Etrier means a ladder or stirrup in French; one of the many words that British mountaineers borrowed from foreign friends. Etrier were used for artificial or aid climbing where you banged a piton into a crack, clipped the etrier into it and climbed up. Aid climbing was reserved for climbs that were too hard to be climbed free, though with modern climbing techniques and better equipment many of these climbs have now been climbed free, consigning aid climbing and its associated equipment to the history books – almost!

Trevor Peck owned a hosiery factory in Leicester in the 1950s before being introduced to climbing by Pete and Barry Biven. He started making climbing gear in the 1960s and famously teamed up with Hamish MacInnes to produce the MacInnes/Peck Ice Axe.

These etrier were produced around the same time (mid 60s) and have the classic little ‘hooky’ things at the top which were known as Gri Fifi. Another fine addition to our collection – unfortunately we are not exactly sure where they came from.