British mountaineer, Oscar Eckenstein is credited with producing the first crampons specifically for mountaineering, in 1908. Italian blacksmith, Laurent Grivel, added front points to Eckenstein’s creation in 1929. There were many other variations over the years and in 1967, American climbers, Tom Frost and Yvon Chouinard, created the world’s first rigid crampon, a fine example of which we have here. This pair are adonized, or coated to help longevity and to stop ‘balling’ i.e. snow and ice sticking to them. These crampons were very popular in the 1970’s and 80’s, but like so many things in the mountaineering world – new ideas rendered them obsolete.