The sport of mountaineering began way back in the early 1800’s and the participants soon learnt how to bang lumps of metal into the rock to make safe anchors. Early exploration was mostly in the Central European Alps and the names for these lumps of metal reflected that; the French called them pitons whilst the Germans used Haken. British climbers didn’t have a word of their own so borrowed piton from the French. So, right up to the 1970’s, when better forms of protection came along, climbers carted a load of pitons around with them ( as well as a hammer to bang them in) and devised numerous ways of carrying them, one of which we have here in the collection. We’ve kept it together with the pitons and fi-fi hook that came with it since they were all donated together by our old pal and mountain guide, Klaus Schawtz. The tiny little piton opposite was homemade and Klaus tells us he did use it once – and survived! The fi-fi hook is used for hooking into the eye of a karabiner when artificial or aid climbing. Nice little piece of history – thanks Klaus