Mountaineering or alpinism is the set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall
mountains. Alpinism is considered as science of Alps. This sport has triggered many
cultural responses expressed in literature, painting, photography, film and so on. Many
experts consider alpinism one of the most demanding sports, physically and mentally.
The obstacles of an alpine climber are mountain ranges, walls, ridges and ice
waterfalls. The basic value of the sport it is hold in a man himself. Intensity of
experience, camaraderie with climbing partner, coexistence with nature, aesthetics,
romance, self-affirmation.
In the classic period of mountaineering free ascent meant ascending high peaks
without technical equipment. Now this has changed, modern alpinism aims to conquer
most demanding peaks with technical equipment. In my dissertation, I presented
mountaineering equipment and it’s development in parallel with the sport itself. I
focused mainly on climbing pitons. My research began with enquiry and demand to get
old and rusty pitons. I have collected quite a few of them from Central Alps. Some of
them have archaeological value. For our research we chose Slovenian climbing pitons
named Jeseničani. Slovenian alpine club Jesenice has a tradition of making climbing
pitons for nearly fifty years.
We focused on the metallographic research of climbing piton. We have characterised
microstructure by light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we also focused on
non-metallic inclusions. We evaluated their composition, size and shape. Chemical
composition was measured by X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The chemical composition
of pitons was determinated by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and by infrared
absorption after combustion in an induction furnace. We also measured hardness
using the method Rockwell.
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