Andy MacDonald, who was manager of Nevisport in Fort William for many years, gave us these two ‘chunky’ ice screws and other than that we don’t know much about them since they have no markings. We suspect they are two of the many thousands of Russian titanium screws that appeared in the UK around 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. The theory was that the end of the Cold War allowed the Russians to trade more freely and ice screws were tradeable items. ‘Cheap and nasty’ would probably be the best way to describe them – the lightness of the titanium being the main advantage. We’ve included a scan of the wee leaflet that came with them for those who speak Russian!