Peter Metcalf Wields the Might of the Outdoor Industry to Protect the Wild

Growing up in the suburbs on Long Island, Peter Metcalf thought exploring the outdoors meant biking around a decommissioned air base near his home. Then a couple of Boy Scouts took him backpacking in the Catskills; by the time Metcalf turned 18, he was the youngest person to complete a first ascent of a major Alaskan peak—the glacial Mount Fairweather, which tops out at 15,325 feet. “Climbing and mountaineering became the focal point of my life,” he says. “It’s what everything else I did was pressure-tested against.”

Metcalf’s mania for climbing led him to Chouinard Equipment, founded by the man who went on to start Patagonia Inc., where he worked as general manager. In 1989, after Chouinard Equipment went bankrupt, Metcalf raised about $1 million from “friends, family, future employees, and fools,” took on $3 million in debt, and bought the remaining assets. He named the new company Black Diamond Equipment Ltd., moved it from Southern California to Utah, and soon became known for developing improved versions of trekking poles, carabiners, and avalanche safety equipment, among other outdoor gear.