Just thought I'd post some pics of my cracked zigzag here, since I couldn't find anywhere else that had recent pictures posted. This is a MKII zigzag purchased new last summer. It has seen relatively little use as most of my time since then has been spent working from an aerial lift.
You can see the crack in the third rivet up from the bottom
and the throat where the rope feeds in so you can see how limited the use this particular zigzag has seen.
Some background on the failure. I am a larger climber weighing 300lbs as such I know I can put higher loads onto my gear than the average climber. That being said I am always diligent about minimizing the loading my gear, and this zigzag has never seen any falls or heavy shock loads or anything of that sort. It has never been side loaded across a branch either. I regularly inspect my gear, paying special attention to the zigzag links (based on having seen the petzl inspection notice). This crack appeared after a relatively leisurely climb/trim of a blue spruce (prior trees were also relatively mild, crab apples, small maples and such).
It is currently being sent back to petzl for replacement/repair under warranty, hopefully with the new MKIII.
NOTE: This does not change my impressions of the zigzag, it is a fabulous piece of gear and I miss climbing with it already. That being said my impressions of petzl's development/testing arm... well let's just say I'm not terribly happy to be finding failures on stuff that shouldn't be failing in the first place.
