Oscar Eckenstein is credited with inventing the first crampons for mountaineering around 1912. He had joined forces with an Italian blacksmith called Henry Grivel and together they organised a competition for ‘cramponeurs’ on the Brenva glacier on Mont Blanc in June of that year. Grivel was probably the first to go into production, though others quickly followed.

ASMU is an amalgam of the initials of August Schuster and the first letters of the town, Munich in Germany, where he had his outdoor shop, Sporthaus Schuster. ASMU seems to have been the manufacturing side of the business and they appear to have been pretty quick off the mark when they saw Eckenstein’s crampons since we reckon this pair date from the 1920s as later versions had ten points, and twelve after 1929 when front points were added. With the very fine crampon bag and straps, plus in mint condition, this is the finest pair of crampons we have in the collection. They were kindly donated by Duncan Peet on behalf of his late father, Gerry, who, amongst many other things, was a long serving custodian of the CIC Hut on Ben Nevis.