Hiebler Steigklemme

Original Vintage Salewa Hiebler Steigklemme 

In 1961 Toni Hiebeler, Toni Kinshofer, Anderl Mannhardt, and Walter Almberger completed the first winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger. They spent 6 cold March days trusting their lives to their skill, thier gear and to each other.
After this historic ascent Hiebeler, who was a writer and gear designer, developed the “Hiebler Steigklemme (ascender)” in partnership with Salewa Equipment Company. I can only guess that his experiences on frozen faces in the Alps led him to design something that worked better on dangerous icy ropes than methods available at the time.

The Hiebler ascender was introduced in the mid 1960’s and produced through three distinct versions into the 1970’s.

Mountaineers have wanted to climb ropes pretty much since the sport began, most notably to get back out of crevasses when they’d fallen in, assuming there was someone left on top with the other end of the rope and they didn’t have the strength to physically haul the hapless victim out.
The early method was to use a prusik knot - see opposite - but as the sport progressed, mechanical versions of a prusik began to appear and these Hiebler Rope Clmbers were one of the early inventions, dating - we think - from the 1960’s. Unfortunately, they appeared around the same time as Jumars which became far more popular

 "HIEBLER STEIGKLEMME" on one side and "SALEWA " in a parallelogram. On other side "Jn.u.A.Pat.ANG."

Materials: Metal

Dimensions: 11(l) x 5(w) x 3(d)cms

Colour: Silver

Maker: Salewa

Made in Germany