Unlike many other sports, your life depends on the quality of your rock climbing gear. This is just as important for climbing indoor rock walls as it is for climbing in the great wide open. Although some professional sherpas and mountaineers can improvise their rock climbing equipment, this is not recommended and unnecessary as great rock climbing harness packages are commercially available.

Where can you find rock climbing harness reviews to help you make your purchasing decisions? Sporting goods stores are not a good place, because many of the employees will not actually be climbers.

Your Instructor

Rock climbing is not a sport that you can learn from reading a book or learning from trial and error. It is vital to get an instructor. They can be invaluable sources of rock climbing harness reviews. These recommendations should be part of why you pay them to be your rock climbing instructor.

Not only should you get rock climbing harness reviews, but your instructor will show you how to care for the equipment, too. No matter what rock climbing gear you buy, you need to thoroughly inspect it for damage, corrosion or poor stitching. Your instructor should be able to teach you what to look out for.

Your Peers

The indoor and outdoor rock climbing online community is vocal and opinionated. When not climbing, they are online in chat rooms, message boards or forums about tips and tricks of rock climbing. This community can be an invaluable source of rock climbing harness reviews. Keep in mind that many in the community are so eager to help, you may have to climb over a huge pile of rock climbing harness reviews.

Magazines And E-zines

The publishing industry has been hit hard by rising paper prices and printing costs. This is why many are turning to the Internet to make digital e-zines. Some real world magazines about rock climbing do still exist, and they also are a great source of rock climbing harness reviews. You may have to special-order the magazines from your newsstand or from your local bookstore.

Many real magazines have their archives online, including "Climbing" magazine. Companies give them merchandise to try out and they certainly do. When you go online to check through a climbing magazine's archives to look for rock climbing harness reviews, be sure to check the date. If it's more than ten years old, chances are that particular harness is no longer made.