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Hi Guys,

I'm currently purchasing some caving equip and have stumbled across a couple of Aventure Verticale caving harnesses that I am interested in. I haven't been able to find any reviews so I thought I would reach out here. Has anyone used the AV sit harnesses in particular the Muruk and the Technirapid? And would you recommend them? In the past I have used the Petzl Fractia and Avanti.

http://www.expe.fr/sport-catalog/caving ... 9_601.html

I haven't used AV harnesses, but I have tried the MTDE ones. My current harness is an MTDE Picos.

If you're considering a more "complicated" harness such as the Picos or AV Technibat, a word of warning: it seems to be quite important to try them on. A simple, unsupportive harness such as the Petzl Superavanti will fit anyone, but harnesses with extra strappage tend to fit some people and not others.

For example, the MTDE Picos is a good fit for me, but the Amazonia was painful. Others find the reverse is true.

Mike Hopley wrote:I haven't used AV harnesses, but I have tried the MTDE ones. My current harness is an MTDE Picos.

If you're considering a more "complicated" harness such as the Picos or AV Technibat, a word of warning: it seems to be quite important to try them on. A simple, unsupportive harness such as the Petzl Superavanti will fit anyone, but harnesses with extra strappage tend to fit some people and not others.

For example, the MTDE Picos is a good fit for me, but the Amazonia was painful. Others find the reverse is true.

You could probably say the same for any harness which you have not used before: make sure you try it on AND hang on a rope before you buy.

Even simple harnesses can cause problems with some people. For example I used to use a Singing Rock "Digger" harness (very similar to the Petzl "Fractio" but with nylon webbing which is prone to stiffening with age) for several years and my partner Karen replaced her old Petzl Superavanti harness with a Digger like mine as it was cheaper than the Petzl offerings.
She soon find that it was painful to bend over as the metal attachment points where the central maillon is attached dug into her thighs. She replaced the Digger with a Petzl Fractio, which also has similar metal attachment points, but because they are in a slightly different place, they give her no trouble.

paul wrote:

Mike Hopley wrote:You could probably say the same for any harness which you have not used before: make sure you try it on AND hang on a rope before you buy.

Yes, that's definitely best.

I've just noticed that it seems more likely to be an issue with complicated harness.

And I actually meant to write "She soon find that it was painful to bend over as the metal buckles on the legloops dug into her thighs"