The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
478.2008.1a-b
Parba Ice dagger & Stubai Ice Piton(dagger)
25/11/2008
Hermione Cooper
25/11/2008
'Parba' ice dagger with rubber hand grip and leather wrist loop. Stubai ice piton customised to make an ice dagger with nylon wrist loop.
rubber, metal, nylon
a- 23.5(L)cms b- 28.5(L) cms
2
a - "PARBA REGD" inscribed on one side of blade.
silver, black, red, grey
a - Parba b- Stubai
a - England b- Austria
We have kept these two ice daggers together as they were both donated by our old pal, John Cheesmond, a retired mountain guide. The Parba is a custom made ice dagger whilst the other one is a Stubai Ice Piton, customized to make a dagger.
Daggering was a very short and very scary phase in the evolution of ice climbing when folk were venturing out onto ever steeeper ice around 1969/70. Leading exponents of the 'art' in Scotland were John Cunningham and Bill March.
Parba was a mountaineering equipment company run by Paul Seddon who eventually joined forces with Troll Equipment. The Austrian company, Stubai, have been making mountain hardware for over a century and the ice piton we have here dates from the 1950's.
Donated by John Cheesmond
25/11/2008
28/04/2009
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
28/04/2009