Pitons have been part of the mountaineer's tool bag since about 1900. Until the 1960s, they were mostly made in Italy, of fairly soft iron. In use in the Alps, they were often left in place on a climb, at the places of greatest difficulty. This group of old pitons are made by Cassini of Italy. I shudder to think of leader falls being held by these pieces of crap. I used these pitons in mountaineering when I was in my teens, climbing peaks in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in the sixties.
The world of climbing changed when another Southern California teenager began making pitons. He made them out of a hard chrome moly steel, and they were so hard that they did not deform in the cracks in the rock, and could be removed and used again many times. This made them perfect for long routes in Yosemite, where climbers would carry a rack of pitons, and place any one piton and remove it many times during the climb. The young man was Yvon Chouinard, and his company grew from sales out of his car, to the largest climbing equipment supplier in the world. It carries on in business as Black Diamond Equipment, and as Patagonia Inc. These pitons are 70's vintage Chouinard pitons, two in the lost arrow style, and five angle pitons.
The climbing technique that evolved in Yosemite in the 60's was a two man climbing style. One climber, attached to the rope and his partner, carries the hardware rack, and as he climbs up, he places pitons periodically, clips a carabiner in the piton, puts the rope through the carabiner, and continues on. Then if he falls, his rope through the piton will stop his fall. When the lead climber reaches a point of safety, he anchors himself to the rock using a piton or other protection, and belays the second climber up. As the second climber comes up, he removes the pitons, and places them on a sling. When he reaches the belayer, the second climber takes the hardware rack, and leads the next pitch, or rope length. Thus alternating leads, the pair may climb a number of pitches, or rope lengths. A climb may be one pitch, or many. Climbs are rated by difficulty, from 5.0 to 5.13, and by how much time they take, from Grade I to Grade VI.
When you are quite a ways above your last protection, on thin holds, and getting tired, there is no better sound than that a Chouinard piton makes as it gets banged into a crack in the rock. It is a beautiful ringing sound that changes pitch as it goes in, and you can tell by the sound if it is solid. To remove the piton, you bang it up, then down, and often if comes right out after a few sideways taps.
what are pitons use for
Posted by: | September 26, 2007 at 06:12 PM