A HERITAGE THAT BEGAN WITH A BACKYARD ANVIL AND HAMMER CONTINUES TODAY
You can’t tell the history of climbing and mountain sports without telling the history of Black Diamond. As a quintessential example of this claim, in 1972 Yvon and Tom Frost released the now famous Clean Climbing Manifesto in the Chouinard Equipment catalog. At the time, climbing had moved toward fixed bolts and pitons. Crags around the world were becoming littered with fixed protection and pitons, which permanently scarred and altered the rock. As the popularity of climbing increased, this method started to pose a threat for the natural beauty and state of climbing areas all over the world.
Chouinard and Frost declared a new ethic—Clean Climbing. Any climbing protection should be removable and not damage the rock. At the time, pitons were 70% of Chouinard’s sales and yet they were telling the climbing world to stop using them. This ethos has given birth to many innovative pieces of equipment throughout our history, reaching a crescendo with Ultralight Camalots and Z4 Camalots.
Black Diamond was born from Chouinard Equipment and was a natural continuation of the passion and ethos that Yvon Chouinard and his friends started in 1965. Peter Metcalf, Maria Cranor and the employees of Chouinard Equipment took over in 1989, changed the name to Black Diamond and moved to Salt Lake City, to be at the base of the Wasatch mountains.
“TO BE ONE WITH THE SPORTS WE SERVE...”
–Black Diamond Co-Founder Peter Metcalf
The vision of Maria and Metcalf was to create a company culture that was completely immersed in the world of climbing and skiing. Or as Metcalf put it, “to be one with the sports we serve.”
Salt Lake City became the perfect proving ground, with employees designing and engineering products that they could then test in the Wasatch mountains flanking the offices of BD. And to this day, we remain committed to being completely indistinguishable from the world of mountain sports.
OUR FOUNDING STORIES
See more from the visionaries that made Black Diamond into the company it is today.
THE MENTOR FILM
Maria Cranor's remarkable story
FORGED ON MT. HUNTER
The orgins of Black Diamond
WELCOME TO THE MUTANT FACTORY
A peek under the hood
HOW I BUILT THIS PODCAST WITH GUY RAZ
The founding story, from Metcalf himself
THE BEST DAYS OF CLIMBING ARE IN THE WINDSHIELD, NOT THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
—Peter Metcalf
COMMITTED
Today, we remain committed to fostering and empowering the future of mountain sports, through gear innovation, community building, and protecting the places we love.
Our lives are shaped by these pursuits and our continued dedication to innovation and design delivers equipment and apparel worthy of our heritage.
