Ice pitons were the forerunners of ice screws and were simply a piece of metal that you bashed into the ice to make an anchor or running belay and hacked it back out again when you had finished. Commercial versions of ice pitons were available,though as it was a very simple design, folk often made their own, as is the case with what we have here in the collection. It is well crafted and lightweight, being made from aluminium though therein lies the problem since we doubt it would last very long if it was hammered into hard ice. Could be that it was made as a template for a steel one, or just for fun. Unfortunately we have no idea where it came from so thanks in absentia to its creator.