Climbing

If there’s one thing that savvy climbers never buy used, it’s climbing rope. After all, a rope’s job is literally to save your life; you don’t want some weathered length of cord that might not be able to handle the shock of a fall or two. But most climbing rope, like harnesses, isn’t sustainable, so eco-conscious climbers may feel just a pang of guilt every time they have to buy another 60 meters of brand new rope (and what to do with the old one?!). Not anymore. Because these sustainable climbing ropes prove form, function and sustainability (uh, also safety) can go hand-in hand.

Making sustainable choices when it comes to climbing gear is tough. Because your life is literally on the line (as in, the whole point of climbing is that you’re dangling off a cliff face on a line), you only want gear made of the highest quality materials. That means it’s not usually a great idea to buy used gear, especially where ropes and harnesses are concerned. It’s also why you can’t typically return climbing gear if you decide you don’t like it that well; stores simply can’t resell it. And while you can sometimes find a pair of barely used shoes or a harness that was used twice in a gym on the REI used gear section or some such, new climbing gear is usually the way to go. But if your most sustainable option for buying gear is out, how to you find the most eco-friendly climbing harnesses? We’ll show you the 3 most sustainable climbing harnesses on the market this year so you can feel good about buying new.

Vegan climbing shoes have always been notoriously hard to find. Many of them call on leather for the uppers and who knows where the glue came from! Fortunately, the time …