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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 29, 2011 - 07:14pm PT
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I just got this Sport Chalet catalog from 1964 and it provides a really interesting look into equipment available right about when rock climbing and moutaineering began to become popular.
Does anyone out there have one of the Longware Swivel Pulleys for show and tell?
This stainless steel ring angle turns out to have been made by none other than Douglas J. Black as described above. Eiger sold these also.
The entire range of Longware T-Pins!
Can't beat the selection of Bota bags!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 29, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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Did Norbert start this enterprise?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 29, 2011 - 08:05pm PT
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Very cool!
I would love to see a shot of that indoor ski ramp!
Thanks for posting that background material.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jun 29, 2011 - 08:09pm PT
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So it occurred to me the other day that at this time the gear available to
climbers was little evolved beyond that which Mummery had yet we had 2000 mph
airplanes and would soon put a man on the moon. Wazzup with climbers?
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Gene
climber
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Jun 29, 2011 - 08:09pm PT
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Thanks for the trip down {failing} memory lane. Three years after this catalog was released, I spent most of my summer earnings at Sports Chalet on a Kelty pack, Bluet stove, down bag, down jacket and 120 feet of goldline. A week later I took the first four items on my first two week walk in the Sierra. Little did I know that those purchases would start a life long gear addiction.
I still have the down jacket.
g
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 29, 2011 - 08:14pm PT
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Did the logo on your down jacket look like the catalog logo?
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Gene
climber
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Jun 29, 2011 - 08:23pm PT
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Steve,
The jacket was manufactured in Switzerland. The company logo appears to be EGGE, but it’s faded. The ‘modele’ is G. Rebuffat. I’ll put up a picture when I find my camera.
g
EDIT: Found my camera. The logo on the hood is very clear.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 29, 2011 - 08:35pm PT
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A nice find, which reminds me of some old catalogues my father has around somewhere.
La Cañada - origin? And what about Ontario? Seems odd that there would be a Canada and an Ontario in the Los Angeles conurbation, even given the number of Canadians in the area.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jun 29, 2011 - 08:55pm PT
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Looks like state of the art to me!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jun 29, 2011 - 09:17pm PT
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Camp 7 was started in Colorado by George Lamb in the early 70's. My outdoor shop mentor Bruce Franks was their first sales representative and went to work for them in early 1974, covering the whole western USA.
Great company. Here's a link to some more history, including Sport Chalet acquiring them in the late 1970's.
http://www.oregonphotos.com/Alp-Sport1.html
Makes sense.
At that point the "look like a climber and wear down parkas" boom in college towns was over, and I heard George Lamb got bored with the details of running a factory in Longmount CO.
He did not make the cost-cutting transition to manufacturing in Asia that other outdoor clothing companies achieved in the late 70's, early 80's.
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fosburg
climber
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Jun 29, 2011 - 10:50pm PT
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Classic! I like the Leeper "N" pitons.
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frog-e
Trad climber
Imperial Beach California
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Jun 29, 2011 - 11:09pm PT
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Really cool Steve.
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EdBannister
Mountain climber
13,000 feet
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Jun 29, 2011 - 11:11pm PT
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Ok Ok....
Camp 7 was started in Colorado about 1971 by George Lamb.
The Camp 7 rep for socal was Dale Raddatz
The North Col as produced in 1988 or so was one of the best bags of the time and perhaps ever. Every baffle was from a different pattern, and each was cut in a C shape to maximize loft and efficiency.. but alas, like othe rcompanies run by george, at some point it went belly up. Norbert bought the remaining inventory, and along with it got the logo and the precious patterns to the north col and Camp 7 camp7 bags.
Rick Carlson had charge of the now in house brand at the LaCanada office, threw away the patterns, not long after the rest went away, and Chalet deemed private label a bad idea. I was not there anymore...
LOWA,
the Deutsche Bergstiefel Manufacturer, german mountain boot manufacturer, was not founded, or ever owned by Norbert or Chalet, but .. Norbert had exclusive US wholesale distribution for Lowa Boots through the late 80s.
At which time the swith was made to hanwag and other manufacturers when Norbert opened his own import biz in Order to hire Mike Sturm, who had severed with Liberty Moutain Sports. That was the start of Pacific Mountain Sports, i wrote many boot orders for Mike. With his passing, Norbert sold PMS back to Liberty, then owned by Oli Steinhauser,
for whom Norbert suggested I work developing new product... but that is another story.
Norbert was honest, always fair to me, and among if not the best employer i have ever had.
the catalog, showed a lot of gear as imported by Mike Sturm at Liberty and purchased by Norbert.
Norbert was also a climber though we would call his exploits limited.
what I remember about him, is he cared, and worked effectively and very hard, and though most assumed him to be rich, he was never proud, most of the time he drove his wife's old car, a off white vw bug.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Jun 30, 2011 - 01:36am PT
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wow! real climbing gear. everything they sold in the 80s onward was chuff gear, never anything worthwhile.
cool to know.
my first and second (out of 3 total) competitions I participated in was at Sport Chalet. Watched a bunch of the best of so cal climbers kick ass on that shorty entre prises wall in the parking lot.
