Finally got my hands on one today, so I'm going to start with first impressions, happy discoveries, and concerns. I'll update this later this week after I get a few climbs in and get my gear dialed in.
For starters, this thing is insanely light. Regardless of what the poundage says online, it just feels crazy light. I think it mostly owes this to the hip D's, which historically have always been steel with Petzl but are now milled and anodized aluminum.
Next big update would have to be the leg pads. They're elongated front-to-back compared to the previous models, and have improved padding...the same thickness and design as the padding on the back, which was always comfortable. I'm very excited about the leg pads.
The buckles have good and bad improvements. The waist buckle is a slightly modified version of the previous fast buckle. It still feels plenty secure, and (until I get a little practice under my belt) is a tad more difficult to clip and unhook. Not a bad thing.
The leg buckles are completely new, and have a two-stage redundancy. The yellow tab has to be opened, and then the back spring-loaded tab beneath it has to also be pressed to get the clip to come out. Very secure...definitely a plus.
Now someone absolutely MUST have complained to their R&D about strap ends. Good gravy, they went overboard with ways to stow loose strap ends...almost to excess. From the waist and leg loop strap tails to the tails that adjust the height of the lower D's/bridge attachment, there's some little gimmick on each of them to stow it all. Some look longer-lasting than others...but it's nice that they took the time. I'm suspicious that one such feature may get snagged on a branch and come open at some point, but hey, it's not life support.
Tool stowage options: Holy crap. There are a TON of carabiner tunnels on this thing, and several of them have a small vertical gear loop between them. I may wind up cutting off one or more of these to keep my tool holder gates clear, but all in all the options are fantastic. On the hips in particular, there's no reason why anyone--even with the most complicated of lanyard setups--shouldn't be able to get it dialed in exactly where you want it. The tunnels are also much tighter...my unexpectedly unbreakable (5-year-old) large caritool had to be crammed in there, so it's not moving around. The update to the gear loops in general makes them much more accessible than on the last version. There are also three webbing loops for potential saw lanyard attachment, etc. They certainly tried to accommodate.
The Lower D's are, clearly, a Treemotion Ripoff. Still, they definitely did their own thing with the concept, and made them open-able (because Petzl) so you can mount a lanyard adjuster directly into the D's, sans Carabiner. That might be neat if I wanted to keep a lanyard down there during spar work, but I think most of us just move our lanyards around too much. Still, it's also how you access the bridge, so being able to open the D's is nice...they have the same o-ring based threaded rods holding them closed as the Ring opens did, but now your bridge (finally) doesn't get in the way of using the lower D's. Hallelujah.
The straps that held up the rings on the last model had a tendency to creep over fairly short periods of time, so a number of users including myself tied them in knots to prevent this...only to have the knots become semi-permanent. Not going to be a problem here...there's a clever little plastic clip that wedges inside the adjusting mechanism, effectively jamming the webbing in place. That's pretty neat.
THE BRIDGE. I've always liked the cordage Petzl uses for these bridges, but the godawful stitching is still there. This time, they've squeezed the piss out of the rope to make it turn a hard 180 without leaving an eye, and stitched it in place to function as a stopper knot. The stitching itself is shorter end-to-end than the stitching on their old bridges was...I don't follow your logic, Petzl. The black sleeve over the stitching is plastic, but doesn't actually protect the stitching...I don't get it. There's a wide open inspection window on the side of it leaving the stitching open to dirt and debris...no shrink tubing, nothing.
BUT it's a double-bridge-capable harness, so the one thing I've already modified is moving the stock bridge down to the 2nd slot, and fitting above it an ABR-stitched MCRS replacement bridge using fisherman's knots. Fits just fine, barely longer than the stock bridge, looks cool. Everybody wins. I only use my second bridge for my hook line or occasional positioning, so I'll keep the stock Petzl shenanigans for that.
Fingers crossed I'll have a climb tomorrow so we can give her a go.
