If Bill didn’t believe in Yvon, Chouinard may not have become. And if Yvon didn’t affect Bill’s pride, the DOLT 1960 company may not have become. (MK statement).
“Wow that’s a big title for the Marty notes!” I’m definitely putting myself out on a limb here, but I want to share the facts that I have found.
Bill had a tough childhood and it left him not knowing where he was to be in life. When Bill discovered rock climbing, the climbing provided him with a direction. Within climbing Bill saw himself as he was achieving greatness within his self. “Wow look I did the moves and made it to the top!” “Sure at times I was so scared I wanted to cry, but I did it.” Developing identity is so important to kids and it all comes between the ages of 7 and 25. Nothing else seems to matter except how other people view the you that you are wanting them to see. Bill was climbing with others where trust is needed between climbing partners to be able to keep the climb going in the ascending way. So Bill was feeling that others were trusting him and it was a great feeling for Bill to have.
Bill became close with Mark Powell within climbing. Then Warren Harding within climbing. Then Tom Frost within climbing and photography. Yvon Chouinard fits in here within a common interest, blacksmithing. Then Don Lauria within business ownership. So it seemed that Bill needed somebody throughout these early years to believe in him which brought energy to Bill’s being.
Bill also received a title to his self from the many of his friends, where his character was dubbed, “The Dolt.” Bill wasn’t overly keen on having this title, since Dolt meant idiot, but it was super cool because it was giving him attention and that the Dolt name brought him closer and closer to having greater friendships with others.
When Bill backed off of the Nose Route project, Bill got too close to the line between life and death, and it left trauma within his self. Bill now had to figure out how to get past this trauma since within climbing is where Bill wanted to remain. So Bill became a creator of climbing hardware which brought this same attention feeling to his self from others admiring Bill’s new skill. This new skill brought to Bill a way that he could store his trauma in his back pocket, and on his forward side, he was still in the climbing game. Bill found a way to get around FEAR, and in this way Bill now could be with not just a few climbing partners at a time, he now could be with every climber in the world.
Yvon Chouinard started climbing when he was 14 years old. When Yvon got into the gear creating scene Yvon was around 18 years old and Bill was around 25. Bill enjoyed that here is this Yvon kid that Bill could see that had the same passion as Bill. So Bill somewhat took Yvon under his wing and in a “non direct way,” Bill was promoting Yvon. Bill believed in Yvon and kept nudging him by placing Yvon’s products for sale in Bill’s Dolt Hut catalogs. Yvon himself at that time was still just the kid, who was out climbing, bouldering, surfing, and just having fun laughing and comparing farts with others. Kid stuff! Bill continued to ramp up his belief in Chouinard products by advertising Chouinard products in the Summit magazines where the Chouinard products were being sold by Bill’s Dolt Hut company.
In the 1957 - 1959 time, Yvon was toying around with many ideas with pitons, but the easiest piton for him to make was the Chouinard Horizontals (Later named Lost Arrows). I don’t believe that at this time Yvon was putting out hundreds of pieces of gear to get into stores around the world. He was still a kid and was making stuff supplying climbers with gear as it was demanded. Even there I bet he left people waiting for the gear and he was more behind than ahead of the supply. For Yvon there was things to do, like develop identity, and just play.
Eventually in 1958 Yvon started toying around with a carabiner and created a first run of the design. The first run was less than 100 carabiners and he didn’t have the Chouinard name on them. These are classified as Alcoa carabiners. The second run of the Chouinard carabiners now beard the Chouinard manufacture name on them. But this new design still had its flaws with the carabiner gates and springs. At this time Tom Frost was hanging out and possibly giving Yvon suggestions on the carabiners gate design which led to the Chouinard Model III name of what Bill refers to it as being within Bill’s Chouinard advertisements. Bill was excited for this new Chouinard carabiner and was proud of Yvon for its creation. Bill went all out showing all of the amazing details of this new Chouinard carabiner in Bill’s Summit Magazine advertisements, and within Bill’s Dolt Hut 1960 catalog. Written is "during the 1959 climbing season (Spring?) the Chouinard carabiner was introduced."
“Wow that’s a big title for the Marty notes!” I’m definitely putting myself out on a limb here, but I want to share the facts that I have found.
Bill had a tough childhood and it left him not knowing where he was to be in life. When Bill discovered rock climbing, the climbing provided him with a direction. Within climbing Bill saw himself as he was achieving greatness within his self. “Wow look I did the moves and made it to the top!” “Sure at times I was so scared I wanted to cry, but I did it.” Developing identity is so important to kids and it all comes between the ages of 7 and 25. Nothing else seems to matter except how other people view the you that you are wanting them to see. Bill was climbing with others where trust is needed between climbing partners to be able to keep the climb going in the ascending way. So Bill was feeling that others were trusting him and it was a great feeling for Bill to have.
Bill became close with Mark Powell within climbing. Then Warren Harding within climbing. Then Tom Frost within climbing and photography. Yvon Chouinard fits in here within a common interest, blacksmithing. Then Don Lauria within business ownership. So it seemed that Bill needed somebody throughout these early years to believe in him which brought energy to Bill’s being.
