Felix Ralling was one of the many talented blacksmiths to emerge from the little town of Fulpmes in the Stubai area of Austria and we can’t help but wonder if there was a connection with the better known ‘Stubai’ mountaineering equipment manufacturer. Both began life as blacksmiths and went on the produce ice-axes, with Stubai it was the Aschenbrenner, with Felix it was Kuno Rainer.

Both Kuno and Peter Aschenbrenner were Austrian Mountain Guides and both were involved in the 1953 German/Austrian expedition to Nanga Parbat when Herman Buhl managed to summit alone, losing a couple of toes in the process and subsequently writing a book – ‘Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage’.

So Stubai used Peter Aschenbrenner as their talisman to promote their ice-axe, Felix used Kuno Rainer. The Aschenbrenner became very popular in the UK, F. Ralling’s rather less so, both appeared in the 1950s in the wake of the Nanga Parbat expedition.

Felix did continue to produce ice-axes up to the 1970s with an interesting one called the ‘Ralling Chouinard Pattern’, which also seems to have been called the ‘Everest’, we’ll try to find one for the collection.

This particular axe was donated by Dieter Schwartz who, we’re afraid, has been a very bad boy as, having failed to make it fit in his suitcase when bringing it over from Germany, cut it in half! We have reunited the two halves though I don’t think it’ll be used for step-cutting next winter!