Scottish mountaineer, Hamish MacInnes, created the first ever metal shafted ice axe in the early 1970’s, partly as a result of a bad accident on Ben Nevis when several climbers died after shafts of their wooden ice axes broke during a fall. They had been used as a belay. Stubai had been the most prolific producers of wooden shafted ice axes until then; just about every British mountaineer had one. Along with just about every other ice axe manufacturer, Stubai were quick to ‘go metal’ and the axe we have here in the collection was one of the results. It dates from around 1980 and has the peculiar round adze which had a brief spell of popularity, the idea being that it sank into the ice better without causing a fracture – it didn’t work too well! The adze and the pick were interchangeable..one of the earliest examples. As usual with Stubai, a good sturdy axe which is still useable 50 years after its creation.