Ice pitons, or pegs, were the earliest form of protection when ice climbing and whilst we are sure that people were knocking lumps of metal into lumps of ice for centuries, the first commercially produced versions appeared in the late 1950s with the German, Salewa and Austrian, Stubai being the main producers. While giving a good safe anchor when driven in to good ice they had to be hacked back out again – a lengthy and tiring procedure. This particular one was donated by Jane O’Donovan, having belonged to her late husband, Roger. One of them would have cost you 60p in 1974.