Wild Country

It was 1975 and the first prototypes of the Friends, four safety elements on a spindle, without style or trigger, were a rather unconventional combination of various components. They were beautifully crafted in polished aluminum, with carefully filed edges and equipped with an ingenious release device called a trigger. The American climbing and aerospace engineer Ray Jardine had invented what formed the basis for the later success: an arc shape of the segments that follows a logarithmic spiral, so that the angle of contact on the rock faces always remains the same, regardless of the crack width. In addition, a cam device on which the clamping elements support and move each other. But it still took four hands to get the safety element out of a crevice.

 

British velcro climber Mark Vallance was convinced by the highly technical nature of the device and believed in the commercial potential of the Friends. Until then, knotted slings, crampons and hexentrics were the familiar rock belays used in sport climbing. However, these well-known tools did not have the range of securing options of the Friends. It took another two years, until 1977, for Mark and Ray to get the prototypes ready for series production and found the company Wild Country. The result: a rock belay that was light to set and remove, with a wide range to cover crack widths. The twenty-seven high-strength individual parts, equipped with a whole quantity of holes, sold over five thousand units in various sizes in the first year. The term Friends comes from Chris Walker. Chris wanted to know if Ray was carrying the bags with the clamping kits, but didn't know how to express himself so as not to give anything away about the prototypes. Finally he said, "do you have the bag of friends with you, Ray?" The name stuck.

 

The 80s and 90s were characterized by revolutionary developments in crampons, carabiners, climbing harnesses, crampons, friends and other useful gear. In addition, there were cooperations with other manufacturers and, in retrospect, some very clever additions to the product range. Acquisitions and sales of divisions such as tent production, climbing shoes and the daring leap into clothing production. Wild Country would not be Wild Country if innovative products had not also found their way onto the market. The British weather is probably the driving force behind this. Wild Country is located at the foot of a well-known climbing area in North Wales, the Llanberis Pass. This is where Wild Country has been developing and producing a large proportion of its equipment to a very high quality standard since 1977. In February 2012, Wild Country was bought by the Italian climbing equipment manufacturer Salewa.