Altitude Harness

On a glacier or a technical alpine route, your harness needs to disappear. The Petzl Altitude does exactly that. It is light enough to wear under a hip belt without noticing it, packs down to almost nothing, and goes on and off standing up with crampons on, which sounds like a small thing until you are on a slope at 4am trying to rope up without sitting in the snow. Guides have worn it through full seasons on everything from Rainier to Ecuadorian volcanoes and it holds up. The buckle and strap system is intuitive enough that clients can figure it out quickly, which matters when you are managing a rope team in changing conditions. A couple of honest limitations: there is no padding, so hanging in it for extended periods is not comfortable, and the gear loops have room for improvement. For pure glacier travel and alpine climbing where you are moving rather than hanging, it covers everything you need without the weight or bulk of a more featured harness.