Bill also received a title to his self from the many of his friends, where his character was dubbed, “The Dolt.” Bill wasn’t overly keen on having this title, since Dolt meant idiot, but it was super cool because it was giving him attention and that the Dolt name brought him closer and closer to having greater friendships with others.
When Bill backed off of the Nose Route project, Bill got too close to the line between life and death, and it left trauma within his self. Bill now had to figure out how to get past this trauma since within climbing is where Bill wanted to remain. So Bill became a creator of climbing hardware which brought this same attention feeling to his self from others admiring Bill’s new skill. This new skill brought to Bill a way that he could store his trauma in his back pocket, and on his forward side, he was still in the climbing game. Bill found a way to get around FEAR, and in this way Bill now could be with not just a few climbing partners at a time, he now could be with every climber in the world.
Yvon Chouinard started climbing when he was 14 years old. When Yvon got into the gear creating scene Yvon was around 18 years old and Bill was around 25. Bill enjoyed that here is this Yvon kid that Bill could see that had the same passion as Bill. So Bill somewhat took Yvon under his wing and in a “non direct way,” Bill was promoting Yvon. Bill believed in Yvon and kept nudging him by placing Yvon’s products for sale in Bill’s Dolt Hut catalogs. Yvon himself at that time was still just the kid, who was out climbing, bouldering, surfing, and just having fun laughing and comparing farts with others. Kid stuff! Bill continued to ramp up his belief in Chouinard products by advertising Chouinard products in the Summit magazines where the Chouinard products were being sold by Bill’s Dolt Hut company.
In the 1957 - 1959 time, Yvon was toying around with many ideas with pitons, but the easiest piton for him to make was the Chouinard Horizontals (Later named Lost Arrows). I don’t believe that at this time Yvon was putting out hundreds of pieces of gear to get into stores around the world. He was still a kid and was making stuff supplying climbers with gear as it was demanded. Even there I bet he left people waiting for the gear and he was more behind than ahead of the supply. For Yvon there was things to do, like develop identity, and just play.
Eventually in 1958 Yvon started toying around with a carabiner and created a first run of the design. The first run was less than 100 carabiners and he didn’t have the Chouinard name on them. These are classified as Alcoa carabiners. The second run of the Chouinard carabiners now beard the Chouinard manufacture name on them. But this new design still had its flaws with the carabiner gates and springs. At this time Tom Frost was hanging out and possibly giving Yvon suggestions on the carabiners gate design which led to the Chouinard Model III name of what Bill refers to it as being within Bill’s Chouinard advertisements. Bill was excited for this new Chouinard carabiner and was proud of Yvon for its creation. Bill went all out showing all of the amazing details of this new Chouinard carabiner in Bill’s Summit Magazine advertisements, and within Bill’s Dolt Hut 1960 catalog. Written is "during the 1959 climbing season (Spring?) the Chouinard carabiner was introduced."
March 1960 Dolt catalog
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Summit magazine ad, Feb - March 1960
Summit magazine, June 1960
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Here now Tom Frost was occasionally visiting Bill’s shop, and was also assisting Yvon. Bill was excited that he was in the climbing game, and was in it standing side by side with Tom Frost and with Yvon Chouinard. For the 1960 second ascent of the Nose Route, Tom and Bill worked together to create a larger size piton which has a taco shape called a Bong. The aluminum Bong they created has two holes that the carabiner can be placed in. All was going great, but then suddenly Yvon decided that he was going to create these Bong pitons and put the Chouinard name onto them. Yvon created them out of steel, and they only had one carabiner hole. So there was a difference between Bill and Tom’s aluminum Bong version, and Yvon’s steel Bong version. But Bill kinda felt like Yvon took his idea. The Chouinard Bongs were still being created as the demand asked for them, but still Yvon was probably behind on the supply.
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Tom and Bill's Nose Route aluminum Bongs
Chouinard steel Bongs
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Going back to the Nose Route:
Overall I look at Mark Powell as being the one that would feel the greatest disappointment when it comes to the Nose Route since his name is the most forgotten overall in todays standards. Bill at least has two places on the Nose Route that holds his name, the Dolt Tower and the Dolt Hole. Powell has nothing. The only way Harding, Whitmore and Merry got their name on the First Ascent is that they had to climb the route from the lowest ground point to the very top point. If you didn’t have those two points touched, then your name simply fades away in the history books. The 1958 first ascent of the Nose route took 45 days over 15 months span to accomplish. Today the Nose route has been climbed in under 2 hours. But that 2 hour mark became that possibility since the climbers were using gear that was already fixed on the route (bolts). Even though many climbers assisted on the first ascent of the Nose Route, only Harding, Whitmore and Merry are mentioned in the guidebooks of today. I am sure Bill was seeing this during his lifetime as the continual celebration of Harding, Whitmore and Merry continued, while Bill and Mark’s names faded more and more away, even though they assisted in putting up the first half of the route.
Mark Powell possibly found pride in his part of the Nose route where he didn’t get the FA, but enjoyed being a part of it. But with Bill’s fearful trauma moments, Bill centered himself on assisting the climbers that were going after the Nose Route FA with Bill’s gear creations. So it gave a way to make Bill feel that he was still a big part of that route. Almost to the point that Bill too got the FA, since the climbers had Bill’s “Dolt” gear on them when they summited.
