Buskins, spats, puttees, greaves and gaiters are some of the many forms of lower leg cover that have been around for centuries, though – surprisingly perhaps – many of the the early mountaineers didn’t avail themselves of any them, preferring something much simpler – socks!

The early, gentlemen, climbers did often wear puttees, and ex-army short gaiters known as spats were not uncommon. Gaiters started to appear in larger numbers after the Second World War, fairly heavyweight canvas affairs.

Dating from the 1970s the pair we have here in the collection are an example of many experiments to cover the whole boot, Berghaus eventually got there with the Yeti Gaiter.

This pair were given to our good friend Alex Gillespie to try out (he can’t remember by whom), they kept coming off so he abandoned the idea.