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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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Oct 29, 2018 - 03:16am PT
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RMS...
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 29, 2018 - 07:35am PT
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Tamara! Thanks for posting the RMS photos. Do you know when they were taken. Looking at the packs & tents, I'd guess around 1973.
My first visit to the Modesto store was in 1975. I had been a Moscow, Idaho outdoor retailer for 2 years by then, but I was blown away at the great selction of high end gear. It was the first time I'd ever seen Marmot down bags & parkas & I was greatly impressed with their quality. It took me years to talk Marmot into considering a dealership for my store.
For the gear folks here, the tent at left is a Sierra Designs 3-man. My favorite tent in 1973.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 29, 2018 - 07:59am PT
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Hey Fritz,
Check it out, in your photo up thread, the man with Liz Robbins might be Ken Wilson, of MOUNTAIN?
 That Sierra Designs 3-Man tent: it maybe shows the same color they used for their Glacier dbl a-frame mountain tent. Do you recall the name given to that color?
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 29, 2018 - 08:18am PT
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Tarbuster: I had no recollection of whad adjective Sierra Designs added to blue on their early 1970's tent. Happily George Marks has put their historic 1972 catalog, shot in the ghost town of Bodie California on line.
Here's the 3-man page. It was simpler-times in 1972. The color was blue. Here's the catalog link: https://www.outinunder.com/content/historic-sierra-designs-catalog-1972
Ken Wilson with Liz? I would never have made that connection is a million years, but the match looks great. Damn! You are "smart like whip!"
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 29, 2018 - 08:29am PT
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I suddenly realized the tent barely showing at the right of the RMS photo pretty much has to be a North Face Oval Intention, the first true geo-dome style tent & one of the most complicated tents to pitch ever designed.
They came out in 1975 or 76, so that kicks the RMS photos to about then.
Here's my Oval Intention below the north side of Mt. Deborah, in May 1976.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 29, 2018 - 08:38am PT
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Way to go, Fritz, that's how it's done! Pin it down!
My buddy, Doug, had a North Face Tuolumne.
A young Tarbuster on the left, sporting one of those Go Climb a Rock T-shirts.
IIRC, the North Face Morning Glory was two Tuolumne tents essentially connected with one A-frame pole set at the center.
Say, Fritz, was founder of Marmot, Eric Reynolds, your rep when you finally brought on their line?
He told me he did it all himself in the beginning, and slept on the floors of the retailers' homes, for the most part.
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Don Paul
Social climber
Washington DC
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Oct 29, 2018 - 08:39am PT
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In case someone doesn't know, this company sells top quality clothes. Too expensive for me but you can get them second hand on eBay cheap. I just moved across country with almost nothing with me and need "business casual" clothes for work and have been buying these beautiful shirts for about $10 each. You have to watch the material though, many are cotton and have shrunk a lot.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 29, 2018 - 08:48am PT
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I've had this shirt for almost 30 years:
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 29, 2018 - 09:03am PT
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Mono Lake TNF photo expedition to Conness. Photo by Jim Shirley, North Face mail order manager.O.I. tents were the first domes on the market, beginning in '74/'75 thereabouts.
I dispute their difficulty of setting up, but then I've had PLENTY of experience, having set up literally hundreds of seconds in the TNF's Outlet.
We owned one ourselves and used the heck out of it.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 29, 2018 - 09:04am PT
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Tarbuster! Per your question:
Say, Fritz, was founder of Marmot, Eric Reynolds, your rep when you finally brought on their line?
He told me he did it all himself in the beginning, and slept on the floors of the retailers' homes, for the most part.
It was sometime around 1980 when our Marmot sales-rep agreed to show me their line, so I could become a dealer. I loved the stuff still, but by then I had figured out the Moscow Idaho/Pullman Washington outdoor gear market & Marmot was simply too-expensive for it. I don't remember who I worked with.
Another example was Patagonia. My employees & I loved the stuff & stocked it, but never sold it well. North Face was priced just right for our somewhat cheap & poor market & we sold lots of it.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 29, 2018 - 09:18am PT
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MFM! Per your mention:
I dispute their difficulty of setting up, but then I've had PLENTY of experience, having set up literally hundreds of seconds in the TNF's Outlet.
I dispute your dispution. The Oval Intention had 3 different pole lengths & two poles of each length, with rings rather than sleeves for the poles. Any good gear-freak could set it up after seeing it demonstrated, but the noobs had problems with it.
This is from the first North Face catalog with the Oval Intention, 1975.
I sold one to some hunters headed for Canada, who wanted the best tent, & demonstrated how it went up, then added tape to the rings the two longest poles went through & sent them on their way. They showed up the next day after being unable to set the tent up when they stopped for the night. They were fairly pleasant about having driven an extra 600 miles because they were too-dumb to set the tent up, but I refunded some money & sold them a simpler tent, a 4-person Eureka Timberline.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 29, 2018 - 09:20am PT
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Yeah, he (Eric) was probably employing regular reps by 1980.
I remember when those Marmot sleeping bags first came out: they were pricey!
Reynolds, teasing I believe, highlighted the upscale market positioning by pronouncing his company Mar-moh.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 29, 2018 - 09:25am PT
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Ha ha: you refunded them some money.
A Eureka Timberline would have been the right call for those guys ...
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 29, 2018 - 12:03pm PT
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Fritz, everyone knows that hunters' IQs rate below the average climber. It's no wonder the goons found it hard to set up.
--Disputin' Ratsputin
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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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Tar, in the b/w photo it is not Wilson, but Larry Corona. He is a Modestan and friend, carpenter, who helped mom and dad in various ways - and worked at both shops.
It could have been Wilson, as Mom and Dad were both close with him - though mainly spent time together in Europe. Pretty sure he did visit them stateside, but def not in a trade show booth capacity...
Also, I'd have to look at those negatives, but for some reason 1976 is sticking in my mind as when the "tent sale" pics were taken.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Okay, thanks, Tam!
So it's Liz and Larry. If we had a better photograph, we could zoom in on Larry's name tag!
What's the correct source attribution of the photograph? Looks like Fritz's scan is from a magazine.
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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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no idea tbh. i have that image as a slide and negative (the b/w one)... I can't say where Fritz got that particular one with the caption.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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First wearing red PAs, then EBs, as a teenager I was too young to start out climbing in those RR blue suede shoes.
But starting in the early 90s, in my 30s, I started collecting Robbins Boots from the various recycling gear stores in Boulder.
I put a ton of mileage on several pairs of those boots, had them resoled, and even broke the steel shanks on one pair.
I would've kept using them, because the uppers, being well randed, were super durable. But it sounded like I was walking around on beer cans!
Shod here with Robbins boots, durig a 20 hour traverse of the Cathedral Range, Sierra Nevada:
Leading that beautiful corner on Matterhorn:
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