Original Item. Only One Available. This is an excellent original U.S. Army WWII mountaineering ice axe manufactured by the Ames Pick and Shovel Company of Ames, Iowa, of the pattern manufactured for and closely associated with the specialized mountain equipment of the 10th Mountain Division. The axe measures approximately 37⅛ inches overall and retains its 12½-inch steel head, hardwood haft, steel wrist-strap ring, leather wrist strap, lower spike, and metal protective cup marked U.S. / AMES.

Originally activated as the 10th Light Division (Alpine) in 1943, the division was redesignated the 10th Mountain Division in 1944 and fought in the mountains of Italy in some of the roughest terrain in World War II. On 5 May 1945 the division reached Nauders, Austria, just beyond the Reschen Pass, where it made contact with German forces being pushed south by the U.S. Seventh Army. A status quo was maintained until the enemy headquarters involved had completed their surrender to the Seventh. On 6 May, 10th Mountain troops met the 44th Infantry Division of Seventh Army.

Rock climbing hammers, also known as wall hammers, big wall hammers, or aid hammers, are a type of specialty hammer used mainly in aid climbing for the placement and removal of pitons, copper-heads, and circle-heads. They can also be used in the initial placement of fixed anchors (bolts) or the forceful removal of stuck free climbing protection. In climbing, a piton is a metal spike (usually steel) that is driven into a crack or seam in the climbing surface with a climbing hammer, and which acts as an anchor to either protect the climber against the consequences of a fall or to assist progress in aid climbing. Pitons are equipped with an eye hole or a ring to which a carabiner is attached; the carabiner can then be directly or indirectly attached to a climbing rope.

This is a good Korean War era lot of pitons on a clip with a piton hammer, equipment used by men of the 10th Mountain Division during and after the Korean War. The lot includes:

- U.S. 1950-Dated Piton hammer by Penn Tools Co. with leather lanyard attached via hole. Green paint on head. Great solid condition.
- U.S.-marked clip, functional.
- Steel tube rotating on clip connected to aforementioned clip. Not marked. 
- Three black steel angled “bun” shaped pitons, not marked. Connected via steel rings.
- Two smaller thin pitons, one marked US AMES for WWII manufacture. The Ames one is perpendicular and the unmarked one is flat. 

The combination of the documented Ames manufacture, U.S. military marking, complete mountaineering configuration, surviving wrist strap and ring, and well-established association of this pattern with the 10th Mountain Division makes this a particularly strong example of specialized U.S. Army WWII mountain equipment.