CAMP stands for Costruzione Articoli Montagna Premana which translates, loosely, from the Italian as ‘the construction of mountaineering articles in the town of Premana’ (Italy). The company has a fairly illustrious history dating back to 1889 when a blacksmith called Nicola Codega started making household items out of wrought iron. The production of ice axes seems to have begun after World War I, when an Alpine Troop Officer asked Nicola’s son, Antonio, to make a better ice axe than the one they had. Many generations of ice axes followed, and we have one of them here in the collection.

The CAMP Bernina seems to have appeared in 1976 and was one of the last wooden shafted ice axes to grace the Alps. It was a time when wooden axes had been found to break during a fall, especially when driven into snow/ice as a belay. Hamish MacInnes had produced the first all metal ice axe back in the 1960s, and everyone else would follow, as did CAMP eventually. CAMP continue to operate successfully in 2026, making a range of their own gear, and producing items for others on licence.