UKC

I'd like to get my boy into a harness some time this summer.
Anyone with any thoughts on which is best? Not that there's many to choose from.

In reply to andybevan57:

Bowline around the chest

In reply to andybevan57: We used a Petzl Ouista and found it fine. sjm

A full body harness until they are 12 or even older !

Petzl do a good one.

In reply to andybevan57:
Seren has the wild country one and loves it nice padding on the legs and shoulders, She's almost at its minimum size and fits her nicely so expect a few years out of it especially now she's climibing regularly

In reply to andybevan57: The Wild country one is good,lots of adjustment.

In reply to andybevan57:

How old?

Rock Empire Apache harness adjusts down smaller than any others we found - both mine have fitted it at 2 1/2 (possibly earlier, but certainly by then).

In reply to andybevan57:

Salewa mini dream II

Excellent harness and widely adjustable. First bought it for my son when he was 5, still wearing it age 9 and it will last another year or two easily.

I combine it with a chest harness made from a 120cm sling (two overhand knots to the ends to make rope loops, then looped into a figure of 8). Much better and comfortabe than full body harnesses (except for glacier tours) because of the padded leg loops.

CB

In reply to andybevan57:

We've just got our 3 year old the DMM full body harness (Tom Kitten) and it looks and feels great, more padding on the legs then the Petzl one we have for our middle daughter.

In reply to andybevan57:

wild country is nice and has a bit more padding than the petzl one.

In reply to Saul Gilsenan:

I first climbed with that method, shortly followed by a Whillans harness when getting on the really technical stuff, like severes.

In reply to andybevan57: The tom kitten has a fair amount of adjustment and is padded. Niece and god sprog both have them. Boys probably should be in a full body harness for a while as they tend to be straight with no hips.

In reply to andybevan57: I have the dmm body harness for my 4yr old and kids sit harness for the 5 yr old as she is too big for the body harness. I use a sling as a chest harness to keep her upright.

Ben

In reply to andybevan57:

Elderid make a nice full body harness

In reply to andybevan57:

BD Wiz Kid is super for kids. My son, now 11 years, has used it for some years with great success. Some fear that kids may slip out of the harness when falling bottoms up, but that doesn't happen.

In reply to andybevan57:
We used a Petzl Oustiti (sold on to someone on this forum) on my 3. Despite turning upside down several times none of them ever fell out of it. It could have done with more padding though.

In reply to andybevan57: The problem with the BD Whizkid is that the padding on the waistband is fixed, so as the kid grows the lumbar padding (and gear loops) will end up off centre.

The DMM Tomkat and Edelrid Finn both address this by having the padding "floating" on the webbing, so it can be slid to remain in a central position as the child grows.

In reply to andybevan57:
You'll almost certainly need to do a test fit before you buy. I recently spent a couple of evenings attempting to wrestle small childeren into climbing harnesses at a climbing wall and they are a right funny shape!

Some of the more padded kids harnesses can be problematic with skinny kids as the padding prevents you tightening the harness down far enough to be secure.