Arc'teryx WST Harness Editorial Review

By vegastradguy

The Arc'teryx WST Harness. Photo: Arc'teryx.

At last summer’s OR show, Arc’teryx showcased its first major harness change since it first developed harnesses more than a decade ago. As is typical of Arc’teryx, it was a big change, and not only that, it pushed the envelope of what we thought as possible for harness construction- and then it ripped the envelope to pieces and laughed as it set it on fire. Arc’teryx calls it WST- warp strength technology- a completely new approach to how webbing is used in harness construction and it thinks it will redefine how climbers thing of comfort in their harness. As chief gear guy, I of course wanted this review badly, especially after I got a small taste of the harness at a special climbing event at the OR show.

First and foremost, the specs. Arc’teryx has thrown away all of their old harnesses and completely replaced them with a new line of 5 harnesses: alpine (A-300a), sport (S-240), ice/mixed (X-350a), and gender specific all arounds (R-320, R-280). Each of them incorporate the same basic features: WST swami belts, autolock buckles, reversible gear loops, and a wear safety marker. Where they differ is in fit, number of gear loops, leg loop style, and of course, weight. The S-240, R-320, and R-280 all have non-adjustable leg loops, the others have adjustable ones. The S-240 and A-300a only have two gear loops, the rest have four (the ice/mixed has three ice screw clip loops). As for the weight, well- while they may differ in weight, I would argue that weight in this harness line isn’t much of an issue, but I’ll mention it anyway. The S-240 harness clocks in at a mere 8.7oz (244g), while the ‘heavy’ X-350a sports a bulky 12.2oz (347g) frame. Yeah, these harnesses are light. Really light.

Despite a request to review the X-350a or the R-320, due to overwhelming demand, I was only able to get my hands on the S-240 model. I was pretty bummed out at first, mostly because I was stuck with a harness with only two gear loops, and I’m primarily a trad climber- meaning I was going to have to compromise a bit. However, when I received the harness, my doubts began to fade as I slipped it on and did the obligatory—“oooooo….”, because, despite any shortcomings that may come up during the review process, this is one cool looking harness! I rummaged through my pile of webbing and fashioned a small loop of supertape to serve as a makeshift haul loop, where I keep my prusik and obviously clip in the trail line. After that, I put it to work, completely replacing my other two harnesses and it has been my exclusive harness for almost five months now- I’ve done it all in this thing- everything from whipping off of sport projects, spending time in hanging belays, hangdogging tough sport routes, and groveling up the wide stuff, this harness has not been treated lightly.

Comfort

Let’s cut to the chase. We know the harness is CE/UIAA certified, so let’s talk about comfort, since after all, that’s actually the entire point of this new concept from Arc’teryx. First, I’ll explain WST for those who haven’t heard about it yet. Pick up your harness and have a look at it. Notice the two primary components of the waist belt- the webbing that wraps all the way around to buckle in the front and the padding that the webbing is stitched to that provides comfort. Okay, as anyone who hangs in any harness long enough will tell you, no matter how much padding you have, eventually, you can feel that tiny piece of webbing cutting into your kidneys. So, to remedy this, Arc’teryx decided that, instead of relying on padding that will eventually fail anyway, why not widen the webbing to the full width of the harness? Doing this would eliminate pressure points that develop from the padding folding over where the webbing isn’t present. But how to do this? Those folks at Arc’teryx came up with quite possibly the neatest solution to this problem ever.

Webbing, as it turns out, has two types of fibers. Warp fibers and weft fibers. The warp fibers run the long way and provide the strength for the webbing. The weft fibers run the short way, and provide structure for the webbing. So, the folks at Arc’teryx developed a process where they take a single piece of ¾” webbing, and using a process that no one is talking about, remove the waft fibers from a set length in the middle of the webbing, leaving only the warp fibers behind. The ends, though, maintain their waft. Once that’s complete, the warp fibers are spread out to a 3 ½” diameter and laminated several times and wrapped in Schoeller fabric. This creates a waterproof swami belt about 1/8” thick, and, according to Arc’teryx, able to withstand loads in up to 30kn!. Notice that I didn’t mention padding on the harness- that’s because there isn’t any. None, zilch, nada.

An illustration of the WST system. Photo: Arc'teryx.

Is it comfortable? In a word- yes. Ridiculously so. My first weekend with the harness, I did a long first ascent just to the left of Crimson Chrysalis, probably the most popular route in Red Rocks. The climb itself had plenty of ledges, but the only descent option was to rappel Crimson, and as anyone who has climbed Crimson can tell you, that would be a descent filled with hanging belays (there’s one sort of stance at one of the belays). All of the anchors are uncomfortable, but the harness met all expectations- this thing was more comfortable than my Yates Shield harness! Once down, my partner immediately stripped off his harness and uttered a giant sigh of relief. I, on the other hand, finshed sorting gear, pulled the ropes, coiled them, and had my pack completely packed up before I remembered that I was wearing my harness, at which point I took it off. After months of climbing, I’ve decided that the comfort comes from two places. The first is obvious- the harness gives you full support- 3 ½” of support- a generous thickness by any measure, it feels like you have two hands cupping your lower back as you weight the harness (it actually weirded me out when I first lowered off a climb in Little Cottonwood on our trial day). The other level of comfort is in the lack of padding. This part is counter-intuitive, but it’s true. Padding insulates, and as a result, if I’m hangdogging or rappelling for a long time, especially in warm weather, I get really hot and sweat up a storm around my lower back. This is uncomfortable at best. With the S-240, I have yet to sweat in it at all- and this includes a long day in Little Cottonwood in August, in the sun, and an unseasonably warm fall in Red Rock where temps did not drop below 85 until the middle of November.

