Early mountaineers simply tied the rope around their waist when they went off climbing but it wasn’t until the 1960’s when nylon webbing tape came along that they started to create a form of harness which, crucially, incorporated leg loops. We are not sure who manufactured the first sit harness though the UK mountaineering equipment firm, Troll, were one of the first with their Whillans Harness. Others quickly followed, with many looking remarkably like a Whillans which makes us wonder about the patent laws. The Chouinard harness we have here in the collection is an early one which we think dates from around 1975 and whilst it appears to be a sit harness with leg loops, we are not 100% sure as we can’t work out how the rope would be attached, so the photos opposite are a best guess scenario and whilst the ‘model’ is fairly small, we suspect this harness is a very small or child’s version. So, an interesting early harness, albeit somewhat of an enigma. Our thanks go to Dave (Smiler) Cuthbertson who donated it to the collection.