From the photo it looks like sombeody's drilled holes in it for the picks to go in?

Isn't this aid climbing? Pulling on skyhooks gives a similar result (pulling on wires only slightly less-so). Not sure rock can survive the demands we sometimes place on it.

As someone who has climbed Quick Release and has also done a fair bit of aid climbing I can confirm that they are not even remotely similar!

Nice work Emma.

Google "skyhook".