[ About ]■
Created in the eastern Himalaya.
Designed for worldwide objectives.
Itinerant Climbers Collective grew out of the eastern Himalayas in the highlands of Yunnan Province, China, a place storied for its rugged, mountainous jungles, snowcapped peaks, and endless walls that are a rock climber’s paradise.
Ryder had worked for years as an AMGA-certified rock guide and a route developer in the mountains of Yunnan–from the sandstone cliffs of Liming to the granitic walls of Baiyansi. His work traversed two continents as he worked outdoor industry jobs in multiple countries.
His gear logged thousands of kilometers on planes, trains, and cars before getting dragged across mountainsides or up cliff faces. His early generations of gear could take the hits and keep going. Only after years of faithful service did he have to retire his old equipment. They could take the rigors he demanded of them, from the rugged ridges of Washington’s Cascades to the towering walls of the Hengduan Mountains.
[ HISTORY ]Over the years, he began to notice that the time between buying new gear to its retirement got shorter and shorter. Holes suddenly appeared. Zippers inexplicably tore away. Favorite features suddenly disappeared on the “newer, lighter” versions.
Some of his friends noticed these changes, too. Their tools of the trade, the very things they depended on for everything from safety to comfort in the mountains, were suddenly becoming less utilitarian and even hard-to-find. The trope of…
“ e n s h i t t i f i c a t i o n ”
had snuck its way out from the world of software and into the gear world. Stuck deep in a chimney crack in China, Ryder looked down at the backpack dangling from his harness, awkwardly wedged in the rock below. He realized it was the last piece of reliable, durable gear he had purchased from years before–something Chinese might refer to as a “laoshou” or “old hand” and that English might call “old reliable.”
None of his current gear could match the old pack’s endurance, so he thought, “Why not make something better myself?” Now, ICC is about to bring its first guide’s pack to market! And we hope that you will join us in introducing it to the world.
