Yvon Chouinard

Yvon Chouinard ( born 1938 in Lisbon, Maine ) is an American pioneer of big wall climbing, especially in Yosemite National Park and entrepreneurs for mountaineering equipment ( founder of Patagonia ), which is also known for its innovations in this area.

Life

Chouinard comes from a French-Canadian family, who had moved to Maine. Being born in Quebec father worked in a variety of crafts. 1946 the family moved to Burbank, California where Chouinard is practiced in diving for abalone and rock climbing in the coastal rocks at Malibu to first watch as a member of the Southern California Falcons clubs the clutches in nests. In 1955 he drove in his own Ford for climbing to Wyoming, in the San Fernando Valley ( Stoney Point ) and at Tahquitz, he was attracted by the walls of the Yosemite Valley. For the Big Walls large amounts of backup and locomotion hooks were needed. He started primarily for cost reasons, after high school graduation in 1956, zuzulegen forging tool to make climbing gear, which were made ​​of harder steel than the European pitons ( Pitons ). He soon sold this well - but the business was beginning to slow. In winter he forged, in the summer he climbed. Chouinard is one of the leading activists of the big wall climbers in Yosemite in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1960 he was involved in the second commission of The Nose on El Capitan. His first ascents counts 1964 North American Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley with Royal Robbins ( a childhood friend, as he early member of the Sierra Club ) without the use of, Tom Frost (an aircraft engineer who his partner was temporarily ), Chuck Pratt, fixed ropes, and the Muir Wall on El Capitan in 1965 with TM Herbert. In 1961 he began the techniques and style of the Yosemite big wall climbers (of which he was one of the richest word advocate ) and outside in the Canadian Rockies apply with several first ascents. In 1968 he opened the third ascent of Cerro Fitzroy in Patagonia a new route ( California Route ) and others with Doug Tompkins ( on the way there they surfed along the South American coasts ).

Besides surfing Chouinard travels the world for fly fishing, kayaking, skiing, and also has not given up climbing (2007).

He is married since 1971 with Malinda Pennoyer, who he met in Yosemite, where the former art student had a summer job, and has two children.

Chouinard as an entrepreneur

1970 Chouinard Equipment was the largest company for mountaineering equipment in the USA. The main product were pitons, but blighted the climbing routes in his eyes, so he put a 1972 production. Also in 1970 he realized while climbing in Scotland the benefits of rugby shirts for climbing and then founded the outdoor Bekleidunggfirma Patagonia, in the U.S. in 1300 workforce of 2006 and sales of $ 20 million mid-1980s to 100 million in 1990 and $ 267 million in 2006 increased. In between, there was a break through litigation (all from rather insignificant incidents, but justified with no adequate warnings about when climbing ropes ) against his mountaineering equipment company that they brought almost to the brink of ruin - there was finally a buy-out by the employees and a Start-up in Salt Lake City.

1% of turnover from Patagonia donates Chouinard environmental activist - he founded an initiative specifically 1 Percent for the Planet, who joined in 2006 to 400 companies. Even an avid surfer, he allowed his employees also a corresponding flexible scheduling. After a slump during the recession in 1991, which interrupted a long growth period of 30 to 50% a year, he had to lay off a fifth of its workforce. In his own words caused the a return to ecological values ​​and slow growth, never to exceed his own words, the result of his actually -sufficient way of life as an extreme athlete who should also take to heart the motto of its border and to identify particularly those boundaries clear. For ecological reasons out the company in 1996 changed for example, organic cotton.

Social responsibility

The non-governmental organization Berne Declaration in 2010 compared through surveys and internet research at 77 fashion labels the standards of working conditions in production countries. Patagonia was thereby placed in the second-best category " Average " of five categories.