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Barbarian
Trad climber
The great white north, eh?
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Jun 30, 2011 - 01:45am PT
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My first boots were a pair of Lowa Matterhorns. Solid as a rock and just as heavy.
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frog-e
Trad climber
Imperial Beach California
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Jun 30, 2011 - 10:57am PT
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RE: posted by Ed Bannister
"Ok Ok....
Camp 7 was started in Colorado about 1971 by George Lamb.
The Camp 7 rep for socal was Dale Raddatz
The North Col as produced in 1988 or so was one of the best bags of the time and perhaps ever. Every baffle was from a different pattern, and each was cut in a C shape to maximize loft and efficiency.. but alas, like othe rcompanies run by george, at some point it went belly up. Norbert bought the remaining inventory, and along with it got the logo and the precious patterns to the north col and Camp 7 camp7 bags."
ED, I had a North Col. Mine was rated at 5 degrees (a 5 degree bag) but seemed more compact than that; it was purple. Spent the night out, in the open on the summit of San Jacinto in December...clouds whipping over - pretty chilly the thing was the bomb!
I bought my Camp7 North Col at Stanley Andrews main downtown store in San Diego, up in the loft where their original (and awesome) Mountain shop was...
1975, pretty sure.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2011 - 08:31pm PT
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Baffle Bump...
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2011 - 11:35am PT
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Nor-Bump!
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Disaster Master
Social climber
Born in So-Cal, left my soul in far Nor-Cal.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 29, 2011 - 04:14pm PT
I just got this Sport Chalet catalog from 1964
WOW! I've heard of Snail Mail, but 48 years in transit?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2011 - 12:49pm PT
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Guaranteed delivery this century!!!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jul 18, 2011 - 08:14pm PT
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Norbert Olberz, founder of Sport Chalet Inc., passed away from natural causes on Friday, July 15, 2011. He was 86.
(From Sports One Source)
Olberz founded the company in 1959, served as Sport Chalet's chief executive officer until 1999 and as chairman of the board until 2001. Over the course of five decades he not only built a successful, publicly traded sporting goods business but was widely recognized in the industry for his innovative thinking, his commitment to his employees and community and his relentless belief in the power of recreation to lift an individual's spirit.
Olberz is survived by his beloved wife of 52 years, Irene, his sister, Elizabeth Lepper, his son, Eric, and by his grandchildren Karl and Markus.
Trained as a pastry chef, Olberz immigrated from his native Germany to Canada prior to settling, permanently, in the United States. He learned to ski on Oregon's Mt. Hood and, captivated by the sport, sank his entire life savings - $10,000 - into the 1959 opening of a ski shop in Southern California's La Cañada Flintridge. Together with his new bride, Irene, they - quite literally - lived their dream; sleeping on cots in the back of the store and cooking over a single burner propane stove, they grew the business from a niche store for winter sport enthusiasts into a leading retailer of sport specialty gear that, over the next decade, came to include scuba, mountain climbing and footwear.
Olberz' gift for listening to his customers was one of his biggest strengths and, through them, he moved into new areas of retail with their guidance. One of his favorite stories was of a woman who came into his store, mid-summer, wanting to buy her son a mitt and Olberz, thrilled at the idea of selling winter mittens off-season, was fascinated when she explained that she was looking for a baseball mitt. After asking her to explain what a baseball mitt was - followed by a request to explain what baseball was - Olberz moved into carrying team sports equipment and, in 1974, opened a 30,000-square foot store across the street from his original location. Always striving to offer something genuinely unique to his customers, he added an indoor "mountain" and ski ramp where customers could hone their skills prior to investing in new equipment.
In 1981, Olberz doubled the size of the company by opening a retail location in Huntington Beach, CA and expanding into ocean sports and, by 1992, the company went public, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol "SPCHA."
A consummate entrepreneur, Olberz opened and expanded a variety of businesses over the decades including a popular ski area motel, a travel company specializing in adventure activities and manufacturing companies that produced outdoor gear under the brand name Camp 7 and athletic apparel under the brand Pacific Mountain Sports.
Olberz was a loved employer who developed five key principles to guide Sport Chalet and Sport Chalet employees through fifty years of retail success:
To See Things Through The Eyes of the Customer
To Create Ease of Shopping
To Do A Thousand Things A Little Bit Better
To Not Be the Biggest, But the Best
To Be the Image of a Sportsman
In 2006, at age 80, Olberz, with his son Eric, began work on a new multi-million dollar shopping center and corporate office in La Cañada Flintridge, directly over his first store. In 2009, Olberz was inducted into the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame and, in 2011, was the recipient of the Far West Ski Association's "Snow Sports Builder Award."
