Black Diamond Profile
Company Description
Black Diamond Equipment develops, manufactures and distributes a broad range of highly innovative, market
leading hardgoods and apparel products for climbing, mountaineering, hiking, and skiing. The
roots of the company go back to 1957, when 18-year-old Yvon Chouinard bought a hammer and
anvil and started pounding out hand-forged rock climbing pitons. Over the next several
decades, those first chromoly pitons--followed by a steady stream of other radical, game changing products--forever altered the sport of climbing. In 1989, the employees, friends and
customers of Chouinard Equipment, led by Peter Metcalf, bought the company's assets and
formed Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd.