I am not sure what Bill’s expectations were when it came to creating climbing gear. Eventually if both the Chouinard and Dolt company’s kept ramping up their gear creations, almost all gear they created would overlap themselves. Both would eventually be selling Bongs and Angles and carabiners and harnesses and you name it. Just like all of the climbing gear companies are already doing presently today. And looking back at the 1957 - 1960 time, there were already manufacturers in the USA and around the world creating climbing gear. So what Dolt and Chouinard were creating at that time, wasn’t something that was unique and new. Yvon however talked to John Salathe and learned on how to make pitons stronger than the pitons that were already being offered in the stores.
In 1960 Chouinard created the RURP, which is a thin micro crack tack piton. It was considered to be a item that was ahead of its time. In the Patagonia history it is called a “Chouinard Original.” But the only thing original abut the RURP may be the name that it was given. The first thin micro crack piton was developed in 1957/1958 by Dick Long of LONGware products in the USA. Who knows ...Maybe the real history is that LONGware copied Yvon's RURP idea in 1960 but designed his Thin crack piton with two holes, and when LONGware stopped producing gear in 1963, Yvon in 1964 gave his RURP the two hole design of LONGware's idea? Since the RURP history is centered on Chouinard, and I came across two Summit magazine stories where Tom Frost mentioned the use of the RURP on the climb and it being a new Chouinard product, the Karabin Museum leaves the RURP as a Chouinard original creation.
Overall I look at Mark Powell as being the one that would feel the greatest disappointment when it comes to the Nose Route since his name is the most forgotten overall in todays standards. Bill at least has two places on the Nose Route that holds his name, the Dolt Tower and the Dolt Hole. Powell has nothing. The only way Harding, Whitmore and Merry got their name on the First Ascent is that they had to climb the route from the lowest ground point to the very top point. If you didn’t have those two points touched, then your name simply fades away in the history books. The 1958 first ascent of the Nose route took 45 days over 15 months span to accomplish. Today the Nose route has been climbed in under 2 hours. But that 2 hour mark became that possibility since the climbers were using gear that was already fixed on the route (bolts). Even though many climbers assisted on the first ascent of the Nose Route, only Harding, Whitmore and Merry are mentioned in the guidebooks of today. I am sure Bill was seeing this during his lifetime as the continual celebration of Harding, Whitmore and Merry continued, while Bill and Mark’s names faded more and more away, even though they assisted in putting up the first half of the route.
Mark Powell possibly found pride in his part of the Nose route where he didn’t get the FA, but enjoyed being a part of it. But with Bill’s fearful trauma moments, Bill centered himself on assisting the climbers that were going after the Nose Route FA with Bill’s gear creations. So it gave a way to make Bill feel that he was still a big part of that route. Almost to the point that Bill too got the FA, since the climbers had Bill’s “Dolt” gear on them when they summited.
I am not sure what Bill’s expectations were when it came to creating climbing gear. Eventually if both the Chouinard and Dolt company’s kept ramping up their gear creations, almost all gear they created would overlap themselves. Both would eventually be selling Bongs and Angles and carabiners and harnesses and you name it. Just like all of the climbing gear companies are already doing presently today. And looking back at the 1957 - 1960 time, there were already manufacturers in the USA and around the world creating climbing gear. So what Dolt and Chouinard were creating at that time, wasn’t something that was unique and new. Yvon however talked to John Salathe and learned on how to make pitons stronger than the pitons that were already being offered in the stores.
In 1960 Chouinard created the RURP, which is a thin micro crack tack piton. It was considered to be a item that was ahead of its time. In the Patagonia history it is called a “Chouinard Original.” But the only thing original abut the RURP may be the name that it was given. The first thin micro crack piton was developed in 1957/1958 by Dick Long of LONGware products in the USA. Who knows ...Maybe the real history is that LONGware copied Yvon's RURP idea in 1960 but designed his Thin crack piton with two holes, and when LONGware stopped producing gear in 1963, Yvon in 1964 gave his RURP the two hole design of LONGware's idea? Since the RURP history is centered on Chouinard, and I came across two Summit magazine stories where Tom Frost mentioned the use of the RURP on the climb and it being a new Chouinard product, the Karabin Museum leaves the RURP as a Chouinard original creation.
LONGware 1957
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Dolt 1960 catalog, Chouinard RURP
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When it comes to the Bong pitons, in 1957 LONGware Bongs were already being made and sold which included steel and aluminum bongs up to 6” in size. So I am not sure why Harding needed to have all of the unique gear created to accomplish getting up the Nose route, when he could have just visited the LONGware store. Dick told me that he did show his bongs to Harding, but maybe Harding already had all of the gear that he needed to do the Nose Route at that time. Dick Long told me that he wasn’t creating different pieces of gear as he went along from company start to finish 1957 to 1963. He had all of these items available in 1957/1958 (Winter). In the history of LONGware in the document it states that Dick Long met Yvon Chouinard in Camp 4 in the spring of 1958 and showed him his angle and bong pitons. People were calling the LONGware bongs, "bong bongs" from the sound they were making when the climbers were pounding them into the cracks. Yvon also had some of his angle piton ideas with him and showed them to Dick, Spring 1958.
