The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 ending decades of separation between Eastern and Western Europe. The story goes that the Russians, Ukrainians and several other states of the Eastern Bloc had large amounts of titanium which they had been unable to export during the Cold War – when the wall came down exports started again.

In the early 1990s large amounts of cheap titanium ice-screws appeared in the UK, and probably elsewhere in the world, often on the black market. Many were of a fairly poor design like the ones we have here in the collection. The hanger – that’s the twirly bit with the wee white handle – is a very poor fit around the stem of the screw and when turning into hard ice the hanger will turn without turning the screw itself. The 1300kg stamped on the hanger is, allegedly, the breaking strain though quite how they’ve come up with that figure we are not sure.

This pair once belonged to our pal, Allen Fyffe, who doesn’t seem to have used them a lot. We are not surprised!