A Russian mountaineer called Vitaly Abalokov is credited with inventing some kind of spring loaded camming device, though there is little proof of the facts. We do know that an American climber called Ray Jardine set the climbing world alight with his ‘Friend’ in 1978, the ultimate camming device that has set the standard ever since. One of the variations on the theme was a TCU (Three Cam Unit) invented by another American, Steve Byrne, around 1985. A British climber, engineer & inventor, called Hugh Banner, came along a couple of years later (1987), tweaked the TCU idea a wee bit and created his HB (Hugh Banner) Micromates, four fine examples of which we have here in the collection.

Micromates were popular with British climbers, sitting alongside Wild Country Friends and the American Camelots. The Micromates advert tells a wee story as Hugh seems to have been working with Clog at some point, though by this time Clog had been bought by Wild Country. None of the three companies exist in their original form. Hugh Banner’s HB Equipment died with him in 2007, Clog became part of Wild Country, with the name fading from sight when Wild Country was bought by the Italian company Oberalp.

Mark Vallance (Wild Country), Denny Moorehouse (Clog) and Hugh Banner (HB) are no longer with us, but a few fond memories remain.