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LONGware products, 1957
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(Wordage from the LONGware document)
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So this wordage shows that Yvon and Dick Long knew of each others early piton designs Spring 1958. Maybe since Yvon new of Dick's angle piton creations, Yvon concentrated on his Horizontal pitons and perfecting the Chouinard carabiner, then in 1961 revisited the Ringless Angle piton creation (?). If Yvon was producing Angle pitons anytime between 1958 and 1960, Bill would have showed that product in a advertisement or the Dolt Hut catalog. I mean, Bill showed every other product that Yvon was creating at that time, so why no angles?
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The odd thing overall is this LONGware advertisement that is showing in the Summit magazine in June 1964, which has the word "New" on it. There is no company name mentioned accompanied with the ad. New to the Ski Hut selling off old LONGware surplus? But who was selling this New product? LONGware was out of business in 1963. And the pitons product showing as new was first made in 1957/1958. WTF?
Summit magazine ad June 1964
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Allen Steck's late 1950s LONGware pitons
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Bill at this time still believed in Yvon and continued to advertise Chouinard products. The Dolt Hut in Summit magazine March 1961 Announces “the NEW Chouinard Ringless Angle Rock piton.” Bill in the ad even goes further with his heart stating that, “It’s beautiful, light, and the body design is classic.” The repeat of the ad is shown in Summit magazine April 1961.
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I believe it was sometime in April 1961 that this happened… So since the cat was out of the bag (so to say), in 1961 Chouinard offered aluminum Bong pitons. Bill became more upset because he felt like Yvon didn’t give the opportunity for Bill to manufacture them under the Dolt name. Since this situation happened, Bill never created Bong pitons. Bill did create a whole line of Ringless Angle pitons in 1958, but those were not Bongs. Even at this period of time, I don’t believe that the Chouinard aluminum Bongs became widely available. They were still being created as the demand asked for them, but still Yvon was behind on the supply. The earliest Chouinard aluminum Bongs did not have a “U.S.A. mark.
At this time Bill dropped everything, and Chouinard was never mentioned in his Dolt advertisements or catalogs again. In the Classified Ads section of the Summit magazines, Bill still had the Dolt Hut address showing, possibly to sell off his surplus of gear. Bill then went back to putting his attention on his McDonnell Douglass job to get climbing out of his mind. But that still was not enough. Yvon joins the Army and Chouinard products almost go to a halt. Yvon was not at the Army’s front line but was in the reserves. So Yvon was somewhat still around, but the Chouinard products were almost non present.
- NOTE: The first ringless angle piton was created 1950/1951 by Norton Smithe.
At this time Bill dropped everything, and Chouinard was never mentioned in his Dolt advertisements or catalogs again. In the Classified Ads section of the Summit magazines, Bill still had the Dolt Hut address showing, possibly to sell off his surplus of gear. Bill then went back to putting his attention on his McDonnell Douglass job to get climbing out of his mind. But that still was not enough. Yvon joins the Army and Chouinard products almost go to a halt. Yvon was not at the Army’s front line but was in the reserves. So Yvon was somewhat still around, but the Chouinard products were almost non present.
- NOTE: The first ringless angle piton was created 1950/1951 by Norton Smithe.
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Bill at this time sees that Chouinard is gone, but his feelings are still frazzled from the past events that happened. Bill’s expectations of what his climbing world should be, was not lining up. So Bill just had to walk away. Summit magazine now announces that the Dolt Hut is going out of business, January 31, 1962.
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Now as Bill places the Dolt Hut into his back pocket, Bill sees that his past Nose Route trauma is still there. Bill needs to still be in the climbing game, because that game is what originally gave Bill his identity. Bill digs deeper with his feelings and centers his world on his McDonnell Douglas job.
Then, in 1964 Chouinard announces that a new line of pitons are coming out named “Lost Arrows” and are being sold through the North Face store. Throughout the ad the Lost Arrows are accompanied with a “TM” and “TM” and “TM”, 3 times. But in the ad, the RURPs do not have a “TM” with them. This is why I say that Yvon may have known that his RURP was a copy/improvement of the LONGware thin crack piton. The past Chouinard Horizontal pitons are now named Lost Arrows. The Lost Arrows at this time are now die forged. (I believe this was a mid 1964 Summit magazine Classified ad that has a North Face Address on it) |
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Summit magazine, June 1964
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This Recreation Unlimited Outffiters June 1964 ad so far is the earliest document that mentions a Chouinard "LOST ARROW" that I have. The challange to the other gear historians out there is to find a story or other advertisement or anything prior to June 1964 that mentions the words "LOST ARROW" in reference to Chouinard pitons.
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So if Yvon didn’t go back to making climbing gear in 1964 and decided to do other things in his life, the name Lost Arrow would not have become a thing. Then in December 1964 Summit magazine ad, Yvon announces that the Chouinard company is now in partnership with Tom Frost.
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Tom has a engineering degree and the first thing that is in the works is to give the Lost Arrow pitons a more professional look with the new Die Forged process. Tom Frost creates the new Lost Arrows, carving their shapes out of wood.
Die forged Lost Arrow piton
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Chouinard 1965 catalog
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Bill I am sure was still thumbing through the monthly Summit magazines even though he was still wearing blinders to keep him away from climbing gear creations. He still had in his hands now holding the Trauma climbing card, while the Dolt Hut card remained in his back pocket.
