The ‘evolution on ice’ began in the late 1950s. For a century or so prior to that mountaineers had been poking the ice with their alpenstocks, and chopping steps with their long, wooden shafted ice axes. The 1950s ice climber was venturing out onto ever steeper ice and required better tools to progress upwards in the vertical world. Wooden axes were shortened to make them easier to wield, picks were heated and drooped to make them hook into the ice better, and backward facing teeth were ground into the pick to prevent it popping back out again.

Then along came Hamish MacInnes (circa 1960) with his revolutionary Terrordactyl, probably the greatest leap forward in ice axe technology ever. Hamish had a counterpart over in the states, Yvon Chouinard. He too was a mountaineer, innovator and inventor. It was in the 1970s that Chouinard created two more revolutionary ice climbing tools, the Chouinard Zero and the Chouinard Frost, the latter of which we have a fine example here in the collection. We’ve got Zero’s too.

Chouinard got Italian craftsman, Nicola Codega, to make his Zeros and Frosts in the CAMP factory in Premana, Italy. Terrordactyls, Zeros and Frosts were the ‘must have’ ice climbing tools of the 1960s/70s. All faded from the scene fairly quickly, the Zeros and Frosts quicker than the Terrors, as the wooden shafted axes were deemed less safe than their metal counterparts. The fabulous, mint condition, Chouinard Frost we have here in the collection once belonged to Mick Tighe, founder of our collection.