T159

Had the buckle undone, which it could easily have done during any movements involved with tree climbing and pruning, and had I sat back expecting support, then it wouldn't have been there. We're talking about a harness buckle failure, not wether or not I'm following good climbing practice, which a was at the time, hence why I survived.

I'm looking forward to what petzl make of it, especially because there's no damage to either the buckle or the plastic clasp. I think it quite likely with the number of harnesses they've produced, they must have come across this before. IMO a vital part of a climbing harness, such as the waist buckle, should never be able to fail, which is why a lot of harness's have threaded buckles. Also, why are petzl using plastic for their buckles, when the designed the am'd ball lock karabiner with a plastic gate, that isn't fit for professional use, surely then a plastic harness buckle, or at least the key pieces of the harness buckle isn't fit for use??

Thanks guys. Most likely a bad batch, but a bad batch of harnesses isn't a good thing. At the point I noticed it, the buckle was under tension, had I leaned forward and weight had came off of it, it would have opened and the waist belt would have dropped down, not idea at 70feet, so quite serious in my opinion.

Supplier has supplied a new harness, funnily enough not a petzl, my choice

Yeah it's on the way

I'm glad too, would have been a bad one!

Reverse of harness buckle

Earlier this month I replaced my climbing harness with a new petzl sequoia harness, I'd only had the harness just over a week, and I was reducing a large sycamore, as I passed around a upright stem, moving accross to reduce the next section, I felt a odd click at my waist, having a new harness and being extra cautious I looked down to check, out of the corner of my eye I saw a small grey object falling to the ground, that was my harness waist buckle, luckily I was in a good position, stood in the top of the tree and could use my landyard to bridge my harness, I manged to exit the tree cautiously and found the plastic part of the buckle at the base of the tree. Upon inspection there were no signs of damage, it literally popped out of the metal buckle it was mounted in. I'll attach some pics, posting this for other sequoia owners to be aware of, if I was in a position where I had sat back in my harness, the buckle would have definately failed.