PETER METCALF: COMMITTED TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE

In a post on conservation, creative environmental solutions and the commitment required to implement them, BD founder Peter Metcalf goes back to the beginning.

Though the Big Bang occurred over 25 years ago, Black Diamond has helped support the birth and growth of our much coveted and appreciated user groups, industry organizations and conservation groups that are all fighting for the vibrancy of place, sport and tribe. Black Diamond continues to be a committed leader in “championing the issues of great importance to our community” as this is a tenet of our business. It is as important to us as the gear we make.

The Big Bang was the confluence of three major forces that hit our still small but rapidly growing community of climbers, mountaineers, and off-piste skiers as well as the industry itself. More than anything, it was a result of the 1980’s revolution in tort law in America combined with our growing numbers. Tort law allowed the users of ski areas, of boulders, of cliffs and of climbing equipment to sue the owners, land managers or manufacturers if they got hurt climbing or skiing. The result was ski areas banning skiers from going out of bounds unless you wanted to lose your ticket, pay a $500 fine, and spend a night in jail. Land managers and property owners started to ban climbing and manufacturers succumbed to failure to warn litigation. In addition, the rapid rise of sport climbing and the placement of fixed anchors had public land managers in a quandary as to how to treat a fixed anchor – as garbage or something else. Many land managers began the formulation of policies to ban the placement of fixed anchors altogether.

Once again, like in 1988/89, you can feel the build-up of seismic forces that hold the dangerous potential for another Big Bang. Rather than tort law, the largest challenge is the “final splitting up” of the last great places. Will most be lost to extractive industries of mining, coal, gas, oil, tar sands, logging and/or real-estate development? Will iconic beauty be lost to an “all uses on all lands” mentality? Will the well-financed motorized lobbies prevail at splitting our traditional coalition of users, industry and conservationists because each group is too ideologically rigid to appreciate just how much they are losing for themselves and all generations to come?

Black Diamond has been—and remains—committed to making a difference for our community. Today, that means working to find common ground with other like-minded organizations and user groups who are championing to keep our sports, places, and tribe vibrant, wild and healthy.