Mountaineers have wanted to climb ropes pretty much since the sport began, most notably to get back out of crevasses when they’d fallen in, assuming there was someone left on top with the other end of the rope and they didn’t have the strength to physically haul the hapless victim out.

The early method was to use a prusik knot – see above – but as the sport progressed, mechanical versions of a prusik began to appear and these Hiebler Rope Clmbers were one of the early inventions, dating – we think – from the 1960s. Unfortunately, they appeared around the same time as Jumars which became far more popular.