Bongs are pretty much an American thing, taking their name from the sound they make when hammering them into a crack or fissure. Seems like an American guy called Dick Long invented the first Bongs back in the early 1960s, they were later refined by another American, Yvon Chouinard. They come in all shapes and sizes and were designed to deal with the big cracks in the great walls of Yosemite in California, and elsewhere in the USA.

In the UK large wooden wedges were the equivalent of ‘Bongs’, several of them were used on the first ascent of the Old Man of Hoy, Orkney, in 1966.

Meanwhile Denny Moorehouse and his partner, Shirley Smith, were knocking out pitons of all shapes and sizes in their Clog factory in North Wales. Denny saw potential for Bongs in the UK, circa 1965/6, a time when artificial climbing was still ongoing and pitoneers required Bongs for the wide cracks of the UK. Interestingly, perhaps, Longhope climb on St John’s Head, also in Orkney, was first climbed in 1970 by Ed Drummond and Oliver Hill, they used Bongs rather than wooden wedges.

We have a lovely set of Clog Bongs here in the collection, they were cobbled together from various sources