Petzl harness gear loops, are they still failing?

Hi all, I’m looking at getting a new harness and the Petzl Aquila caught my eye. I hear reports of their gear loops failing. Is this a solved issue or is it ongoing?
Thanks!

I've had my Adjama harness for 3 years now and haven't had any issues with the gear loops breaking and dropping a bunch of cams or anything. I don't know if I'm just lucky or if they've fixed the issue, but I'll buy another one when it's time. 

Similar experience here.  I have an Adjama and have only 30ish pitches with it but the gear loops still look new.  I really like the harness and it’s comfy.  

Over the years I have owned like 5 harnesses from Petzl and none of their gear loops have failed. 

I snapped the stiffener inside the gear loop of the new Aquila by hanging something 20-30lbs. It’s still useable, but that was a little disappointing.

I want to offer a differing story from the ones I've seen here. I had a Petzl gearloop break, plus I had two friends with the same issue. It's way more common if you climb a lot of corners. At the time, all of us were living in Moab and climbing a ton of Wingate dihedrals. When you scum and rub your hip on the wall the fabric wore through where the internal plastic stiffer ended. Since there wasn't anything besides the fabric holding the gearloop on, they broke. Luckily I noticed mine while on the ground. Other friends dropped half their cams while on-route.

I haven't seen if Petzl has updated their harnesses to address this issue yet, but you can feel the gearloops to tell if it would be a problem.

Thanks for sharing everyone!

It's really more of a design flaw than QC or materials blowing out, unless they just made the gear loops out of something incredibly abrasion resiant like dyneema they will always fail in the same way.

I had a petzl sitta gear loop stiffener snap on me a couple years ago. I only ever really used that harness for sport climbing and never carried a huge rack or anything. They did replace it for free however.

I've had an Adjama for years without issue. 

However, be aware that the Aquila has gear loops that are awkwardly far backward. I have that one too and I only use it for the gym for that reason. 

I don't know if the issue has been solved, but I don't even care; they already lost my business. Same with the helmets.

This issue can potentially affect any harness that has fabric-sheathed/internal-stiffener gear loops. As mentioned, it'd only be a problem if you're using it to lay back corners, in squeeze chimneys, or anywhere the loops make a lot of contact with the rock. I'm pretty sure all of Edelrid's harnesses also have loops like this. 

Brandon R wrote:

I'm pretty sure all of Edelrid's harnesses also have loops like this. 

Edelrid actually have really nice moulded gear loops and the plastic is sewn to the harness, they're covered in a braid which makes them look similar but they're solid, I've even worn through the fabric sheath on a loop and it's just some solid black plastic underneath, the loop is as solid as ever. 

Issue with edelrid is the fragile face fabric, that will abrade in chimneys and corners. 

Cosmic Hotdog wrote:

I've had an Adjama for years without issue. 

However, be aware that the Aquila has gear loops that are awkwardly far backward. I have that one too and I only use it for the gym for that reason. 

I don't find that the gear loops sit far back at all. The front loops are perfect for me for racking cams and passive gear and the mid loops for alpines/draws and the center back for quads and everything else that you need for multi pitch routes. 

Bryan L wrote:

I don't find that the gear loops sit far back at all. The front loops are perfect for me for racking cams and passive gear and the mid loops for alpines/draws and the center back for quads and everything else that you need for multi pitch routes. 

Same. I got the new Aquila for this very reason. 

Wore thru a petzl adjama and camp trad harness (can't remember which) in less than 6mo each climbing granite trad (valley, etc) switched to solution guide, not as comfy but prob last longer with coated/protected loops.

Misty Mountain 

Teton Tom wrote:

Misty Mountain 

I like Misty Mountain but their colors are ugly and I kind of wish they’re belay loops weren’t so “old school” and they are kinda really expensive.

Finn Lanvers wrote:

I like Misty Mountain but their colors are ugly and I kind of wish they’re belay loops weren’t so “old school” and they are kinda expensive.

But I doubt there’s not a single thread on MP about them falling apart!

Finn Lanvers wrote:

I like Misty Mountain but their colors are ugly and I kind of wish they’re belay loops weren’t so “old school” and they are kinda really expensive.

You can solve one of those problems while making another worse: order a custom harness from MM with whatever colors/patterns you want. It'll cost you a pretty penny.

Adam Fleming wrote:

You can solve one of those problems while making another worse: order a custom harness from MM with whatever colors/patterns you want. It'll cost you a pretty penny.

I was going to but the pricing was comical $250+