I arrived in North Conway at about the same time as Chouinard Equipment did. Well at least rigid crampons, piolets and alpine hammers. Improvements to ice screw design were still to come. For the moment the best thing on the market were Salewa tube screws. They were soft but held well. Problem was their cores were too narrow and would freeze up immediately. On many an occasion the only remedy was to slowly put them in your mouth and wait for the core to warm up! Chouinard screws came along in 76' and overnight Salewa ice screws became an anachronism.