a question. I'm looking at buying a harness for big wall multi pitch trad and sport. I've been looking around and wanted to know people's take on which big wall harness is the best. I was looking at this BD Long Haul Harness and wanted to know if it's any good or I should be looking at other options?. Any input helps. Thank you for your time. 

personally, that's at least two (if not three or more) different harnesses...

old5tenwrote:

personally, that's at least two (if not three or more) different harnesses...

Alright...so then tell me. 

Hson Pwrote:

I tried the Ocun Webee big wall over two days on The Prow, and the perforated rubber “padding” was rock hard and left welts on my skin. Terrible harness, 0/10. Literally anything would be better, except maybe one of those glacier dental floss harnesses. 

Good to know, thanks. 

it's pretty simple - a true wall harness is going to be bigger and bulkier than what most people would want for a sport harness.  it'll have features that you don't need for a sport harness (two belay loops, hammer holster, tag loop, extra gear loops, etc.).  even what most people would consider multi-pitch trad harnesses aren't as big and bulky as wall harnesses, but some features (tag line loop, extra gear loops, maybe a couple ice clipper loops) could come in handy and some nice padding isn't necessarily a bad thing either (although you're getting back into the size, bulk, weight consideration).

the reality is that you can do everything with one harness.  the question is: do you want to?   

i climbed my first sport, trad, and wall climbs with a cheap edelweiss harness that was made purely out of webbing (no padding).  the generation before used a whillans harness and swami belts.  the generation before that tied in with the rope... 

I actually really like the ocun big wall harness. It's super comfy and didn't leave welts on me. I feel like it's got more range of motion than the BD, I even use it for sport climbing. 

Oh yeah :D don't wear the Ocun Webee big wall on naked SKIN!!! always have a shirt under it   

The Misty Mountain Cadillac has served me very well for multipitch and a wall or two, though I believe the Titan is their true wall harness as it has the extra belay loop and I think a little more padding. A friend of mine has the long haul tho, and it seems to work well for him, though personally I like the gear loops on my MM harness better.

I don’t like the Misty Mountain Cadillac. My favorite harness ever, regardless of usage, was the Arcteryx AR395a.

They came out with another called the Arcteryx C-Quence that was basically the same but with non-adjusting leg loops instead which I preferred.

Either of these harness have very wide belts for comfort, yet are thin and packable. The design of the belt is that it spreads the structural webbing widely instead of having padding.

The gear loops are some of the largest available for holding a big rack. They have 5 gear loops and 4 ice clipper slots. 

I have the MM Cadillac, Arc'teryx AR-395A, and the Ocun Webee. I've used each of them many times and for me, The Misty Mtn is the clear winner if it's trad, followed by the Arc'teryx if you're doing double duty (trad and sport) 

The Arc'teryx wins if I'm doing alpine climbs with a long approach where I'm trying to keep weight down and it also packs very small. The gear loops push gear too far forward, however. I frequently find myself having to push cams off my legs and towards the back which becomes very annoying. Hanging belays in this harness aren't very pleasant. 

The Ocun has been a disappointment. It's comfortable and it breathes well but the gear loops are placed too far towards the back. 

The Misty is the most comfortable, the loops are placed in the best position of the bunch, and it carries the weight very well. It doesn't pack small though and it's not lightweight. Carrying a triple rack is no issue for that harness. 

I never bothered with BD because their gear loops are inexplicably, stupid small. It seems like that's being fixed in their new harnesses however. 

+1 for Ocun Weebee.  4 buckles allows it to stay centered.  Two belay loops.  Gear loops positioned forward where you can find them and lots of them.

I have an AR-395a and I love it for sport and ice climbing, but it's annoying for trad for the same reason as Cosmic Hotdog, the angled gear loops jam all your cams forward and they pinch each other at the low point. That said, if I had to only pick one harness for everything, this would probably be it. Otherwise this (or the C-quence) for sport + a beefier wall harness would be a great combo.

I had a similar gripe about the MM Cadillac, the round smile-shaped gear loops cause everything to pinch together down in the middle. It was comfortable but, again, I couldn't stand the gear squishing when loaded up with a big rack. Seems I'm in the minority here with how popular it is. 

The long haul looks great to me (haven't used it), just be aware it only has 1 waist buckle so if you're on the extreme ends of the sizing chart your gear loops might not be centered. It might not matter to some people but I like the beefy, rated haul loop on BD harnesses. Having to clip tag lines or shoes or whatever to a thin gear loop isn't ideal. Can anybody tell if the gear loops on the long haul are bigger than most BD harnesses (which tend to be small)?

All ya'll who've used the Weebee, how was your experience using the 6th & 7th gear loops? Looks a bit crammed back there for getting gear on and off. Would it be better with just 5 gear loops?

K Gowrote:

All ya'll who've used the Weebee, how was your experience using the 6th & 7th gear loops? Looks a bit crammed back there for getting gear on and off. Would it be better with just 5 gear loops?

I've found that they're set too far back, to the point where it's awkward to try and twist my neck that far if I can't feel what I'm looking for. Not a great situation while on the wall. The way they're sewn feels like it's cramped and too much overlap between loops. 

That's just my experience though. Hopefully others can chime in. 

Cosmic Hotdogwrote:

I've found that they're set too far back, to the point where it's awkward to try and twist my neck that far if I can't feel what I'm looking for. Not a great situation while on the wall. The way they're sewn feels like it's cramped and too much overlap between loops. 

That's just my experience though. Hopefully others can chime in. 

That's what I figured from the pictures, 7 seems like too many to cram together. While I didn't like the MM Cadillac gear loop shape, they at least were all usable since they didn't overlap very much, and they kept it to only 6 (3 on each side). 

My misty mountain titan has served me well on big walls. It isn't too heavy for free climbing, but doesn't pack well. If I bought another I'd be sure to get a rear gear loop. My next harness I get will be the Waldo or Yates shield since I enjoy slow and heavy ascents.

For cragging and multi pitching, I just use the cheapest BD or petzl I can get my hands on. Unless I need more than a triple rack, I find any entry level harness has worked fine for me.

I've found the singing rock Dome to be pretty decent. Packability and weight don't mean anything to me, and I'm an east coast guy so nothing really long, but I'm large, slow, and enjoy comfort and it's ticked all the lists I care about

All ya'll who've used the Weebee, how was your experience using the 6th & 7th gear loops? Looks a bit crammed back there for getting gear on and off. Would it be better with just 5 gear loops?

The first four can hold a double rack + tricams and hexes + alpine draws with no problem. I store anchor and rescue materials along with shoes and water on the 6th and 7th loops. I can reach the first four loops easily, and I'm usually at the anchor or a ledge when I need to access the back loops. It could be streamlined with just 5 big loops, but then you'd lose out on the comfort of organization.

The plastic bits on the gear loops on the arc harnesses can be flipped to push gear backwards.

Micah Robinsonwrote:

The plastic bits on the gear loops on the arc harnesses can be flipped to push gear backwards.

Interesting, not sure that's better tho, and doesn't solve the pinching problem. Rigid, square, flat gear loops are my preference for trad. 

Micah Robinsonwrote:

The plastic bits on the gear loops on the arc harnesses can be flipped to push gear backwards.

Confirmed! Thank you for this. Pretty easy to do - I pulled off the plastic "sleeve" things from the loops and soaked them in hot water for a minute or so. It made getting them back on easier. The picture is after flipping them, now they angle towards the back of the harness instead.