C. 1948. This is a real Salathe Piton, the holy grail of climbing hardware collectibles. This is an original hard steel piton, to withstand the constant removal of pins from long cracks that were encountered in Yosemite. I obtained them from Eric Reynolds, the founder of Marmot Mountain Works, who has written about them on the Supertopo Website,

 

'I've got three Salathé pitons given to me by on old family friend who climbed with John Salathé.

'My friend grew up in the Bay Area and as a teen was in a Sierra Club rock climbing group that had Salathé, Steck, and Bedayn as instructors/mentors for kids like him. This was pre-1950 years. I am 100% positive of the provenance of these pitons as being made by John Salathé himself. The stories told to me were quite great.

'About ten years ago I was given a few pieces of off his old rack that had been hanging on a nail in the garage for decades. Here are some photos.'

 

The piton is 7', and has some old paint on the head for i.d. purposes, which I am leaving on as removal would also remove the old patina. This is the first Salathe Piton ever offered for sale, that I know of, and may be the only one you may ever see. We also have two other styles listed.