Mountain folk from the Alpine regions had been wearing spiky things on their feet for centuries before the Golden Age of mountaineering came along in the 1800s. There is some evidence that Hannibal put some sort of metal spikes on his elephants feet when crossing the alps in 218BC. The early Alpine mountaineers wore nailed boots and cut steps in steep ice to progress upwards and it wasn’t until around 1910 that Oscar Eckstenstein teamed up with Italian blacksmith, Henry Grivel, to produce the first crampons specifically for mountaineering. The Simond brothers were based in Chamonix, France, on the other side of Mont Blanc from Henry Grivel who was based in Courmayeur, Italy. The Simonds had been making ice axes for decades and soon adapted their blacksmithing skills to the production of crampons, a fine example of which we have here in the collection. Dating from the 1930s or possible as late as the 50s, this pair don’t seem to have been used much, if at all. Early crampons were often sized and could only be adjusted by heating and bending. There is a barely discernable stamp which reads ‘Brevette, SGDG, which translates as Patent, Sans Garantie Du Gouvernement, which basically means don’t blame the French Government if you break your neck while wearing these crampons!