Cushy

This harness proves you don’t have to sacrifice comfort to minimize weight. Designers of the Elite Ultralite focused on an ergonomically built waist belt for padding without too much bulk, keeping the harness’ weight to a nominal 11.6 oz. The Elite Ultralite has the beefiest gear loops in this bunch—all four are encased in plastic, and they’re sewn for forward racking. This suits sport climbing well, making your draws easy to grab, but wouldn’t work as well for keeping trad gear organized. The super-thin belay loop may raise eyebrows, but it’s made of Dyneema and rated at 30kN, compared to Wild Country’s burlier Elite model at 25 kN. The elastic straps connecting the leg loops and waist belt are easily adjustable on this rig, and they detach for last-minute bathroom stops for the ladies. Elastic in the fixed leg loops allows a range of fits; for one tester—5’10”, 155 lbs.—the medium fit perfectly, but we’d still recommend trying the Elite on before buying to ensure
proper sizing.