Bill moves from Los Angeles to Santa Monica CA, and spends most of the year 1965 pondering his frustration with his perceived lost friendship with Yvon and Tom. Bill spends most of his time working at his job at McDonnell Douglas……thinking.
Instead of climbing big rock walls, Bill still wanted to be in the mountains so in 1965 he did a few alpine climbs on Mount Sill and Mount Abbot, which his partner got injured on and they had to retreat from the climbs. Bill turned his attention to training for rescue situations. So here is another attempt to reach the summit, which failed. Bills experiences during the alpine climbs turns his attention back into wanting to be a gear manufacturer, providing “The best Gear for all Mountaineers.” So Bill now trades the Trauma Nose Route card with the Dolt Hut card in his back pocket.
However, the thing that got Bill so upset and put the fire into Bill was shown within the Chouinard 1965 catalog, where included is a “History of Chouinard Firsts” list. Within this list it is clear that Yvon is showing the dates of when he was tinkering around with different ideas, but not when the products were actually offered to the public. Yvon is undercutting the early Dolt products for sure, showing that Yvon was first with the ideas. The List shows that 1957 Yvon was making Ringless Angle Pitons? That clearly didn’t happen until 1961, and that is proven with the early Dolt ads. Lost Arrows in 1957-1958? The Lost Arrow name didn’t come until it was trade marked in 1964. They were called Horizontals previous to that.
Bill moves from Los Angeles to Santa Monica CA, and spends most of the year 1965 pondering his frustration with his perceived lost friendship with Yvon and Tom. Bill spends most of his time working at his job at McDonnell Douglas……thinking.
Instead of climbing big rock walls, Bill still wanted to be in the mountains so in 1965 he did a few alpine climbs on Mount Sill and Mount Abbot, which his partner got injured on and they had to retreat from the climbs. Bill turned his attention to training for rescue situations. So here is another attempt to reach the summit, which failed. Bills experiences during the alpine climbs turns his attention back into wanting to be a gear manufacturer, providing “The best Gear for all Mountaineers.” So Bill now trades the Trauma Nose Route card with the Dolt Hut card in his back pocket.
However, the thing that got Bill so upset and put the fire into Bill was shown within the Chouinard 1965 catalog, where included is a “History of Chouinard Firsts” list. Within this list it is clear that Yvon is showing the dates of when he was tinkering around with different ideas, but not when the products were actually offered to the public. Yvon is undercutting the early Dolt products for sure, showing that Yvon was first with the ideas. The List shows that 1957 Yvon was making Ringless Angle Pitons? That clearly didn’t happen until 1961, and that is proven with the early Dolt ads. Lost Arrows in 1957-1958? The Lost Arrow name didn’t come until it was trade marked in 1964. They were called Horizontals previous to that.
Chouinard catalog 1965 catalog, First's List
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The way I explain it is this: “I created a Susan boat for Susan in 1958 and this boat is a boat, but 6 years later this boat is now named the California boat, and then when the Firsts List is made, the California boat first came out in 1958, and the name Susan goes away.” That’s what is happening with the Lost Arrow piton history. To Yvon’s defense, I did have the opportunity to look through Yvon’s personal gear from the past, and I did come across some angle pitons that were made in the late 1950s. I however felt like I was holding the “only” angle pitons that Yvon made at that time, and none others came until the 1961 announcement of the Chouinard Ringless Angle pitons. Otherwise Dolt would have not advertised “The beautiful design” because he would have been upset at that time, and would have never placed that advertisement under the Dolt Hut name.
1960 Dolt catalog showing Chouinard Horizontal pitons which later were named Lost Arrow pitons.
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Chouinard prototype 1957/1958 Ringless Angle pitons, and 1961 angle prototype (right)
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Now Bill has something to prove, and his pride within ego grows to its highest level. He has something to prove to Tom and Yvon and it has to be done. But Bill’s technique will be Bill centering his wordage on the whole world needing his DOLT gear, because he “IS” the Master Craftsman to all mountaineers. And you know what, Bill is going to do all of the work himself, not needing any partner. Notice the Summit magazine Classified ads July-August 1966. The wordage Is DOLT (TM) DOLT (TM) and DOLT (TM), 3 times. Bill even goes further and places a separate DOLT ad where the TM is 5 times. Look even how the spelling of the DOLT name is now capitalized. Bill is serious. Also to note from this time on: Bill does not sell any other company’s products besides his own. No CCB or Austrian pitons or hammers etc.
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Summit magazine, July 1966
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But look how the alignment of the Summit magazine ad July/August 1966 is presented, it is a quarter page ad where the Chouinard hammer ad is next to the DOLT hammer holster ad. I am sure that got Bill a laugh from it, so Bill then makes sure that the next DOLT ad in the next Summit magazine issue will be a full page ad. And then after that Bill creates simple half page ads which the DOLT logo is HUGE, and can’t be missed.
