The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
1163.2014.1
Chouinard Equipment ice axe
20/10/2014
Hermione Cooper
20/10/2014
Aluminium shafted ice axe with serrated pick, adze and ferrule.
aluminium, steel
shaft and ferrule 51(l) cms Adze and pick 31(l)cms Shaft circumference 9.5 cms
1
On shaft " CHOUINARD EQUIPMENT " and a diamond with "C" inside.
blue, silver
Chouinard
USA
American Rock climber and mountaineer, Yvon Chouinard, started making climbing equipment in his parents backyard in Burbank, Calafornia, way back in 1957.
He was soon to set up his own company, Chouinard Equipment which operated out of The Great Pacific Ironworks in Ventura. Chouinard produced a host of innovative climbing equipment over the decades to come, and in 1969 the Piolet or ice axe appeared (though it seems to have been a refinement of earlier models) and along with it came the Zero, one of the most iconic ice axes ever made.
Progress, in the form of metal, epoxy resin and fibreglass, pretty soon rendered these wooden shafted tools obsolete so Chouinard produced metal shafted versions of the Zero to keep pace with events.
We are not 100% sure,but the axe we have here in the collection seems to be a later version with a much altered - and far less iconic - pick and adze. We suspect this was a somewhat cheaper version produced for a rapidly growing, general mountaineering market, probably in the 1980's.
It's still a good solid axe, however, and was kindly donated by mountain guide, Dave(Smiler) Cuthbertson.
20/10/2014
20/10/2014
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
20/10/2014
Chouinard Frost ice axe
Chouinard Zero ice axe
Chouinard zero ice axe
Chouinard zero ice axe
Chouinard zero ice axe
Chouinard 'Zero' ice axe