Black Diamond  Vario Speed Harness

The Vario Speed Harness is perfect for educational and institutional programs. Black Diamond’s no frills approach means that the harness is intuitive and easy to navigate for inexperienced folk, as well as being easy for facilitators to fit quickly. Additionally, participants cannot unlace the buckles without considerable effort, which makes the Vario Speed a safer choice for beginners than a more complex harness. The size and the shape of the belay loop is also very convenient for helping students tie-in. The Vario Speed Harness is very affordable, and is an excellent choice for a beginning climber, or someone who climbs infrequently. I work for an outdoor education company in Southern California, and we use the Vario Speed Harnesses for our students in our rock climbing and challenge course programs. For these participants, the Vario Speed is perfect and extremely durable when subjected to amateur users. For some reason, it does have a tendency to lose the back elastic straps, whether by participant removal or snapping. It would be nice to be able to replace them without a doing a home sewing project. The only complaint I have about the Vario Speed Harness is its sizing. While the majority of students have no trouble fitting into it, larger participants, particularly ladies with wider hips, have trouble with the size of the waistband. This is particularly disheartening for these students, who may already be trepidatious about trying climbing. I would like to see a larger size available so that my larger students could participate more easily. The Vario Speed Harness is an excellent starter harness for a weekend climber or for a gym, outdoor education, or challenge course program. It does everything those folk need and nothing else. I highly recommend it.