So I just moved to a new town, new state, new side of the country, and while taking the baby out for a stroll, found these on the side of the road. (Incidentally they were being thrown out after they failed to sell at a garage sale the day before. My wife bought a filing cabinet at that garage sale and conveniently didn't mention to me there was old climbing stuff there...) They were all tied together with a shoe lace of some sort. I don't know my aid climibing nomenclature too well, but it looks like some ring angles and some lost arrow style pitons, and a whole bunch of early ice gear?

The inscription on all of them says (clearly or very not clearly) U.S. ADC 73 and then there is an M with a circle around it. On a few of the pieces it says 74 not 73.

I'm mainly interested if anyonek nows the manufacturer of these. I had a though that they were U.S. Army Defense Corp? Just a guess.

Thanks!!

Okay, I'm having problems, inserting images.... here's a link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ianchowmiller/OldPitons?authkey=0cw0fnDyvf4

The ring angles and ring wafers look like Army pitons. The "lost arrow style" pitons aren't lost arrow style because the eye isn't bent over at 90 degees to the plane of the blade. Pitons like these used to be called "verticals," because they were meant to be placed in vertical cracks, as opposed to "horizontals," which were destined for horizontal cracks. They could be Army or European manufacure. The ice pitons look like tubes, which predated (tubular) screws. I don't think the Army ever made anything remotely like that.

Which deepens the mystery because the "tubes" have the same exact marking (U.S. ADC 73 'M' in a circle) as the pitons.

Thanks for answering RG.

Actually, the Army did issue these. And you can still get them. The photo for the Army surplus tubes looks like a match to yours.

Army Surplus Ice Pitons


Edited to say the Army issued these. I don't know who made them or if the Army developed the specs or just used something already available from European mountain supply sources.

Sets of that type of pitons move through EBay quite frequently. As do the ice pitons, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone bid on those. I'd use 'em as garden markers or tent stakes.