As a result of Olberz' business acumen, unique ability to detect trends in the retail marketplace and his commitment to the outdoors and recreational sports, Sport Chalet now operates 55 retail locations throughout California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, as well as an online store, www.sportchalet.com.
A memorial service for Norbert Olberz is scheduled for 12 noon, Friday, July 22, 2011 in the Van De Kamp Hall at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA, 91011.
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from an ice pick and missing my mama.
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Jul 20, 2011 - 12:56am PT
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I bought my first harness from Sport Chalet. I worked there for three years and... Well, those were really fun years. Rest in Peace Norbert... I hated when the company went public... It destroyed a big part of why it was so fantastic. The biggest part missing was having Norbert at the helm. Though honestly I really don't miss the orange decor and the red shirts.
Hugs,
Anastasia Sherman
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 20, 2011 - 01:48am PT
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We used to call those Camp 7 North Col bags purple slugs. They were quite common - one of the few bags that MEC carried in the later 1970s.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 24, 2011 - 02:33pm PT
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Nor-Bump!
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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Aug 21, 2011 - 02:25am PT
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I've still got a matching right and left pair of the purple North Cols.
Getting pretty flat after 30 years but still make good summer bags. Back in the day it was a great winter setup!
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Aug 21, 2011 - 11:50am PT
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This week was my uncle's funeral.
It was all family except for one childhood friend. His name escapes me now, but it began with a K. Dan Horner's dad was there and the conversation turned to climbing.
It turns out my uncle's boyhood friend and his wife owned Highland Outfitters in Riverside where I'd bought my first climbing shoes.
Back in the day he'd gone on a ski outing with the Sierra Club to Sequoia. Norbert was there and as a fellow sporting goods store owner was telling him how cross country skiing was going to be the next big thing.
He'd sold seventeen pairs of skis that season.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 2, 2012 - 01:04pm PT
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Norbert Memorial Bump...
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oldgear
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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This is Bruce at History of Gear. To all Purple Slug fans! Upon seeing all these posts related to George Lamb and his sleeping bags, I thought people might appreciate learning that when George Lamb and I spoke a few years ago, one of his most enduring satisfactions was about his sleeping bag designs. George is a modest and unpretentious guy, yet was confident that his bags were among the very best when marketed in the 70s. Decades later, after the tests of time, he'd become more certain that his original designs and their execution were still something to be very proud about.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 6, 2012 - 09:54pm PT
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Nice background Bruce!
Thanks for the share.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Anyone remember Sid Mountain at Sports Chalet in the 60's, always thought he might be pulling our legs as we fondled the gear there as kids. The was another old Sierra Cluber there by the name of Himmelrich who's son I went to high school with and did some climbing, he ended up in a serious accident at Tahquitz which was described in one of Wilt's guides before " they became to numerous to mention". Fond memories of Sports Chalet back when all the mountain gear was in a small alcove, ice axes and crampons on wood doweled ranks in the center. Not sure but it must of been the first or nearly the first mountain gear store in So Cal. Amazing to think how dramatically it has all changed.
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R.B.
Trad climber
47N 122W
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Wow!
I always remember my dad, Douglas J Black, ornamental iron worker extraordinaire, talk about the "ring angle" pitons he used to sell to the US Army by the 5 gallon buckets. He could really take a piece of steel and visualize it in his head and make something out of it. I was fortunate to grow up in a climbing family, and my dad was the bomb back in the 60's in Central AZ.
Steve, TFPU - Love it!
EDIT: Steve, Not sure he has many left; I have one. He also did custom bolt hangers with the stainless ring in them too.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2012 - 01:37am PT
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What a surprise! Very cool!
Does he have many of the ones with stainless steel rings still around?
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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i have a camp7 sleeping bag from sport chalet..did'nt know it was an old brand!
love the thread!
go norbert.
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Grampa
Trad climber
Orange County
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Great Find!!!!! Thanks.
I did not see Chouinard Lost Arrows or the Yosemite Hammer in the catalog.
When did these come out?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2012 - 03:04pm PT
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Grampa- Chouinard made Lost Arrows completely by hand from the outset in 1957. The familiar die-forged Arrows came into production in 1963.
The Yosemite Hammer came out in 1966 and the Alpine Hammer the following year.
I have a LA nut tool for you too! I will email you with the details.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 25, 2012 - 05:27pm PT
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Thanks for the Grivel horizontal Grampa!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 4, 2016 - 01:57pm PT
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Soft iron piton bump...
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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I just put in my order for the 60m (200ft) bicolor Edelrid rope for $39.50
Curt
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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That would be awesome !!
Curt
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2016 - 05:42pm PT
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Hmmmm, guess I'll take the Snowmobile...
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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I still have a bunch of that stuff! Back in the 1980s they still had boxes of pin on clearance. Long gone. Corporate blow up, then poof! No more. REI & A16 the only thing left in LA.
No good reason to go out of business that I can think of other than their roll out as a mall store may have spread things too thin.
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