We listed this old, rusty piton way back in the early days of our heritage collection. There was no info and no provenance. We’ve now brought him (we think pitons are hims, not hers!) back to life with a good soaking in vinegar to remove the rust, and discovered that it’s a Chouinard Lost Arrow, albeit a rather battered and worn version.

A guy called John Salathe created the first Lost Arrows, naming them after the Lost Arrow Spire in California’s Yosemite Valley. Fellow American climber, Yvonne Chouinard perfected the idea, as we can see from his 1978 Great Pacific Iron Works catalogue above. Early versions of the Lost Arrow were made by Chouinard in America, and we think the one we have here is one of them, though we can’t be sure. Later versions were contracted out to C.A.M.P. in Italy.

Afraid we don’t have any info on how we got this Arrow, there were lots of rusty old pitons in boxes in the early days from ‘who knows where?’