Britain displayed in the twenties and thirties, a certain aversion towards pitons, not for environmental reasons but in respect for a rigorous, pure ethic. The use of pitons was perceived as disloyal and less glorifying. British climbers decided to banish them from as many of their cliffs as possible. Balance climbing was then seen as the only climbing style, which meant that a climber should be able to climb down what he had cautiously climbed up, a style that Paul Preuss pioneered and carried to extremes with his « no piton » ethic at the beginning of the century in the Alps.