Artificial climbing is the technique of climbing a rock face by means other than using your hands and feet. This would involve hammering something ‘artificial’ into the rock such as a piton, or maybe drilling a hole to insert an expansion bolt. There are other, rather bizzare items that can be used and we have some of them here in the collection. Known as ‘Bashies’ these soft lumps of aluminium are designed to be hammered into cracks in the rock where it is hoped that the aluminium will shape to the crack and form an anchor. The brave artificial climber would then clip in a small ladder known as an etrier and climb up it ready to place the next device- progress! Fortunately, the set we have here in the collection have not been mashed and remain in mint condition. Chouinard Equipment first produced Bashies in 1982 and we think this set dates from around that time. They were kindly donated from around that time by our friend, Jonathon Winter.