I am the designer of the Choucas Harness and I would like to clarify our reply to muFF1n. Here is the quote of the original message:
“Hi Lukas,
We looked into the issue you point out in your message. Below you will find our conclusions.
We have made specific tests on the harness and we were never able to make the buckle turn by itself when the harness is properly tighten and worn. We have also asked our ambassadors and none of them observed this behavior in more than two years of usage.
This harness and buckle were designed for use by professionals who must wear the harness with gloves and, like other harnesses, it requires attention when wearing it and closing the buckle. Because of the success of the product and to avoid all possible usage errors, we updated the buckle with a new design for the 2013 collection that we introduced at the Friedrichshafen Outdoor show last July.
Finally, I would like to assure you that APAVE Sudeurope certifies that the harness conforms the CE norms and that we are audited on a yearly basis to ensure that our manufacturing procedures responds to the required safety standards.
If you have any further question, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.
Best regards,
Giovannibattista Rossi”
I would like to explain this further:
The buckle used on the harness, known in French as a “boucle rapco” is a well-known design and it is used on a variety of safety equipment, including the Mammut Alpine Light harness. This buckle can be closed and adjusted easily when wearing gloves and it is what our customers demanded when we designed the harness. Because of the success of the Choucas, for our upcoming version we decided to sacrifice some usability in favor of a more error proof design: the “rapco” buckle must be inserted in the right way when wearing the harness and the webbing must be flat and without twists (see the third paragraph of the section “Putting on the harness” in the instructions booklet). We have been using and testing the Choucas Harness for more than two years and we have never observed the buckle rotating on itself when it is closed correctly and with the harness properly worn and tighten.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly at
[email protected].