Before Patagonia was a gear behemoth capable of churning out hundreds of millions in annual revenue, it was just a man. Yvon Chouinard, the company’s founder and self-proclaimed “dirtbag”, got his start blacksmithing rock climbing hardware in his parents’ backyard with little intention of ever starting a business. But once friends and fellow climbers saw what he was churning out, demand rose and Chouinard Equipment was born.

Chouinard Equipment was primarily a hardware company, but its 1972 catalog (the company’s first) featured a limited run of soft goods including knickers, shorts, hats and yes, backpacks. This alpinist pack is a rarely-seen holdover from those early days. It’s hard to say what year it was produced in, and whether or not Chouinard himself had a hand in making the pack is a mystery. But his name is stitched into the faded tag and hammered into the hardware adorning its webbing straps, making the pack a veritable outdoor artifact unlikely to resurface again anytime soon.

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