A guy called Denny Moorehouse and his partner, Shirley Smith, started making pitons in an old cinema at a place called Deniolen, North Wales, in the 1960s. Initially called Clogwyn, they later shortened it to Clog, and their range of pitons was an excellent UK riposte to the vast amount of pitons available at the time, mostly imported from companies like Stubai of Austria and Cassin of Italy.

Most of the Clog pitons were well made, durable, robust and functional, unfortunately the two we have here in the collection were not. Officially known as ‘verticals’ most pitoneers back then called these guys ‘channels’, though these particular versions were close to being ‘bongs’. All the different versions can be found elsewhere in the collection.

The problem with these ones was that they would ‘spread’ if hammered in one way or ‘squeeze’ if hammered in the other. Either way, the spine of the piton snapped under the strain and became defunct, the result shows clearly in the picture above. Clog went on to be one of the UKs most popular gear manufacturers in the 1970s/80s, but these pitons were consigned to the scrap heap.