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In the past, as nobody manufactured pitons, alpinists helped themselves with their own homemade inventions: from different lengths of steel bars to wooden wedges for larger cracks. The first person to design an actual model and a series of pitons that resemble, in their most traditional and classical form, the ones we use today, was Hans Fiechtl (1883-1925), in about 1910. He was one of the best known guides from the famous Munich school (Fiechtl, Herzog, Dulfer) in the years leading up to the 1st World War. His pitons went hand in hand with his good friend's, Otto Herzog nicknamed Rambo, discovery of a ring with an opening bar: the carabiner used by Munich firemen. He introduced it to climbing and rope manoeuvres.
The history of ice screws was started in 1924 on the North-West face of the Gross Wieesbachhorn by Wili Welzenbach, the first person to think of them. This also initiated the diatribe of whether one could be secured as safely on ice as on rock. It's still debated today! Modern ice screws don't look anything like their predecessors and Grivel has accelerated this process with the 360°. At long last one can fix protection where and when you want to, not just where the type of ice lets you: all this with one quick and simple movement and with just one hand!
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