Early ice climbers banged lumps of metal into the ice to make anchors and called them ice pitons, we have a glittering array of them elsewhere in the collection. Must have been the early 1960s that the first ice screws appeared on the scene, made by Stubai of Austria using their trade name Marwa, they were all the rage at the ice climbers ball for opening the wine, and some were used to protect the odd ice climb.

As usual when something new comes along there are copies, in this case a Marwa look-alike made by the Italian company C.A.M.P. which we assume came along soon after its progenitor. Both versions had a short lifespan as ever more effective tubular versions soon came along leaving the corkscrews to mountain sommeliers.

There seem to have been thousands of Marwas, but very few C.A.M.P.s, and as this one is in mint condition we think it’s rather rare, we were surprised to find it in our ice screw graveyard alive and well!