Tools of the Trade

My first ice ax was a hickory shafted Italian CAMP ax, a high-quality useful tool. But since then, with design advances having arrived, I of course subsequently acquired my trusty 70 cm Chouinard-Frost Piolet, which was manufactured in Italy by Nicola Codega and Sons to Yvon and Tom’s design specifications. Before their piolet, the available axes all had the longer hickory shafts and straight picks that more or less resembled the ancient tools used by Edward Whymper, who had made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, which is to say they had not evolved that much. The new 1969 Chouinard-Frost ice axe featured a much shorter shaft constructed of laminated bamboo strips, which was infinitely stronger, practically unable to be broken, and a chromoly steel pick that was gently drooped, curved further down for more effective ice purchase and self-arrest. And the pick had two sets of teeth, one near the pick end and one near the shaft, for better grabbing of structure during climbs on ice. Available in three lengths, it was a design of surprising simplicity and yet a giant step forward in function. 

And their design was both exquisite and timeless. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry explains it thus in his 1939 literary narrative ‘Wind, Sand and Stars’: ‘In anything at all, perfection is finally attained when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.’ And the Chouinard-Frost bamboo shafted Piolet perfectly exemplified that principle. It was for a time, in a brief ebullient shining moment, absolutely the most beautiful and functional of them all.

The innovative Chouinard-Frost piolet set the stage for all those which would follow. And after that, in the years ahead, that simple breakthrough unleashed a repressed but latent surge of engineering creativity, the arena of ice tool design providing fertile territory for all manner of innovation in both design and materials. With the evolution of metal shafted axes, laminated bamboo as a material has completely disappeared in the wake of the functionally superior aluminum alloys.

They were pioneers during the ‘Golden Age of American Climbing’. A uniquely talented man, and a prolific climber, Yvon Chouinard had acquired the skill of blacksmithing for the purpose of creating his early chromoly pitons, new durable pitons that could be reused. Tom Frost was also a climber, who began his exploits as a member of the Stanford Alpine Club at the university where he earned his engineering degree. They had pushed their climbing skills forward making many difficult first ascents together and thus they were a potent combo when it came to envisioning and designing future tools for the world of alpine enthusiasts.

Both renaissance men, Yvon and Tom were not only designers of breakthrough functional outdoor gear, they were artists as well. The products had a physical and visual aesthetic that embodied a classic elegance that just felt right to the eye. You couldn’t possibly add any more or remove anything, a sort of Goldilocks manifestation of form and function. And the way that they presented them, with their crafted words and inspired photography, completed the package. Their stuff was of the highest quality and while not cheap in the conventional sense, their prices were fair, actually a bargain as you could not find stuff of this quality and design, or anything nearly like it, anywhere else. And in the remote hard places in the mountains, their gear was highly functional, completely reliable and a sheer joy to use. Their ice axes and other climbing hardware were your solid and trusted companions. And that, for serious hikers and climbers was catnip itself.