Wilderness Experience Klettersack & Donini

It is interesting that a rucksack manufactured in 1974 could be so durable with a volume of 26 liters and weight less than 24 oz.

In 1973 in Chatsworth, California, USA, we gave birth to a small workshop called a sewing machine in a space of about 100 square meters. Founder Jim Tomsun had career in this direction at the dawn of outdoor gear development manufacturing. My brother Greg Tomsun returned from a trip of world pilgrimage, and brothers started to manufacture outdoor equipment with this as a machine. It is said that "WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE" = named the experience of the wilderness after starting development based on this Greg experience.

AND still stuff a rope inside.

By 1980 (or whenever), US pack designers had surpassed the Euros. But not in '71. Not by a long shot.

Rivendell's classy 1975 catalog stated that they had become, in 1971, "the originator of sophisticated soft pack design." Shown at page bottom is their top-of-the-line model, the 4,800 cu. inch, expandible/contractible "Dr. Expando;" ..One reader wrote that the Rivendell Jensen pack has become the "most copied pack of all time," and pointed out that one company (Wilderness Experience) even named their soft pack the "ROR," translating to "Rip-off-Rivendell."

“Splitter Camps are designed to demystify crack climbing,” says camp director Jim Donini. While Splitter Camps are not for first-time climbers, they are intended to broaden horizons for sport, gym and occasional crack climbers. “When you learn techniques unique to crack climbing, you begin to look at face moves and plastic in a much different light,” encourages Donini.

Following the Kiddie Carrier’s success came the popular CWD (controlled weight distribution) pack in 1963

“I was in high school, an avid skier, and unhappy with the way an ordinary rucksack swung around on my hack when I skied,” Cunningham said. “So I designed a nice flat pack that would stay close to the body.”

Thirteen years in Boulder went by before Dale Johnson (founder of the Frostline kit business) became the Cunninghams’ partner in 1959, and in 1961 George Lamb (later of Alp Sport, Alpine Designs and Camp 7 fame) joined Gerry to oversee sewing operations.

In 1970 Jensen's protege Doug Robinson shared the design with the manager of Berkeley's North Face store, Larry Horton. Smitten by such genius, Horton formed Rivendell Mountain Works and began selling the Jensen Pack in 1971. The next year, Chouinard added it to his gear catalog, and word got out: the ergonomic pack allowed climbers and skiers to tackle steep, technical terrain without the awkward sway of an aluminum frame or the roll of a cylindrical sack. Shaped by a brilliant mathematical mind, the Jensen melded with the user's back, but only with careful planning: if packed meticulously, the spineless rig stood tall, its structural pillar formed by the pressure of the contents. Improperly crated, the Jensen puckered and sagged.

Horton sold about a thousand packs during his nine years in business. Neither he nor Jensen ever filed a patent. In the 1970s, Horton attempted to meet the demands of an increasingly sophisticated market by making a bigger, expandable version, but most devotees eventually migrated to internal-frame packs, which, while heavier, were easier and faster to load. Ray Brooks, an erstwhile holdout, says: "I was tired of being the last person out of camp."

Yeah I read that. I possibly even saw ONE in the field (?). Article says about 1,000 were made.

So what was first semi "mass market" version, if one could put it that way.

His love for backpack design never waned. In 1970, Wayne Gregory founded his first company called Sunbird, at the age 22 with just 500 dollars of initial capital and specialised in making external framed rucksacks. Sunbird’s first pack, the Hip Hugger, had a number of interesting and highly innovative features. Waist belt arms attached to the bottom of the pack frame made it possible to transfer load from the shoulders to the pelvis. Adjustable shoulder straps meant that the pack could be adapted to fit to the user. Wayne Gregory’s waist belt and shoulder strap systems were way ahead of their time. However, the pack didn’t catch on and Sunbird ceased trading in 1973.

Originally introduced in 1972, the D2 pack has withstood the test of time and now has modern features and comforts.

On the first day out, in the jungle near Biratnigar, I could only carry 15 pounds for an hour before my neck felt like it was ready to go into a spasm. After two weeks I was carrying about 30 pounds for three or four hours a day. Finally, up near Makalu, winter set in. All the passes were covered with deep snow and I was able to break trail all day with a 50-pound load supported by my crude tump line. My back problems had disappeared. For three months after the expedition I suffered no back pain at all. Then it started bothering me again, despite my active life of surfing, tennis, climbing and swimming. Later, on an expedition to Ecuador, I used the tump line again, with the same good results. Since then, I’ve carried every load over 25 pounds with the tump line. Knowing what I know now, I would never go back to conventional packs, with or without my back problems.

Ahh Yosemite! America's alpine nursery.

The ancient bastard is an inspiration for everyone – Peter Haan