Yannick Seigneur (1941-2001) was widely considered to be one of France’s most brilliant Mountain Guides, no surprise then that he was sponsored by an equally famous French company, Charlet Moser, known throughout the world of mountaineering for their high quality technical climbing gear, a fine example of which we have here in the collection.

Pitons, and their associated hammers, had been the norm for a century or so for making anchors in the mountains, there was a vast array of pitons along with an equally vast array of hammers to bang them in, the Charlet Moser hammer we have here in the collection was one of them. The advent of nuts for protection sounded the death knell, almost, of them in the 1960s/70s, some pitons were still used, predominately in winter when an ice hammer was carried anyway, so specific piton hammers were relegated to lofts, coal bunkers and heritage collections.

We’re not sure where this one came from, one of the many that Mick Tighe collected along the way.