CAMP USA XLH 95 Climbing Harness - 2008 BCS

A great harness for back-up and for use on days with basic, quick rappel needs. I have used this for small raps on ridge traverses i.e. the maroon bells, as well as many ski mountaineering routes in the San Juans, and it worked perfectly. Fast and light to put on and to carry, it is the size of roughly a small apple to pack and is lighter then most cellphones. It is also very reliable and quite durable in the elements. Awesome emergency & necessary piece for your backcountry arsenal.

I bought this after seeing one a friend had. It is incredibly small and light and pretty much perfect for Adventure Racing. Even though small, the webbing in the leg loops is wide enough to keep things comfortable on rappel, and I expect I could (if necessary) hang in it for pretty long without a problem. The reason a 4 and not a 5 is that it lacks adjustability in the waist. I was too big for the Large, but the XL is looser than I would like in the waist. Since I'm using for AR and not lead climbing, this doesn't pose a significant risk, but I would suggest that if you are buying to climb in and are in between sizes, go down so the fit is snug in the waist.

As an Adventure Racing rappelling harness the XLH is perfect. It is ultra light and compact, comfortable to run in and is adequate for the short rappels, traverses or climbs required in AR. It's low bulk makes it comfortable to wear under ski pants for ski mountaineering. The only down side is that the very narrow leg straps tend to cut in when taking your full weight during a rappel. I found leaning back and taking more weight on the waist helped.

It would appear that adventure racers, backcountry skiers, and alpine light freaks have figured out the same thing I did—this harness weighs almost nothing. It was therefore quite difficult to find one, as it is backordered from CAMP Italy world-wide at this time. There is a reason for this.

Nothing else on the market comes close to the elegant simplicity of this rig. It is an Alpine Bod for the current generation of fast-and-light pushes. I had trouble finding a locking carabiner that would accept a Munter hitch without doubling the weight of the rig (turns out a DMM Sentinel, at 45 grams, is about the best you can do). Think about that for a second—this harness weighs the same as two carabiners, or one large HMS locker. Pick up your regular harness and your belay ‘biner, and you'll quickly understand why this thing is so hard to get a hold of. There is nothing like it. You will have to sew your own rig if you want to find an alternative.

For dropping cornices, rapping cliff bands, or belays on iffy avalanche aspects, the light weight of this harness makes it a tremendous advance. I would not want to take a whipper in it, though—it would probably cut you in half like a ripe tomato. But you can probably figure that out from the picture.

I have a "real" climbing harness for technical routes and I'm very happy with it. This thing, on the other hand, is for ski mountaineering and mostly-unroped alpine pushes, and it weighs about the same as a daisy chain. If you need something like it for ski touring or the like, and you can find it in stock somewhere, I think you will be very pleased with the margin of safety offered by its negligible weight.

Incredibly light and compact. Two friends have tried it and all of us agree it is not too uncomfortable when hanging from it. Indeed it is much more comfortable than it appears it would be and only a little more uncomfortable than my big padded harness for periods of 15 minutes or so. For SAR I would still use the padded harness since longer periods of hanging are common.