GPIW 1975 catalog

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Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 10, 2008 - 03:25pm PT
The seminal 1972 Chouinard Equipment catalog was followed by a 1975 catalog with the company name changed to The Great Pacific Iron Works. I have a catalog which I received for free upon request back then... and it sits on my book shelf with an occasional gander...

..while not quite the same impact factor of the first catalog, it has a lot of good stuff in it. So I thought I would scan it and make it available.

Served at this URL:

http://www.edhartouni.net/great-pacific-ironworks-1975.html

let me know what you think.

EDIT: Updated December 5th, 2016
Chiloe

Trad climber
Lee, NH
Feb 10, 2008 - 03:41pm PT
That's great, Ed. The '75 edition is classic too, as the times they were a-changin'.
Maysho

climber
Truckee, CA
Feb 10, 2008 - 05:49pm PT
Thanks Ed.

I was 13 when that came out and poured over every word. Rereading some of those sections now... there is some good writing, and very effective education torward a more sustainable style. When I was working my way through the Valley 5.8s that year, there were still some people out there who would carry a hammer, but that went away quickly. Nice to remember our own JStan quoted therein as a leading clean climbing pioneer. I have that classic Doug Robinson technique and technology quote posted near my desk. Makes me want to go out and lead some classics without cams!

Peter
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Feb 10, 2008 - 07:59pm PT
Thanks Ed Hartouni!

That's a good one.
An image of Yvon jamming up the second pitch of, what, Outer Limits?, ...in mountain boots no less.
Chiloe

Trad climber
Lee, NH
Feb 10, 2008 - 08:03pm PT
I'm sentimental about that one because it's the only Chouinard catalog ever to quote me.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2008 - 08:12pm PT
I've still got to scan the rest of it...
...Debbie's in preparing for her class and has that room with the scanner in it tied up!


Raydog

Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
Feb 10, 2008 - 10:30pm PT
myth v/s reality

you'd never guess what a moody, egocentric, mean, hypocrite Yvon Chouinard became by looking at those pics, IMO. Many were the days I swapped stories with those who'd been around him at Rincon Machine for years and it was clear, from those stories as well as being in meetings w/ him - I will never forget or forgive some of the unbelievably cold, deliberately hurtful and unprofessional things YC said directly to me (and others) while in his employ.

myth v/s reality
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2008 - 12:36am PT
I've finished up the scanning and posting, if you have been looking at it you may have to refresh the link to reload the new .html file...


Raydog, I've never met Chouinard so I certainly can't opine as to his personal bearing. It is a pretty common thing to ascribe to those who have creative genius the attribute of warmth and grace and good will. Some of the smartest people I have known have been pretty much distributed over the range of other human attributes from out-and-out as#@&%es to very warm, kind and generous people. Sometimes this depends on who is interacting with them...

Others will have to respond to your assessment of the man, I can't. Chouinard, however had a pretty distinct vision and figured out a way to make it real. He didn't do that alone, and he may not have been very generous with recognition, but what he did was remarkable.
nick d

Trad climber
nm
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:47am PT
I always had a lot of respect for Chouinard, but I have to admit my view of him changed when he fired all the sales reps. Less service for the retailers, more money for him. As a retailer I didn't like it.
Ragz

climber
Tartarus, black hole of the internet
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:47am PT
That's cool,

Talus running. Now there's a great sport that's been overlooked by the IOC.
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:51am PT
i think we should all use the mail order form to order stuff from black diamond. give the folks in the shipping department something to think about.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2008 - 12:55am PT
who are the people on Page 2?
I know the Chouinards and the Frosts...
Raydog

Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
Feb 11, 2008 - 09:07am PT
RE:
" Chouinard, however had a pretty distinct vision and figured out a way to make it real."

yes - he created his own little world, where he could always get the little-boy attention he needed by breaking a production schedule - over and over again...making the lives of many of the people who (have tried to) worked with him pretty difficult.

you should have been at the company (Lost Arrow) meeting where YC at the podium, vehemently putting down the world of sport climbing and it's participants in total and all his drones, the whole audience, applauds. except for me.

guess I never drank the cool-aid, man.

(seems like Patagonia kinda prays on the part of human psychology that craves belonging and some sort, or a near-fanatical "mission" to cleanse their consumerist guilt.)

but wait - no big deal really, not compared to what I saw
happen to some of the people around me, like Anne, Chouinard Equipment purchaser - who was just a nice person and did her job and didn't really understand the hornets nest she worked in.

kinda like maybe these "environmentally aware" companies seem to have a hard time integrating with the most valuable environment of all, the immediate one that provides them with their human infrastructure?

or maybe they're a little bit caught up in their own myth, and actually believe it?

I write the above for anne and steve - they deserve it.

now, Ed this is cool thread and I apologize, I'm going to back off but just one more point:

I wonder, really wonder if YC had or has the guts to say to me, and others, the things he said OUTSIDE the protective environment of his Temple, his World. Say, at the crags or on the street??

