Found in a Forge

Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, got his start as a climber in 1953 as a 14-year-old member of the Southern California Falconry Club. After one of the adult leaders taught the boys how to rappel down the cliffs to the falcon aeries, Yvon and his friends became so fond of the sport they started hopping freight trains to the San Fernando Valley, and the sandstone cliffs of Stoney Point. There they learned to climb up as well as rappel down the rock. Chouinard started hanging out at Stoney Point on every weekend in the winter, and Tahquitz Rock above Palm Springs in the fall and spring. There he met other young climbers and eventually the friends moved on from Tahquitz to Yosemite, to teach themselves to climb its big walls.

The only pitons available at that time were made of soft iron, placed once, then left