Could anyone point me in the right direction for a good pair of climbing shoes and a decent harness? (I will be useing the harness when walking as well as climbing).

Depending on your shoe size, Snow and Rock, Needlesports, and Rock&Run all have good offers in the sales, but in a limited range of sizes.

Harness - depends what you want really. Do you climb in or outside? Are lots of gear loops important? Do you want lots of padding? Do you want a fancy fastening system? Loads of good deals in the sales as well - saw a Wild Country Synchro Ziplock for £35 at the weekend.

Hi Daz

I would say that your best bet is to go into shops and try on everything. With climbing shoes, if you are starting out go with what is comfortable. Dont worry about technical shoes or amazing types of rubber as you are going to trash them within 6 months anyway. If the shop assistant tells you that you need to buy a pair that is a size too small slap him and go to another shop. This used to be the case years ago coz shoes werent made very well but today most will be tight enough at the right size.

As far as harnesses go I go with the same kind of questions that the turbo sloth posted. Again if you are starting out get a harness that you can wear with shorts or winter kit. Get one with nice padding and a good amount of gear loops. Any shop worth its salt will have somewhere that you can clip into and hang in the harness. You wont know if its comfy unless you do this. The same goes for shoes, shops should have climbing holds or an edge to stand on to see if the shoes are good whenthey are being used.

Last thing dont worry too much about price if you are climbing low grade or new to the sport. Alot of the time you are paying for a brand name or a technical shoe. Dont forget to take your socks off before trying them on or they will be too big when you come to climb.

Happy hunting

Oh another thing. Do not buy climbing shoes online or on ebay - you'll have to be amazingly lucky to get the sizing right.

I got mine in Rock Bottom in December. They had some very good offers, so I tried on the models they had in the sale. Not ONE pair felt right, regardless of playing around with different sizes of different models. Some were too narrow, one pair felt like it was trying to twist my foot constantly. Eventually had to pay full price for a different pair that felt right on my feet.

Finally, if you go into a specialist shop actually staffed by climbers, they should make sure you walk away with what is right for you :)

Check out a harness with adjustable leg loops, handy for winter use and the outdoors.
The petzl guru, is a cracking harness for all round use. Theres probably a newer version on the market these days.

Nice 1 for the input guy's:-) im off to the foundry climbing wall soon and there's a shop there so hopefully there should be a january sale on!! Thanks again.