Though sadly no longer with us, pioneer Scottish mountaineer Bill Skidmore, was a prolific maker of his own gear and this little device must have been his ” piece de resistance.” We are short on adjectives to describe it – fabulous will have to do ! Basically it’s an ascender or device for climbing ropes and seems to be based, loosely, on a Clog ascender as you’ll see in the picture opposite though it also uses the principle of another common device known as a shunt, the idea being that if you pull down on the lever it squashes the rope and grips it allowing a climber to climb the rope. Two would normally be used but we don’t know if Bill made another. The lever bit is made from solid steel which makes it quite heavy even with lots of holes drilled to mke it lighter. We just love it – thanks to Bill’s widow, Mary, who gave us a pile of stuff when Bill died in 2015.