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Chouinard Equipment wasn’t a company that was seeking to create products that were not created yet. The Chouinard company took what was already being sold by other companies, and made huge improvements to the gear. So huge that even to this day it is recognized as the best quality overall. Tom and Yvon were brilliant and it brought many millions to the company. Bill’s gear was so incredible, that it became collectors items where the people wanted to put it onto their coffee tables and fully admire the quality. Bill created a special metal mix that was called the Star-DOLT 5 Supersteel and all of his pitons tested were far above all of the other similar products worldwide. On some of the lab testing reports it is written that there was no need to test Dolt pitons more than once, while with the other manufacturers they were testing their products many times. The downside was that the cost for Bill’s products was somewhat outside the affordable range, of that time.
I feel that Yvon and Tom were also having some difficulties with each other. Yvon was the kid and loved to play, and Tom had the engineering degree and wanted to advance Chouinard Equipment to a higher level. Tom wanted to show his personal worth and expertise, but Yvon was somewhat slowing the company’s progress down. Plus anybody that talked about and complimented Tom about anything about Chouinard Equipment, it was always a great Chouinard product, and another Chouinard product, and eventually to Tom it was becoming Chouinard Chouinard Chouinard, when Tom was the guy that designed many of the products. For sure it was Chouinard Equipment, but Tom was eventually only hearing the word Chouinard. Where was Frost in this company?
A great move on Yvon’s part was the creation of the 1969 Chouinard-Frost wood shaft ice axe piolet which in signature had the Chouinard-Frost name on the pick. Wow what a outstanding piolet it is!!! Such a huge sought after collectors item today. But when looking into the catalogs, the only Frost word seen is on the ice axe in the picture. There is no wordage of why the “Frost” name is on the pick and the Piolet is only listed as the Chouinard Piolet. I personally believe that this ice axe kept Tom Frost with the company a little longer up to the 1974/1975 time when he left. Looking into the Chouinard catalogs, they also show that at the time Tom left, maybe one last attempt to keep Tom with the company was that the wordage did change in the 1975 Chouinard catalog to the Chouinard/Frost piolet. The 1975 Climaxe also shows the Chouinard/Frost signature. However yearly catalogs are usually printed 6 months prior to the actual year becoming.
I am sure that Yvon was not happy when Tom decided to leave the company, and that shows when Yvon purposely removed the “Frost” signature from their ice axe. The ice axe now only beard the Chouinard signature, and then the wood piolet was completely removed in summer 1978. Also when Tom left, history shows that they did not communicate with each other for 30 years. Business and friendships….
I feel that Yvon and Tom were also having some difficulties with each other. Yvon was the kid and loved to play, and Tom had the engineering degree and wanted to advance Chouinard Equipment to a higher level. Tom wanted to show his personal worth and expertise, but Yvon was somewhat slowing the company’s progress down. Plus anybody that talked about and complimented Tom about anything about Chouinard Equipment, it was always a great Chouinard product, and another Chouinard product, and eventually to Tom it was becoming Chouinard Chouinard Chouinard, when Tom was the guy that designed many of the products. For sure it was Chouinard Equipment, but Tom was eventually only hearing the word Chouinard. Where was Frost in this company?
A great move on Yvon’s part was the creation of the 1969 Chouinard-Frost wood shaft ice axe piolet which in signature had the Chouinard-Frost name on the pick. Wow what a outstanding piolet it is!!! Such a huge sought after collectors item today. But when looking into the catalogs, the only Frost word seen is on the ice axe in the picture. There is no wordage of why the “Frost” name is on the pick and the Piolet is only listed as the Chouinard Piolet. I personally believe that this ice axe kept Tom Frost with the company a little longer up to the 1974/1975 time when he left. Looking into the Chouinard catalogs, they also show that at the time Tom left, maybe one last attempt to keep Tom with the company was that the wordage did change in the 1975 Chouinard catalog to the Chouinard/Frost piolet. The 1975 Climaxe also shows the Chouinard/Frost signature. However yearly catalogs are usually printed 6 months prior to the actual year becoming.
I am sure that Yvon was not happy when Tom decided to leave the company, and that shows when Yvon purposely removed the “Frost” signature from their ice axe. The ice axe now only beard the Chouinard signature, and then the wood piolet was completely removed in summer 1978. Also when Tom left, history shows that they did not communicate with each other for 30 years. Business and friendships….
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Bill puts out another advertisement for his DOLT hammer holsters and he misspells the word DOLSTER, (Should be DOLTSTER). On the next DOLT ad he gets the spelling correct. I believe it is this ad that brings forward the DOLT that is the perfectionist. I don’t think Bill wanted his image to be known as a wine sloshing falling and tripping over yourself individual for the rest of his life. He wanted to get past that and show that the word DOLT was not a word meaning idiot, but was a word showing excellence. Not just creating stuff. But creating the greatest stuff that all will not deny its excellence.
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Throughout the later 1960s into the early 1970s, Bill was the Master Craftsman to all Mountaineers, and his products show that. They were incredible art pieces. Bill kept creating more and more products, and more and more products, and more and more and more products…. Should I stop there…., NO, …. And more and more and more and more. I don’t know how he kept up with having a full time job and also having a full time climbing gear business, and held this fast pace of creation from 1966 to the end of 1971.
