Felix Ralling was an Austrian blacksmith living and working in the town of Fulpmes in the Stubai Tal. History tells us that he got together with several of his blacksmith pals to form a co-operative in 1897. It seems they made a variety of products, such as: tools for craftsmen; cutlery; agricultural tools and mountaineering hardware. We’re not quite sure how Felix fitted into the co-operative, but we do know that he was making ice axes from around 1920/30 onwards, and stamped them with his own logo: F. Ralling, Hammerwerk, Fulpmes, Made in Austria.

The co-operative of blacksmiths were brought together again in 1955 with a new name, Stubai, a company that still exists seventy years later. A 1980s Stubai catalogue tells us there were five hundred people in thirty-nine factories producing four-thousand different articles.

The change of name in 1955 conveniently tells us that the ice axe we have here in the collection pre-dates that, and we suspect it is 1940-ish. It’s a classic example of Felix’s work, designed for step-cutting rather than steep ice climbing. It was longer in its original form, having been shortened. We are not sure of the donor as it’s one of the many items collected from ‘somewhere’ by our founder, Mick Tighe, before we became a charity.

N.B. There’s a curious wee twist in the time scale, as the scanned catalogue page above comes from a 1970s Graham Tiso catalogue. American inventor/mountaineer, Yvon Chouinard, seems to have got into a deal with Ralling, combining their two technologies.