We got this entry wrong on our website initially, so apologies to anyone visiting for a second time around. We could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the piton we had here first time around was a Leeper as it looked very much like one (see our comparison photo above).

American climber Ed Leeper produced his first pitons back in 1962, Grivel created their very similar Ondas a couple of decades later – leaving us to wonder about patent laws and intellectual property rights, lets hope Ed got a good deal.

The only difference we can see between a Leeper and an Onda is the shiny metallic ring around the karabiner eye, and the relevant makers’ info. Both types came in different sizes, we have an Onda 511 and 2 x 515s here in the collection.

Even though pitons are, almost, a thing of the past, ‘Z’ shaped pitons are still popular with Scottish ice-climbers as they ‘bite’ well in icy cracks. These three were once part of Mick Tighe’s icy crack rack!