In the end I believe that Bill worked himself into absolute exhaustion. He was working a full time job with McDonnell Douglas during the day, and at night was working on keeping up with his DOLT company. Bill excitedly added so many new items to his DOLT product list, and I can only imagine trying to keep up with the demand of filling the orders that were coming in. Imagine if another order of 10 pitons just arrived and he had to make them. Bill’s pride would not let those pitons be delivered by quickly forging them and that was it. Those pitons had to be polished to perfection, and then he added his signature tags to each item with different string colors etc. So much extra work that he was all doing by himself. He was at the point in his life of needing to make a decision.
Maybe closing the Dolt Hut and just working the McDonnell Douglas job which would give him more space to breath in life. But he still felt that being in the climbing game was giving him something special that made him special. So okay I will leave the McDonnell Douglas job and just work on creating the Dolt climbing products full time. But he was already feeling exhausted with keeping up with the climbing gear orders. I’m sure the Dolt title wasn’t helping much, I am guessing. I mean he was holding onto a identity that other people gave him, and people still thought it was cool to call him the Dolt from the past huge history that he was involved with. He could have changed his company name to something else, but that was not that easy. The DOLT word gave him .....identity.
For some reason I feel that the Universe gave me (Marty) a thorn that was drug related for me to get past in my life. But even in the Bible it mentions that if you begged for the thorn to be removed, your belief in the Divine was weak. Many people ask me what the 714 number is that is in all of my emails. It was prom night and I was dressed and ready wearing my suit, then I received a call from my girlfriend and she said that she has decided to go to the prom with her past boyfriend. I couldn’t believe it and was totally shocked. I walked down the street to my friends house with two quaaludes (horse tranquilizers), swallowed both pills and melted into his couch while still wearing the suit. The company name printed on the quaalude pills is Rorer714, or Lemon714. I guess later that night the two of them got into a bad fight, and I drove to her house wasted, and was her boyfriend for the next two years. For me I was able to get away from the drugs by simply putting the thorn into my email address. I see the thorn every day and it has no energy. If I simply got rid of the 714 number, I know that the drugs would attempt to entertain me once again, because 714 was attached to my identity. It still needs to be there.
I work as a course setter at a rock gym and have been at that job for 25 years now. I occasionally ask the younger climbers if they have ever heard of the name Yvon Chouinard or Tom Frost. They shake their head .. "No." How about Royal Robbins, they shake their heads ... "No." Okay what about Jim Bridwell, and all of them excitedly shake their heads ... "Yes." The following comment of their appreciation to Jim Bridwell is because, "He was the guy that was dropping acid while he was climbing up the big walls of Yosemite." There is something about being the "Bad Boy" that the younger generation finds to be cool. It's a way of showing that I am living a carefree life and not surrendering to the 9 - 5 rut of what society places humankind to be in. Living the adventure over being told what to do.
In Bill’s life he has the same problem going on. If he chose to go with only the McDonnell Douglas job and quit the DOLT business, he would eventually feel that he is missing the life item that gave him direction in the first place. And every friend that he would talk to afterwards, for the rest of his life, would be continuously reminding him that he is the DOLT. Sure if he just worked the McDonnell Douglas job that would give him more space to breath in life. But that also would make him 9 to 5 common. And where is the ADVENTURE in that? What filled his identity at that time, would now be lost.
When his girlfriend Ann moved out of town he could have gone with her, but then he would have had to start all over again leaving both the Dolt Hut and the McDonnell Douglas job. Start over having nothing gave him a sense of being a failure, over it actually being a good decision. But even then he would have to leave the “I need to be a climber” statement behind as well. The trauma that was stored in his back pocket still remained, and occasionally reminded him that he was not strong enough to reach the top. Staying in habit was working for him, but it was also overwhelming him. Something had to give.
He did reach out and have a conversation with Don asking for advice on what direction he should go with.
He was there asking Don to, "Please make the decision for him."
On Christmas Eve when he phoned Don and within his lost voice wished Don a Merry Christmas, I feel that Bill walked into his shop, he looked around and didn’t understand what it was all for. The exhaustion was what broke his pride and once the realization came to him that during the entire Dolt Hut time nobody was in competition with him, except for his self. I bet the room he was in was spinning and he became numb and let the spinning vertigo bring him down to a place that he could not escape.
I have a huge appreciation for Ken McNutt’s strong heart. I can’t imagine walking up to Bill’s house, seeing a stack of unread newspapers piling up at his front door, then walking into the back yard and seeing his friend Bill hanging from a water pipe on his back porch. Bill died sometime between 1971 Christmas Eve night and the New Years day.
I keep feeling that if Bill could have stayed alive for just a couple more months, Ann would have contacted him stating that she was pregnant with Bill’s child. And even his friend Tom when Tom made the decision to leave Chouinard Equipment, could have made more frequent visits to Bill’s DOLT shop, and give him advice of how to appreciate yourself while offering climbers less, and yet everything would have still been awesome.
I love this story of Bill’s life, but it always leaves me in tears.
- With Love, Marty the Sage.
Maybe closing the Dolt Hut and just working the McDonnell Douglas job which would give him more space to breath in life. But he still felt that being in the climbing game was giving him something special that made him special. So okay I will leave the McDonnell Douglas job and just work on creating the Dolt climbing products full time. But he was already feeling exhausted with keeping up with the climbing gear orders. I’m sure the Dolt title wasn’t helping much, I am guessing. I mean he was holding onto a identity that other people gave him, and people still thought it was cool to call him the Dolt from the past huge history that he was involved with. He could have changed his company name to something else, but that was not that easy. The DOLT word gave him .....identity.
