Women’s Climbing Gear

	Stephanie Kang photo by Sonja Remington

Climbing shoes
Climbing shoes are extremely important. Fit and comfort level certainly make a difference to your climbing performance. Women’s feet differ from men’s in more than overall length; female feet also tend to have:

· Higher arches
· Lower ankle bones
· Lower volume heels

Some manufacturers include rock shoes for women in their range. The Zlipper and Diamond from 5.10 are good examples. 5.10 sponsor some top women climbers who provide ideas and feedback to help produce great rock shoes for women.

Harnesses
The differences between the male and female body are way more obvious when it comes to designing a harness. A good female harness will have the following features:

· Smaller waist
· Variable leg loops
· A higher rise between the leg loops and the waist belt
· Drop seat (for calls of nature)

When choosing a harness from the many available, it ultimately comes down to personal choice for comfort, the intended use (sport climbing, alpine climbing, traditional climbing), design and price.

Clothing
Clothes are another important part of your gear. Not only do you need to consider the technicalities of climbing, being comfortable is also very important. Everyday exercise garb does not perform nearly as well as the threads designed specifically for women scaling a rock wall. There are many different products available such as:

· Sport bras
· Crop tops
· Short cut t-shirts
· Shorts
· Tights
· Trousers

All are designed with the female figure in mind. The clothing available looks good enough to wear at any time, the fabrics are long lasting but super comfortable, and the colors and styles generally are very fashionable.

Some really trendy wear comes out of both UK and USA manufacturers, such as S7, Stonewear, or Prana. The more technical manufacturers like Mountain Hardware produce some great looking climbing clothing using the latest and most innovative technical fabrics.

Other items
Look around and you will soon see that there are many female specific products available on the market. If you want to veer towards alpine climbing and ice climbing, all the technical outdoor clothing manufacturers provide a full women’s range of clothing from underwear to shells, gloves and hats. Other products you might be interested in are:

· Ice tools - lighter and easier to grasp for those with smaller hands
· Crampons - made to fit a smaller foot
· Gloves - with good insulation and dexterity for smaller hands
· Packs - with smaller waist belts, shorter backs and narrower shoulder straps
· Sleeping bags - small sizes

Conclusion
Why the need for a women’s only kit? Women’s rights or the desire to have everything in pink and frills has nothing to do with it. Men and women have some basic fundamental physiological differences.

Women have:

· A lower center of gravity
· Higher arches in their feet and narrower heels
· Beautifully packaged reproductive equipment with no external parts
· The need to squat to pee
· Colder extremities, and extra heat stored in their midsections
· Shorter lower legs, with more prominent calf muscles
· Narrower shoulders
· Wider hips
· Smaller waists
· Breasts
· Eye sockets closer together
· Smaller hands
· Longer necks
· Shorter arms
· Ambition, motivation and the desire to perform well - feeling comfortable makes a big difference, and looking good is an added bonus.

FULL ARTICLE