Ice axe 1786, Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard made the first ascent of Mont Blanc. Balmat, a chamois hunter and crystal collector, had experience with high mountain travel, and Paccard had made previous attempts to climb the peak. Illustrations show Balmat carrying two separate tools that would later be merged into the ice axe – an alpenstock (or baton) and a small axe that could be used to chop steps on icy slopes. According to the earliest manufacturer of ice axes, Grivel, these two tools were merged to create the first true ice axe around 1840. Early ice axes had a vertical
The Night Climbers of Cambridge the Case for Fascism in the Post-War World". "The Night Climbers of Cambridge" is repeatedly referred to in "The Bad Quarto", a mystery novel by Jill Paton Walsh. Her novel mentions a supposed additional chapter regarding night climbing in St Agatha's College, the fictional Cambridge setting for most of Walsh's story's about Imogen Quy, college nurse at St Agatha's. Night climbing plays a central role in "The Bad Quarto", along with a production of the 1603 quarto version of "Hamlet". The Night Climbers of Cambridge The Night Climbers of Cambridge is a book, written under the pseudonym "Whipplesnaith", about nocturnal