UKC

Striking, fully featured, original designs, Wild Country's latest harness range once again demonstrates a commitment to innovation. Eight totally new models with slick Ziplock buckles and exclusive new materials make our most advanced harness range ever the ones to choose in 2013.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=5464

In reply to UKC Gear: Please, please can manufacturers see sense and ditch the infernal 'ziplock' auto-locking buckles - or employ some designers who aren't useless...

On every harness I've tried recently you end up with a stupid and annoying 25cm+ length of strap at both waist and legs thanks to the ziplock style buckles which by necessity require much longer straps. In every case the designers have proved utterly incapable of coming up with a decent way to tidy the straps away in use. [Edelrid deserve an honourable mention for their innovative new waist buckle/strap design, but it still doesn't work at the limits of adjustment.]

The new WC harness range have nice pretty colours EXCEPT they have very clearly joined the club and bollocksed it up by not designing a good way to stow the annoying long straps that result from the choice of ziplock buckles.

I am perpetually disappointed that supposedly competent manufacturer are utterly incapable of designing harnesses that are still usable at the lower end of their advertised size ranges...

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:
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Hear-Hear,as an ageing climber I dont have an "off the shelf" shape,basically I am a fat git with thin legs and find it impossible to find a harness that fits me.

In reply to both of you

Hear Hear!

The LAST thing I want on a harness is a speed-undo buckle, especially one described as "slick".

In reply to The Ex-Engineer: I honestly fail to see how ziplock buckles "by necessity" require longer straps? They don't take up any more webbing, if anything they take slightly less!? Any left over webbing is related to the size range intended for that harness, not the buckle. If it bothers you so much, why not chop it?

In reply to gearslave: The point about 'ziplock' buckles is that the are not designed to be undone.

First, that means the straps need to be long enough that the harness can still be put on over the hips easily by someone at the larger end of the size range. It is definitely the case that more spare strap is needed for than than compared with a traditional harness where the waist belt is wrapped directly around the waist. If the manufacturers aren't reasonable generous then they lose the purported advantage of the harness being quicker to put on. Therefore, in all harnesses at the lower end of the size range the straps are excessive.

Second, the straps on ziplock type buckles have doubled back ends. If you cut the straps without replacing these, the buckles would undo pretty much every time the harness was taken off. Since the buckles aren't designed for this, re-threading them is much more awkward then normal buckles. As such, the harness would be a pain to use and you would have the worry about the possibility of loops completely undoing.

As such, if someone did want to alter a WC harness they would really need to visit a cobblers to get the straps professionally shortened with new bar-tacked ends. If that doesn't constitute a design failure, I don't know what does.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

I think I would put it at worst in my vaguely annoying list, you seem to be surprisingly annoyed by it. I much prefer zip-lock buckles so can live with a bit of extra strap. On my Renegade I don't remember it being a problem at all, it reaches the vaguely annoying on my Arcteryx harness. First world problems eh?

In reply to deepstar:

That is similar too my problems. I'm just plain skinny but I still find that leg loops never adjust small enough. However, because I am tall and thin I can't drop down in size to an XS, if available, as the the rise height is then too small.

Various harnesses 'almost' fit but they all end up with long straps flapping around uselessly.

In reply to TobyA: You are right - I'm surprisingly annoyed.

I just can't believe that companies that supposedly employ highly paid specialist design teams can't sort out such simple issues with their products.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:


They do?! I had presumed a couple of blokes in Llanberis or Tideswell sketched out what they'd really like a harness to look like and then sent it off to China or Czech to have some samples made up.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer: If you say so! I think I would have to have to counter with - ziplock buckles are not designed to be undone *accidentally*. Every ziplock buckle I have ever used has happily undone with a minimum of fuss - are we not to use ziplock harnesses with crampons and skis?? My first harness was an old Petzl Gouru (sp.) and I regularly undid it fully for any kind of wintery activity and it was STILL quicker to do up than a standard buckle. Chopping the end off the webbing will not in any way ruin the harness. In fact the full undoing of a ziplock buckle is not in any way different to the normal threading on a standard buckle! I'm honestly not trying to be a pain, but I can't see how this is a terrible thing? If the webbing is too long, chop it. At the very worst, it'll make your ziplock harness the same as a standard harness - just easier to adjust?

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA. Thats one of the more ridiculous things ive heard on here. Highly paid? What on earth are you on about? As an ex engineer you'd know that engineering is not well paid for what you do unless you're in upper management, and companies like this aren't exactly flushed with cash.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer: Apologies for the late entry into this conversation (bank holiday and all that) and I am sorry that you have had problems with harnesses but just to say that our new models (like on our old models) have two threadbacks ion the side that the waist band can be threaded through to keep it from flopping down.
I am on the very small side of a medium which means a long tail and I have always found that the two threadback holders mean no problems.
If you have time to try one please do and please send your feedback once you have tried one.

In reply to Richie Patterson, Wild Country: Are there 2 threadbacks on the leg loops?Because there is a picture of the webbing folded back on itself on wildcountry's website. In the market for a new harness soon. Have an elite atm how come you dropped that/hard gear loops? Just wondering really.