Objects Database

Simond ice axe

Accession Number

006.2007.1

Object Name

Simond ice axe

Created

21/11/2007

Creator

Maxine Willett

Accession Date

21/11/2007

Brief Description

'Simond' ice axe, steel head, wooden shaft, serrated pick with shallow groove along either side, adze. Hole through middle of axe head. Pointed spike on ferrule.

Materials

Steel, wood

Dimensions

29.7 (w) x 68 (l) x 7.1 (d) cm

Number Of Objects

Inscription Description

"F SIMOND, CHAMONIX, SIMOND SUPER E" on pick

Colour

Grey, brown

Maker

F Simond

Object Production Place

France

Provenance

The Simond brothers were blacksmiths in the Chamonix valley beneath Mont Blanc. In the early 1800's they made agricultural tools, bells and implements for the crystal hunters. They were skilled at working with wood and metal and it was logical that Francois Simond started making ice axes and other equipment for mountaineers around 1860 when the 'Golden Age' of mountaineering began. Simond axes were to the French what Stubai was to the Austrians and Germans - almost universal. The one we have here was probably made in the 1950's and belonged to Ian Leigh, who for many years was Commandant at the Joint Services Mountain Training Centre, Fort George, Scotland. Simonds were lighter than their Stubai counterparts and were much favoured by the step cutting brigade; indeed Scotland's greatest ever exponent of the step cutting art, Jimmy Marshall, used an axe almost identical to this one and Sir Edmund Hilary took a similar one to the summit of Mt. Everest.