Petzl Harnesses - Beware!

After less than a year of using my Petzl Hirundos harness, the fabric on the gear loop wore through (from abrasion on rock like climbing in a chimney).  This thin strip of fabric is the only thing keeping the gear loop attached to the harness, so if it wears through in one spot, it is likely to abrade completely around and fall off. This is potentially dangerous if it falls off while climbing and you drop a whole side of gear—dangerous for your belayer/people below, and for having the right gear to finish your route.  

Although I've only owned the Hirundos, it seems like most if not all Petzl harnesses have this same design.  If this happens to your harness, Petzl won't stand by their product and offer you a replacement/refund.  

Right on, meant to write "gear" loop.  Made the edit... thanks for the catch.  I believe it was only two chimneys (Honeymoon and Lightening Bolt Cracks) that caused enough damage for the gear loop to fall off.  

Matt Piscopo wrote:

Right on, meant to write "gear" loop.  Made the edit... thanks for the catch.  I believe it was only two chimneys (Honeymoon and Lightening Bolt Cracks) that caused enough damage for the gear loop to fall off.  

That’s a lot more chimneying than I’ve done in mine. 

This just in: thrashing your gear in a chimney is not covered under warranty 

Here's Petzl's description of the Hirundos: 

>Ideal for linking cruxes, the Petzl Hirundos harness is for sport climbing in the gym or at the crag. The slim, lightweight build gives freedom of motion without compromising comfort when hanging

petzl 4 lyyyyyyphe dawg

My friend calls it the horrendous. I asked how he liked the gear loops. “I don’t know I never carry any.”

My buddy had a mammut that did the same thing 5 pitches up a route in red rocks.
gear fell off harness.
petzel has the same gear loop design.
its like a woven sweater, once it is abraded (partners wasn’t looking obviously bad) it unravels and breaks. Inside of the loop is hard plastic that is not connected to anything, it is just a stiffener).
Junk!!!!
Might be fine if sport/face climbing, but as an American climber that climbs sandstone and granite, these types of gear loop designs are terrible.
lucky for us by buddy had very little gear on the loop at the time it broke. Could easily have lost a rack=1000 $
definitely not worth the gamble.
too bad the gearloops on most harnesses are too small. BD actually made the gearloops smaller on the harness i had for years.

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/122094351/gear-loop-failure-on-ancient-art 

Long discussion about the durability of Petzel gear loops. Petzel harnesses suck, buy something different if you crack climb. Probably fine for sportos, but not for anything where you could scuff a loop.

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

Most harnesses will do this except for burly ones like the metolious safe tech line.

Even my burly as all hell Yates Shield had that happen after a fair amount of faffing about on the bigwall year in and year out. 

False. BD loops are plastic covered as are some others. 

Also agree with the above poster. BD indeed fucked up the gear loops, at least on the solution harness, but downsizing. 

Where's Walden wrote:

Also agree with the above poster. BD indeed fucked up the gear loops, at least on the solution harness, but downsizing. 

What are y’all talking about? 4 small gears loops are the epitome of perfection. One spot each to clip: gym belay tag, pas, gri gri, and chalk bag. Everything else is aid. 

I’ve had 2 Arcteryx harnesses for the last 10+ years of climbing and have never thought about a gear loop failing. They are covered in a durable plastic that after hundreds (thousands?) of pitches is functionally the same as day 1. Actually, the first harness was retired because it came in contact with a car battery, so I’ve never needed to retire one due to wear and tear. 

Nun Ya wrote:

What are y’all talking about? 4 small gears loops are the epitome of perfection. One spot each to clip: gym belay tag, pas, gri gri, and chalk bag. Everything else is aid. 

I think they are referring to how much smaller all 4 gear loops are on the current generation of BD Solution harnesses, compared to the average size for gear loops on other harnesses, including other BD harnesses.

Ross Exler wrote:

I’ve had 2 Arcteryx harnesses for the last 10+ years of climbing and have never thought about a gear loop failing. They are covered in a durable plastic that after hundreds (thousands?) of pitches is functionally the same as day 1. 

i have had two arc harness gear loops fail and know other people as well who have experienced the same. i got lucky and noticed it when i looked down before my rack slid off. 

i am surprised to see that it seems like no manufacturer is immune - but i think the ones that use super modern materials are worse than the ones from 20 years ago  

The answer is to have 5 or 6 harnesses "in your quiver." And to buy more gear. Always buy more gear, that's what climbing is about. 

petzl logic wrote:

i have had two arc harness gear loops fail and know other people as well who have experienced the same. i got lucky and noticed it when i looked down before my rack slid off. 

i am surprised to see that it seems like no manufacturer is immune - but i think the ones that use super modern materials are worse than the ones from 20 years ago  

Weird. That hasn’t been my experience at all and I’ve desperately wedged myself into many offwidths and squeeze chimneys. To be fair, my current harness is a few generations old, so maybe something has changed? My one and only complaint about the harness is that with the weight of a full rack, the waist cinch tends to loosen and the harness slides down. 

I bought a petzl harness a few years back and the gear loops started to separate from the harness after a few months of use. I buy BD now and love them. I like how the BD gear loops are rigid and create space between your body and the loop. It makes it easier to re-rack if your cruxin and grab the wrong piece. With saggy gear loops (like arcteryx) I often snag my shirt, jacket, pants etc.  

Fabric gear loops do this in general, its not a Petzl specific issue.

Plastic covered less so, but there are still failure points where the little bit of webbing is no longer covered in fabric. It has to get stitched down somewhere, and you can't really stitch through the tubing itself.

Some people didn't read the headline. 

BEWARE!

Same issue has been reported with Edelrid harnesses.

Potential gear loop failure

Lots of recommendations for Shoe Goo and pre-emptive taping the wear points if you know you're going to be wrestling around in chimneys.