For some reason I feel that the Universe gave me (Marty) a thorn that was drug related for me to get past in my life. But even in the Bible it mentions that if you begged for the thorn to be removed, your belief in the Divine was weak. Many people ask me what the 714 number is that is in all of my emails. It was prom night and I was dressed and ready wearing my suit, then I received a call from my girlfriend and she said that she has decided to go to the prom with her past boyfriend. I couldn’t believe it and was totally shocked. I walked down the street to my friends house with two quaaludes (horse tranquilizers), swallowed both pills and melted into his couch while still wearing the suit. The company name printed on the quaalude pills is Rorer714, or Lemon714. I guess later that night the two of them got into a bad fight, and I drove to her house wasted, and was her boyfriend for the next two years. For me I was able to get away from the drugs by simply putting the thorn into my email address. I see the thorn every day and it has no energy. If I simply got rid of the 714 number, I know that the drugs would attempt to entertain me once again, because 714 was attached to my identity. It still needs to be there.
I work as a course setter at a rock gym and have been at that job for 25 years now. I occasionally ask the younger climbers if they have ever heard of the name Yvon Chouinard or Tom Frost. They shake their head .. "No." How about Royal Robbins, they shake their heads ... "No." Okay what about Jim Bridwell, and all of them excitedly shake their heads ... "Yes." The following comment of their appreciation to Jim Bridwell is because, "He was the guy that was dropping acid while he was climbing up the big walls of Yosemite." There is something about being the "Bad Boy" that the younger generation finds to be cool. It's a way of showing that I am living a carefree life and not surrendering to the 9 - 5 rut of what society places humankind to be in. Living the adventure over being told what to do.
In Bill’s life he has the same problem going on. If he chose to go with only the McDonnell Douglas job and quit the DOLT business, he would eventually feel that he is missing the life item that gave him direction in the first place. And every friend that he would talk to afterwards, for the rest of his life, would be continuously reminding him that he is the DOLT. Sure if he just worked the McDonnell Douglas job that would give him more space to breath in life. But that also would make him 9 to 5 common. And where is the ADVENTURE in that? What filled his identity at that time, would now be lost.
When his girlfriend Ann moved out of town he could have gone with her, but then he would have had to start all over again leaving both the Dolt Hut and the McDonnell Douglas job. Start over having nothing gave him a sense of being a failure, over it actually being a good decision. But even then he would have to leave the “I need to be a climber” statement behind as well. The trauma that was stored in his back pocket still remained, and occasionally reminded him that he was not strong enough to reach the top. Staying in habit was working for him, but it was also overwhelming him. Something had to give.
He did reach out and have a conversation with Don asking for advice on what direction he should go with.
He was there asking Don to, "Please make the decision for him."
On Christmas Eve when he phoned Don and within his lost voice wished Don a Merry Christmas, I feel that Bill walked into his shop, he looked around and didn’t understand what it was all for. The exhaustion was what broke his pride and once the realization came to him that during the entire Dolt Hut time nobody was in competition with him, except for his self. I bet the room he was in was spinning and he became numb and let the spinning vertigo bring him down to a place that he could not escape.
I have a huge appreciation for Ken McNutt’s strong heart. I can’t imagine walking up to Bill’s house, seeing a stack of unread newspapers piling up at his front door, then walking into the back yard and seeing his friend Bill hanging from a water pipe on his back porch. Bill died sometime between 1971 Christmas Eve night and the New Years day.
I keep feeling that if Bill could have stayed alive for just a couple more months, Ann would have contacted him stating that she was pregnant with Bill’s child. And even his friend Tom when Tom made the decision to leave Chouinard Equipment, could have made more frequent visits to Bill’s DOLT shop, and give him advice of how to appreciate yourself while offering climbers less, and yet everything would have still been awesome.
I love this story of Bill’s life, but it always leaves me in tears.
- With Love, Marty the Sage.
Additional Notes:
- William Andrew Feuerer: November 23, 1932 - late December 1971
- William Andrew Feuerer: November 23, 1932 - late December 1971
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- Tom Frost: June 30, 1936 - August 24, 2018
- Tom 1958 Mechanical Engineering Degree - Tom partners with Yvon Chouinard - Dec 1974. - Tom is known as a three time millionaire. - Tom Frost started a company named Frost Works and created a set of climbing nuts named Sentinel Nuts in 1997, and a belay device named a Catcher, and Power Draws, wire dogbones for climbing. |
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- 1971 Yvon met his wife Malinda.
- 1973 Patagonia was Founded. - 1973 First Patagonia store is Great Pacific Iron Works, Santa Clara street in Ventura California. - Malinda is Patagonia’s first CEO. - Dec 1989 Chouinard Equipment turns into Black Diamond. - 2022 Chouinard transferred ownership of Patagonia to Patagonia Purpose Trust, stated goal was for profits to be used to address climate change and protect land. - 2025 book written on Yvon titled Dirtbag Billionaire. |
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Yvon Chouinard letter to Audrey, remembering Bill Feuerer
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