I and others kinda doubt it - does this mean I and others think YC is a chickensh*t?

you betcha.

amazing though - talk to Tom Frost five minutes and you see a person who is interested in sharing relevant cohesive information and will give you the time and credibility to share your information, as well.

but, then again Tom Frost didn't need a group of "insiders" following him around, all wearing Patagonia polo shirts with their collars turned up (that's how you know they were Yvon's guys, Yvon's eyes) - either.

it takes a high minded person to avoid the stereotypical pitfalls of power and leadership.

oops, gee, guess that was two, no three! points.

RE:
"so I certainly can't opine as to his personal bearing."
none of this has anything to do with a personal thing, it was his professional attitude and the company culture he directly created: I was there 2 years and there were four production managers because that was the position they needed to scapegoat, to turn into their no-win dumping ground so that YC could continue his obsessive scheduling mischief, all unspoken yet obvious to all and, kinda ugly) - that's my point.

ok, that's 4. I'm done. Promise.








Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2008 - 11:33am PT
Raydog -"now, Ed this is cool thread and I apologize, I'm going to back off but..

Threads don't always go where you expect them to go...

The value of the 1972 Chouinard Equipment Catalog, and the 1975 Great Pacific Iron Works Catalog were that they explained a way of climbing with new tools outside of the traditional tool box in a way and drove a very rapid change in climbing habits, especially rapid considering that these "tools" had to work to insure the safety of the people using them. The catalogs featured educational instruction as well as pushing a climbing ethic which was much bigger than just climbing. Whatever the motive of the man, those values were part of zeitgeist and were shared by the vast majority of American climbers.

A lot of what we know from these catalogs were the careful writing by Doug Robinson... who probably doesn't get as much credit as he deserves for our modern era of clean climbing. And of ice climbing too, for that matter. Jeff Lowe also deserves credit there. Many people contributed to the catalogs, and it offered a way to get another point-of-view in front of the climbing community.

This may have been a brilliant marketing ploy by a megalomaniacal narcissist bent on become wealthy on the backs of his workers paid for out of the pockets of dirtbag climbers, or perhaps exploiting those "fashion hungry skiers."

Perhaps I should do more research into the companies that produce my gear. I still use a Patagonia fleece from probably 20 years ago, only slightly worn in the lower sleeves. I have capoline underwear spanning decades, Hansen-Healy too. A lot of my Chouinard Equipment gear is still serviceable. There may be a cult built up around Yvon Chouinard, I'm not sure I'm one of those who worship him...

...it is telling, though, that if I were to eschew buying from Chouinard's companies because of his behavior, I would still look around for products of the type he makes and sells.

The catalog's are important parts of the history of American climbing, independent of the methods and motives of the person who created them. The value of the catalogs was established by the actions of those who read them, thought about their message, and then went out and created a reality from those thoughts. The catalogs remain important ephemera, a necessary touchstone to understanding the history of American climbing. A history, by-the-way, in which Chouinard plays an important role as a climber.

Chouinard, however influential, didn't control the course of that history.
Raydog

Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:33pm PT
Ed - you're a gracious man to lemme spray like that so here's the other half:

for my self in the '70's(and untold hundreds of other struggling young men living in the anonymity of the So. Cal suburbs)

things like that Chouinard catalogue were among the healthiest and most important influences at the time, by a mile.

cataloges like that and others, plus Mountain magazine - fired the collective imagination and seemed rooted in important personal and ethical values - a long way from the gloss, even then.

I am so thankful for those images and cannot overstate my belief that discovering them, and the outdoors, saved my life.

today we look at consumer trends differently - we look at human psychology and the psychology of compulsive risk-taking, differently.

we are older, wiser.

and our lives are much enriched because of the culture and legacy of pioneers like YC, who did what they did and did it pretty darn well.

from their efforts we have all benefited a great deal.

Thanks Ed.
SteveW

Trad climber
Denver, CO
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:44pm PT
Ed
You and Steve Grossman have been great to share such treasures with us. I still have the original '72 catalog, lost the '75 issue somewhere along the way. (Probably recycled). But thanks for keeping the dreams alive.
Steve
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2008 - 12:44pm PT
It's not my thread.... we all contribute, I just put up the initial post.
And this is genuinely an interesting discussion and a very interesting direction..
Jaybro

Social climber
The West
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:51pm PT
"Madman offers himself to the brink of disaster"
-When I was in school in Laramie I had a roomate that looked like that guy. It was an inside joke. sometimes some of us would exchange glances when he was around and it was all we could do to keep from breaking up.
-We never told him.

Talus Running
-This was a big deal when I was a kid @ Devils lake. Boulderhopping, it was called, back then. the idea was to go fast and avoid the use of hands. Some of those old CMC guys were really good at it.

I still have that catalog in my local horde.
F10 Climber F11 Drinker

Trad climber
e350
Feb 11, 2008 - 01:18pm PT

Thanks for posting Ed

I used to pour over that copy photo by photo and word by word in my younger days. It made quite an impression on me. I lost the catalog a few years back, but it was like an old dream viewing the pages again.

I really enjoy some of the older stuff here at the tacostand,

jb
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Feb 11, 2008 - 01:32pm PT
Wow!
*Winning bid: US $2,749.00*
Not sure how long these Ebay links stay active:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290201309125


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