Vertical caving terminology and methods > General hardware
A French company that makes rope working equipment, and pioneered many aspects of SRT. Within Europe, this is one of the largest SRT equipment manufacturers, and many cavers will have their entire set of SRT gear produced by Petzl. Insultingly called "pretzel", but some people are not aware of the joke and think you are stupid.
Its founder French caver Fernand Petzl was one of the early users of many aspects of vertical caving originally, exploring the Dent de Crolles system in the Grenoble region of France since 1934, mostly along with French caver Pierre Chevalier and other pioneers. He was then among the first to use nylon ropes underground along with their inventor Pierre Chevalier in 1942-1943. By 1968, he was manufacturing SRT devices for sale, in his workshop, largely designs and devices created by French caver Bruno Dressler. The company was founded in 1975, and continued to produce devices based on the same designs.
This history section only covers Petzl. This article also has a detailed history of many of the other devices and techniques that are used for vertical caving.
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