Yvon Chouinard

Biography

Yvon Chouinard, born November 9, 1938, in Lewiston, Maine, USA, is an American climber, mountaineer, and entrepreneur of French-Canadian descent. From childhood, after moving to California, he discovered nature and developed an early taste for adventure, first through falconry and then quickly through rock climbing. In the 1950s and 1960s, he regularly frequented the walls of Yosemite, building a reputation as a fearless climber, willing to do anything to break new ground, often in precarious conditions and with very little means.

Realizing that the climbing equipment of the time was not durable enough, he began hand-forging his own pitons and carabiners in his family's Burbank workshop, th...