Cruxing with no pro, but at least the harness was comfortable! Photo: Christine Cauble.

The S-240 does, however, have a downside. The leg loops do not have the WST, instead, they have a lightweight mesh with edge-banding for strength. This was done in order to shave the weight down, as the intended use of the harness is for redpoints. As a result, while my waist and back were always comfortable, I found that after a while, my legs would feel some pressure from the lack of support in the middle of the leg loop. That said, the discomfort as minimal, and only noticeable after a fair amount of time hanging in the harness. If you’re redpointing in this thing, this won’t be an issue.

Durability

Heading into the squeeze- a thicker harness would have been a problem, but the WST easily slipped through. Photo: Larry DeAngelo.

So, okay, the harness is comfortable, big whoop. How does it handle the offwidth grovel? I actually figured that the harness wouldn’t do so hot in the wide world, as the total lack of padding and the use of ¾” webbing rather than the standard 1 1/4" might mean a premature death for this harness. Well, as any of my partner will tell you, I actually like the wide- in fact, the Disciple (the FA I did on the first day of use with this harness) had a nice 5.9 squeeze on it just before the face climbing crux. After that, several weekends were spent on my project- the link-up of the two pitches of the Schwa, which includes a nasty 5.10d offwidth up high, as well as a nice little squeeze job last weekend where a thicker harness actually would have caused problems. Combine that with general Red Rocks groveling on both approaches and descents, chimneys, and general 4th class groveling, and I feel like I definitely put the thing through its paces. And the result? Not a blemish- the damn thing looks like I just took it out of the bag. Not even a little fuzz on the Schoeller face. I swear I tried. I’ll add a comment on durability to this review in a few months, but as of right now, I have no qualms on the durability of this harness.

The harness after 4 1/2 months- the only visible wear were some light scratches on the buckle. Photo: John Wilder.

Features

As usual with Arc’teryx, when they make something, they generally don’t just stop at the one really cool feature. In addition to the WST stuff, they’ve also added some really thoughtful features to their harnesses. None of them are rocket science, but they add a nice finishing touch to the harness. First are the reversible gear loops. The gear loops themselves are fixed to the harness and are made of fabric. The injection molded plastic covers, though, are reversible, allowing you to have your gear fall forward or back, depending on which you prefer. The X-350a, and the R-320/R-280 have a haul loop as well- a nice feature for us trad climbers. All of the harnesses except the S-240 have a drop seat built in, another very nice feature for long days out.

The reversible gear loops made it easy to set up for photos of the harness, but definitely presented problems when climbing the crux with all the gear in the way. Luckily, a quick change of orientation and the loops are back to normal. Photo: Christine Cauble.

Also, in light of recent harness safety concerns, Arc’teryx has incorporated Wear Safety Markers on all of its harnesses at the tie in points and belay loops. Basically, the tie in points and belay loops are webbing wrapped with an orange fabric and then covered with ballistics material. Once you wear through the ballistics and can see orange, its time to replace your harness. After five months of use, my harness has yet to show any wear at all on the ballistics material, and, just from past experience, I have no reason to doubt that the tie in points would last anything less than a long, long time- they are seriously the most beefy tie in points I’ve ever seen on a harness this light. The belay loop looks standard, but then, all belay loops are nicely beefy and this one is no exception. Also, all the buckles are self-locking on this harness line- something that I’ve never used before and wasn’t excited about, but I’ve come to really like on my S-240.

Of course, all good things have their price, and Arc’teryx is no exception. These harnesses are spendy- the cheapest one (S-240, I think) clocking in at $100 USD- and the most expensive (X-350a) at around $150! Most of the time when I see something really expensive, I’m sort of offput by it- mostly because it’s just a shiny version of something cheaper; however, my friends and I all agree- this harness is probably worth the money simply based on the technology it uses as well as the comfort it provides, and most importantly, how far out of the box it is. That said, while I doubt these harnesses will be omnipresent at the crags in the near future due to their price, I do think that they will become the gold standard in harness construction- the comfort and quality of manufacture alone sets a very high bar for others to aspire to.

Talk about comfortable, after a long day on the rock, the only thing on my mind is the beautiful scene below. Photo: Larry DeAngelo.

Full Disclosure: The company that manufactured this item provided it free of charge to rockclimbing.com who in turn provided it as compensation to the reviewer for his review.