Petzl lived most of his life in the village of Saint-Ismier (near Grenoble), France at the foot of the mountain Dent De Crolles.

Subsequent explorations there with Pierre Chevalier, Charles Petit-Didier and others culminated in connections to other caves in the massif, forming the Réseau de la Dent de Crolles which, in 1947, became the deepest cave in the world.

Petzl also participated in explorations in the Gouffre Berger, which set a new world depth record in 1956 as the first cave deeper than 1000 metres (-1122m).

Petzl was a proponent of cave explorations by small teams, an innovation at the time.

In subsequent years the Petzl brand was expanded to include climbing and ski-mountaineering gear, and continues today as one of the world’s best–known manufacturers of mountaineering equipment.