In the good old days climbers attached themselves to their rope by simply tying it around the waist- this was fine until they had a fall and the rope could constrict the diaphragm resulting, in the worst case scenario, in asphyxiation and death. The next step was to wrap lots of rope around the waist to spread the load a bit and soon climbers started making waist belts out of old parachute harness webbing in the 1950/60’s. It was around this time that nylon webbing was invented, with the UK company, Troll, being one of the first to utilise this technology to create waistbelts and harnesses. The belt we have here in the collection is from the 1970’s and looks to be in mint condition. The label tells us it’s a Freestyle Sit Harness. . Unfortunately, the leg loops are missing but still a nice evolutionary addition to our collection.