The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
264.2008.1
Claudius Simond Channel Pitons
29/10/2008
Hermione Cooper
29/10/2008
P shaped 'channel' pitons. P shaped with round hanger. Channel shaped with rounded end.
metal
20(l) x 1.5(w) x 3.5(d) cms
2
In oval on back reads "CLAUDIUS SIMOND CHAMONIX " Inside channel the letter "X"
silver, blue
Simond
France
The Simond brothers started making ice axes in the little town of Chamonix, France, in the 1860’s. There seem to have been quite a lot of them ; Adolpus, Francois and Claudius are the ones we know about, the latter putting his name to the two pitons we have here in the collection.
Pitons with eyes to clip a karabiner on only started to appear in the 1930’s since that’s when the first karabiners also arrived. Simond capitalised on the new idea by creating their own pitons using the metalworking skills gleaned from ice axe manufacturing.
The couple we have here probably date from the 1950’s, a time when hardly anyone was making pitons in the UK and imports from the continent were the norm.
Alpine guides back then would often place pitons on their regular climbing routes and leave them in situ for future use. The style of these pitons fits that scenario since once ‘wellied’ into a crack they would be very hard to remove.
The Scots, of course, always got them out as they couldn’t possibly leave expensive pitons behind !
29/10/2008
28/04/2009
Bohuntin
Bohuntin
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
19/01/2019