The hammer-headed sibling of the famous Chouinard Zero ice axe, and much rarer. The collection includes both a laminated bamboo piece and a later fiberglass one.
Identifying Marks by Era
- 1976–77: introduced alongside the Zero ice axe. Chouinard’s 1977 catalog lists both and gives 1976 as the year they first appeared. Laminated bamboo shaft and a head forged in Italy by CAMP.
- Late 1978–79: bamboo phased out for a fiberglass (“carbon-glass”) shaft
- 1980: in the U.S., the Italian forged head replaced by an American-made welded head. CAMP appears to have kept making forged-head Zeros for Europe after that.
- Teeth along the full length of the pick
- A hole through the spike. In Chouinard’s 1978 catalog, the Zero and the North Wall Hammer were the only tools with one.
- Chouinard face of an Italian-made head: “Chouinard Zero” with the diamond-C logo (in script on the bamboo piece in the collection), or “GPIW CHOUINARD ZERO” with the diamond-and-C logo
- Other face: the CAMP mountain logo, “MADE IN ITALY PREMANA,” and through 1980 the round Interalp logo
About the Model
Chouinard sold the Zero axe and its hammer as a pair for steep and waterfall ice: the axe with an adze, the hammer with a striking face. For most of the run the heads were forged in Italy by CAMP/Interalp and finished with a laminated shaft. Far fewer hammers were made than axes, so they turn up much less often today. The bamboo-shafted pieces are the most sought after.
The Bamboo Piece
The bamboo-shafted piece in the collection reads “Chouinard Zero” in script beside the diamond-C logo. The other face carries the CAMP mountain logo, the round Interalp logo and “MADE IN ITALY PREMANA.” It has a carabiner hole through the head and a hole through the spike.
The marks narrow the date. The CAMP mountain logo came in from 1972, the Interalp logo was dropped after 1980, and Chouinard phased out bamboo shafts in late 1978 to 1979. With the Zero first appearing in 1976, that places this piece around 1977–78.
Sources: shaft and head timeline and the spike hole from Ray Brooks, “Chouinard Ice Axe History & Identification 1969–1989” (Redpoint University forums), and the Karabin Climbing Museum‘s Chouinard Equipment display. Introduction date from the 1977 catalog, as compared page by page in the Karabin Climbing Museum’s conversation with former Chouinard employee Nancy McKeown. CAMP and Interalp marks from the Vertical Museum; “GPIW CHOUINARD ZERO” marking from a piece in the Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection. Script stamp and Chouinard-only marking from the collection. Have something to add? Let me know.
