Objects Database

Charlet-Moser Super Conta Ice Axe (modified)

Accession Number

482.2008.1

Object Name

Charlet-Moser Super Conta Ice Axe (modified)

Created

25/11/2008

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

25/11/2008

Brief Description

Charlet Moser ice axe with red, fibreglass shaft, adze and serrated pick. Hole in middle of head with yellow nylon leash attached. Hole in bottom of shaft. Pointed spike on ferrule with four grooves.

Materials

wood, plastic, metal, nylon, glass fibre

Dimensions

Shaft and ferrule 36(l) x 10.5(cir)cms. Head 26(l) cms. Adze 6.5(w)cms.

Number Of Objects

1

Inscription Description

On head "SUPER CONTA CHARLET MOSER CHAMONIX MADE IN FRANCE" and "2"

Colour

red, silver, yellow

Maker

Charlet Moser

Object Production Place

France

Provenance

Evolution in Ice is what some people called it….the 1960’s when a century or so of cutting steps in the ice with long handled wooden ice axes was fast becoming a thing of the past. Climbers were venturing out onto ever steeper ice and required different tools to stay in contact. Picks were drooped, shafts shortened, points sharpened and arguments raged as to the best design.
Custom made tools were to arrive a few years later, most notably with the arrival of Hamish MacInnes’s Terrordactyl in 1970….a revolution!
Meanwhile folk were hacking their old axes to bits and rebuilding them in their chosen style. In this case, Ian Sykes, who owned the outdoor gear shop, Nevisport, in Fort William at the time, cut the wooden shaft off his Charlet-Moser Super Conta and replaced it with a shorter glass fibre shaft, attached a wrist loop and off he went to do an ice climb on Ben Nevis.
The Terrordactyls and the Chouinard Zeros came along a few years later consigning his prototype to the shed and we retrieved it 40 years later …excellent player in the evolutionary process.

Acquisition Method

Donated by Ian Sykes

Acquisition Date

25/11/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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