Reflections of a Green Business Pioneer, a Lecture by Yvon Chouinard

The UCLA Institute of the Environment held an interview (more like a lecture) with Yvon Chouinard - the founder of Patagonia, and also Chouinard Equipment (which became Black Diamond Equipment).

The interview is about all kinds of things and he shares some excellent stories about starting up his equipment company and Patagonia.

Part 1:

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w30d87Dsoc&feature=relmfu

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH21aUH4NbY&feature=related

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-C98EiYMi8&feature=relmfu

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoC0p6YRULI&feature=relmfu

Unusual and fascinating gear testing

Kolin Powick is a Quality Assurance engineer at Black Diamond and he has done a load of unusual gear tests using their machines. He has tested the effect of peeing on a rope, the effect of cutting part way through your belay loop, the strength of various anchor equalisation methods, the strength of different abseil knots and loads of other interesting tests.

Particularly interesting is a test he did on a very worn out anchor - the results are very surprising!

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/scene/beta/qc_kp.php