What are the special pitons which come in a climber's kit?

Question

The PHB described the Climbers Kit by saying (p.151, emphasis mine):

A climber's kit includes special pitons, boot tips, gloves and a harness.

What makes these pitons special, and how are they different from the pitons contained in the Burglar's Pack or Dungeoneer's Pack?

In an non-gaming (real world) reference on pitons, the only significant difference between types of pitons is whether or not they are reusable (e.g. removable from rock without deformation after being hammered into a crack or crevice). Is it unreasonable that the "special" pitons are reusable, while the pitons in the Burglar's or Dungeoneer's Pack are single use?

Answer 1

They allow you to take an action to anchor yourself

You can use the climbers kit as an action to anchor yourself; when you do, you can't fall more than 25 feet from the point where you anchored yourself...

The pitons are special because they allow you to take this action.

The difference between the 2 types of pitons isn't part of the rules as written, you should ask your DM how the pitons look in their campaign. (When a player asked me what pitons were I didn't know and had to google them.)

It is implied (because its been given a number) that the dungeoneers pack pitons are of the deforming type which is not quickly re-usable. However, again, the rules as written are silent on this.