The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
1608.2021.1(A-C)
Troll Waist Belt, Leg Loops and Chest Harness
25/06/2021
Hermione Cooper
25/06/2021
Troll waist belt, leg loops and chest harness in one group. Plastic loops and metal buckles
nylon, cotton, plastic, metal
Waist belt- 70(L) cms Chest Harness 83(L) cms Leg loops 5(W) cms
3
On Leg Loops "TROLL FREESTYLE SIT HARNESS TROLL UPPERMILL OLDHAM ENGLAND"
On Chest harness "TROLL FREESTYLE CHEST HARNESS UPPERMILL OLDHAM ENGLAND 95 CM"
On Waist belt "TROLL MADE IN ENGLAND"
blue, red
Troll
England
Alomg with his pals, John Arnott and Bill Tweedale, Tony Howard succeeded in climbing the 5000 ft Troll Wall in Romsdal Valley, Norway in 1965. No surprise then, that when Tony subsequently set up a company to manufacture climbing gear shortly after, he called it Troll.
Tony had made himself a prototype climbing harness out of leather for the climb, so no surprise again, that Troll specialised in making climbing harnesses,especially from the relatively new nylon webbing that seems to have appeared on the market in the 1960’s.
Though looking rather like a turkey trussed up for Christmas, our model- opposite- is wearing a Troll waistbelt,leg loops and chest harness, all dating from the 1970’s, a time when there was much debate concerning full body harnesses versus waist/ sit harnesses with continental mountaineers generally favouring the former, Brits the latter.
We’ve cobbled together this little set from various sources. They were soon to be superceded by the Troll/ Whillan’s Harness which became almost universal for a while in the 1970’s until better versions came along.
25/06/2021
25/06/2021
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
25/06/2021