Blue Ice Choucas Pro vs Older Model, Which is Better for Climbers?

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I have three… well, I guess four now… Blue Ice climbing harnesses.

I have the minimalist Choucas Light harness. It’s really a ski mountaineering - or “skimo” - harness, but I use it for scrambles when I am taking a short rope on the off chance I will need it rather than going for a planned, technical climb.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also have the Cuesta Adjustable harness, which I use more for crag days or projecting days, days I think I might be hanging in the harness more.

And then I have the older version and now the newer version of the Choucas Pro harness. I use this is as my all-arounder. It’s the harness I grab most frequently. It’s light enough to make sense in the alpine or even at high altitude, but featured enough to deal with complex routes that might require more tools across rock, ice, and snow demands.

Keep in mind that, because I climb so often with my kids, I am usually carrying a bit more gear than most, as I feel compelled to have a few more tools and a few more meters of soft goods available so that I can get all three of us out of a jam if something goes wrong. So, some people may say the Choucas Light harness is more than enough for high altitude and maybe a lot of either shorter or less-complex, alpine routes, too.

My point, though, isn’t really about matching the specific harness to the specific climbing genera… although that might be an interesting enough discussion, itself. Rather, as I was making this video, I came to a realization that I am far more brand loyal than I ever thought I be.

Now, don’t get me wrong, because I’m not a sponsored athlete, I get all sorts of gear from all sorts of manufacturers. I go with the stuff I think works for my needs, regardless of brand.

But, to tie these two seemingly disparate thoughts together, I find that certain manufacturers do a better job of designing equipment that meets my specific needs. I’ve got four different Blue Ice harnesses, for instance. My favorite cold weather socks are all from Lorpen (and we did a video and blog post on those socks). I wear a lot of Mammut softshell pants because they make a shorter inseam at 30 inches. I’ve more recently gotten a number of Mountain Equipment jackets because of the two-way zippers, drop pockets, and check pockets. (We did another video and post on why these jacket features are so important to me.) I tend to migrate to ropes by Beal, Mammut, and Sterling as I balance weight, durability, and hand feel.

So, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by my brand-loyalty. Maybe it isn’t so much that I am brand-loyal as I am feature loyal. And if you think about a team of designers at a company, they probably have their own perspectives on features that work and add value versus those that do not, so certain companies tend to spit out the equipment that has the same or similar features over time. And if I stop to think about it, I do find that every decade or so, I get pulled off a brand to another one as those - let’s call them - “feature trends” abate at one company and get picked back up by another. I had a lot more Outdoor Research jackets five to ten years ago for the same reason I have more Mountain Equipment jackets, now. But “OR” has been producing fewer items with the feature I want, of late.

Just like I have my biases towards features, so do the very human people who incorporate (or not) those features into the equipment they manufacture.