UKC

My son has a black diamond wiz kid harness which he will soon outgrow. I'm a bit confused about which harness to buy next. Any recommendations?

In reply to ranger*goy:
Has he got any hips? He may still need a full body harness or not depending on his size. Tom kitten says up to 40 kg. Its hard to know how big from age.

Sorry just seen wiz kid is a sit harness.

Tom cat goes 20 to 30 waist, beyond that anything in adult size. Haven't used tom cat, but have used renegade and tom kitten and would recommend them.

In reply to marsbar:

I think I did look at the Tom cat but the sizing didn't seem much different to the BD Wiz. I'm quite happy to take him to try on a new one but need a starting point.

In reply to ranger*goy:

Tomcat does go much bigger than the BD Wiz kid, right up to very small adult sizing, beyond that you are probably looking at a womans version of something that comes in XS, the BD Momentum perhaps.

Paul

In reply to UrbanRocker:

Women's harnesses often don't go as small on the legs, as women are often small waist and larger thighs (I guess there must be some that go small, as not all women are this shape, but it's quite a common woman's shape)

I have an amazing petzl harness that really does fit just about everyone. It has a floating waist belt, so you can take the webbing out of the front loops on the padding and just overlap the padding and tighten the harness in. I can't find the exact model now, but the corax looks like it could be the newer version of it maybe? I can't tell if it has the floating padding or not though.

In reply to ranger*goy:

My son is ten and outgrew the Edelrid kids harness last year. We got him the Simond basic one in xs-s adult size. As its from Decathlon its the cheapest option but he says it's comfortable and he was repeatedly falling off the crux of a reachy 6a a few weeks ago and not letting me give him a tight rope as he wanted to do it all "properly", so it seems to work fine! Should do him for some years too until he's big enough to start nicking my gear.

In reply to ranger*goy:

I'd get a lightweight harness if getting adults, a hirundos xs for example or one of the old wild country ultralites if you can find one, I think they start at 26 inches.

You might find a good deal on old hirundos' ATM as they've updated it, I've bought 2 new for £20 each before.

or an Arcteryx R275 is popular these days, about the same size.

In reply to winhill:

I've just tried him in my old petzl corax which is xs and I think female specific. It didn't quite go small enough but I reckon another 6 months or so he might fit an adult one.

His wiz fits him around the waist but is getting a bit short in the body because he's tall for his age

In reply to ranger*goy:

Corax is a great workhorse, I've had a few, I always keep the old ones cos they're so useful if you take out friends - they go small enough for bigger kids but fit a lot of adults as well.

But they're very, very heavy for a 10 year old, also if he doesn't fit a corax he definitely won't fit one of the others ( corax is about 24"). I've waited for kids to grow into stuff a few times and waist is probably the slowest thing compared to feet and height.

Can you extend the elastic on the rear of the leg loops if that's the problem? If the leg loops are too close to the waist (belay loop too small) you're a bit stuffed.

A good alternative then would be a clog centre harness, massively adjustable but not padded.

In reply to winhill:

I have adjusted the leg loops which will keep him going a bit longer. He's a lanky bugger!

In reply to TobyA:


Bought the Edelrid one and wasn't impressed with it - you can't undo the waist belt and I found it a struggle to get over god-daughter's hips. She's a slim build and well within the harness sizing.

In reply to ranger*goy:


It is the older threadback one then? they had adjustable leg loop retainers, the newer locking buckle are fixed length. But I meant cut them off and extend them with a bit of tape or something, that way you may fix it.

In reply to winhill:

I've lengthened the buckles on the front of the leg loops. At the rear they are stitched to the waist belt.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Yeah we found very similar, even when it fitted easily it needed some more belt length to make it easier to pull on and off (scroll down) http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=5779 and that's why he grew out of it reasonably quickly. I can't remember but can you not undo the buckle after some fiddling? Or is it totally impossible?