Denny Moorhouse and Shirley Smith set up Clogwyn Climbing gear – CLOG for short – in the old cinema at Deiniolen, North Wales, in 1966. These were the days of flower power hippies and laid back lifestyles so the ‘climb now, work later’ ethic prevailed with daily output of their first ‘nuts’ being counted in dozens rather than thousands. Whilst Denny and Shirley had excellent, innovative minds, their business acumen wasn’t quite so good and they were gently eased out of the door, though fortunately Denny went on to set up the equally innovative company DMM aka: Denny Moorhouse Mountaineering. We are not sure who was the progenitor of the CLOG range of ice-axes, but Wild Country had taken over the CLOG trade name in 1986 from a firm called Barrow Hepburn Equipment Ltd. and between them in 1987, they issued a recall notice on Vulture Ice Hammers manufactured before 1985 as some had broken where the hammer was joined to the shaft. By way of replacement you could get a free Simond Chacal Hammer, or £30 refund. This of course, promoted the Chacal, demoted the Clog hammer and didn’t help with the other Clog ice tools which died a slow death. The Vulture we have here in the collection is a ‘second’ and belonged to Glenmore Lodge at one time (initials GL ). They may have taken them out of service when the hammers were recalled.