What to Wear Climbing

Photographer: Chruistian Adam Location: Utah

What to Wear Climbing

In this article, we’re sharing our tips on what to wear while bouldering, sport climbing, or multi-pitch & alpine rock climbing.

Rope, rack, shirt on your back. Rope and rack are easy enough, but what shirt are you supposed to wear? Is it going to be cold? Windy? Are you sport climbing? Bouldering? The variety of situations that fall into the category of “climbing” is immense, and so are the clothing options available for these activities. Though there is not a single outfit that works for everything, there are a set of foundational principles that dictate the climbing dress code. From bouldering to big wall climbing to training in the gym, every climbing outfit should have three key components: freedom of movement, comfort, and durability. Depending on your discipline, other features, like moisture-wicking qualities, harness compatibility, and weather protection, may come into play, but every climbing outfit should be comfortable and easy to move in—bottom line.

In this article, we will outline the basics of dressing for a few different types of climbing: bouldering, sport climbing/cragging, and multi-pitch/alpine rock climbing. Obviously, what you wear bouldering will be quite different than the attire worn on an all-day mission into the alpine, but the underlying principle is: look-good-climb-good. Don’t underestimate the power of a good outfit.

Bouldering

Bouldering, because of its (generally) lower-commitment nature, provides the most leeway in apparel choices. From jeans to slacks to leggings, it's all fair game in terms of pants. The Ethos Pants or the Notion Pants are good options for stretch cotton pants with a bit of durability, freedom of movement, and comfort. For women, the Session Tights are a staple for the gym and the boulders. In warmer weather, many people prefer to wear shorts bouldering. Sequence and Notion shorts fit the bill perfectly.

Basic tees and tanks are common for tops—it's generally not as necessary to think about base layers or layers with moisture-wicking properties when bouldering since it’s not very aerobic.

Easy-on/easy-off is the guiding principle for layering in the boulders. Warm layers are crucial for standing around, but you want to be able to de-layer to feel light and flowy on the blocs. The Belay Parka is a staple for cold-weather bouldering. Worn with the Project Flannel or a cotton hoody, you’ll be styling, and warm.

If you’re headed to the sport crag, chances are you’ll want to wear something that’s a little bit more technical than the attire described above. Most cliffs have some kind of approach, making sport climbing more aerobic from the start. Between hiking, cranking out pitches, and giving long belays while your partner susses beta, you’ll need an arsenal of clothing to stay comfortable throughout the day.

For bottoms, depending on weather, you can climb in either pants or shorts. For summer days or times when you need to strap on a knee pad, we recommend theDirtbag Shorts, theSession Shortsfor women, or the lightweightSierra Shorts. For cooler climbing days, theTechnician Joggeror theNotion SP Pantsboth provide harness compatibility and freedom of movement.

Climbing pants in these situations are very much personal preference; some people like to climb in cotton pants like the Notion, some are fine wearing a pair of Session Tights on a multi-pitch, while others may want a more technical pant like theTechnician Alpine Pantswhen climbing off the deck.

On top, a long sleeve or asun hoodyis a versatile way to go. These layers provide protection from the sun and a little bit of warmth for times when the afternoon wind picks up or when the route goes into the shade. A protective wind layer is also useful to have on hand—we love theAlpine Start Hoodyfor its compact size, packability, and durable softshell construction.

You will probably want to bring an insulating layer along as well. Sometimes one is enough to share between you and your climbing partner, and other times, you’ll each want to bring your own, depending on the weather and conditions. TheVision Hybrid Hoodyis a packable, synthetic jacket that works well on-route and can be clipped to a harness. TheApproach Down Hoodyis also a packable, insulating layer that is great as long as it stays dry.

Bottom Line

No matter what style of climbing you may be pursuing, your attire should make you feel good on the wall, protect you from the elements, and be versatile enough to keep you comfortable throughout the day.