We couldn’t find a name for these tools initially then our good friend Adolfo Diaz e-mailed from Spain to say that they were Boivins, and we guessed they were named after the French Mountain Guide, Jean-Marc Boivin who may well have been sponsored by Charlet-Moser prior to his untimely death on the Angel Falls in Venezuela.

We think the ‘Boivins’ arrived in the early 1980s, and very few came across the Channel to the UK. Bob Smith, climber, instructor and one-time leader of the Arrochar Mountain Rescue Team had this pair which he kindly passed on to us when he hung up his boots and tools.

Boivins were superseded by Pulsars (circa 1990) which became much more popular at home and abroad, we have excellent examples elsewhere in the collection.

Charlet had combined with Moser at one time to become Charlet-Moser, they in turn were bought by Petzl in 2000 to become Petzl-Charlet, though latterly ‘Charlet’ has been dropped while ‘Petzl’ remains.