Denny Moorehouse and Shirley Smith set up Clogwyn Climbing Gear – CLOG – in the old cinema at Deiniolen, North Wales, in 1966. These were the days of flower power and laid back lifestyles with a climb now, work later, ethic, so production levels were counted in the dozens rather than the thousands. Innovation was not in short supply, however, and Denny had plenty of ideas to play with. Rock climbers were still jamming pebbles and engineer’s nuts in cracks to make anchors when out climbing in the 1960’s and a few were making wedges of their own. Clog, and their rivals at that time, Troll, were the first to produce wedges on a commmercial basis and we are very lucky to have an early set of Clog wedges, sometimes known as Spuds, here in the collection. We’ve even got a wee bonus since Clog’s early catalogue only lists sizes 2-6 and as you will see in the photo opposite we’ve managed to find a size 1. The numbering and sizing seems to have been a bit random in the early days. One of the No 5’s opposite is much bigger than the other. This set was rescued from the Joint Services Mountain Training Centre at Fort George when it closed in the 1980’s – a fabulous addition to our collection.